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ADAPTIVE FIRESCAPES

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UNDERSTAND WILDLAND VS URBAN FIRE

Wildfire mythbusting begins here.

understanding urban fire zones

Home Ignition Zone

For Managing Individual Properties

Immediate Zone

0-5 Feet

Hardening your home is the most important thing you can do to protect it from wildland/urban fire. This is a five foot noncombustible bubble around, above, and even below your home! Things to look out for include: modern roof, covered gutters, double pane windows, no firewood on your deck, etc. For (sub)urban homeowners who don't have defensible space, home hardening will be your top priority.

Intermediate Zone

5-30 Feet

This is your lawn and garden space. In this zone, you still want to avoid highly flammable plants or mulches that could have a tall flame within reach of your home. If you have excitable plants like junipers, just keep them in the outer edges of this zone. Keep this area trimmed up and free of unnecessary hazards like wood piles, trash cans, stacked construction materials, or vehicles/boats. 


*Unlike these images, keep potted plants away from the sides of your home.

Extended Zone

30-100 Feet

Few homeowners in western states have a home on a half acre lot - the size you need to ensure the perfect amount of defensible space (assuming you're right square in the middle of the lot with equal spacing all the way around).


On your average one acre lot, or city block, you have 4-10 homes. In high density urban areas, it can be 20 homes. That doesn't give you the space you need to protect you from anything, let alone jumping flames and radiant heat.


Ember Zone/Community Ignition Zone

For Mitigating Multiple Properties (Residential and Commercial)

Wildland Urban Intermix

1-250

Technically defined as 1-250 structures (cars, homes, sheds) per square mile, which equates to 1 home , these homes now have the advantage. It is much easier to remove some plants than it is to remove some neighboring houses.... 


Homes in this zone can harden their homes and have adequate defensible space, allowing them a significantly higher chance of survival. Less cooperation is needed between neighbors.

Wildland Urban Interface

30-250

60,000+ communities and approximately 115 Million Americans live in the wildland urban interface. 


Technically defined as 30-250 structures per square mile, and/or communities within 1.5 miles of wildlands, it was incorrectly assumed to only apply to rural forest communities for many decades. We are now realizing that more communities are risk than we ever thought possible. Cooperation between neighbors, and community stakeholders, is essential.



High Density Urban Areas

250-5000

Though still part of the Wildland Urban Interface, high density urban areas were always considered safe from wildfire because they were "in town" and not part of the "wild" or "rural" areas.


Early fuel and fire behavior models always showed fires magically stopping at the urban boundaries, leading us to this false sense of security, when the reality is, in extreme fire events, houses are still fuel, response teams get overwhelmed, and these areas become our most dangerous infernos.


Know Your Fire Prone Ecosystem & Fire Return Interval

The following is a work in progress and provided as an estimate for you to understand what your historic ecosystem and fire return intervals were. In our blog we'll go into detail on how they may have been affected by the introduction of cattle grazing, settlement, and invasive plant species, and how this may alter historic predictive models.

Arizona

3

Mogollan Rim (Ponderosa Pine Savannah) 

5-20yr fire return interval

Flagstaff, Payson, Show Low, Prescott


Sonoran Desert (Lowland Scrub Desert) 

100-1000+yr fire return interval


Phoenix, Tuscon, Casa Grande, Marana

increasing fire return with invasive species like cheatgrass, buffelgrass, and saltcedar.


Sky Islands (High Elevation Forests) 

10-50yr fire return interval

Mt. Lemmon, Chiricahua Mountains, Coronado National Forest area

Northern California

5

Coastal Range 30-90yrs

Crescent City, Fort Bragg, SF


Cascades & Klamath 

7-15 yrs (mixed conifer)

10-140 (doug fir mixed)

80-275 (spruce-hemlcok)

Yreka, Redding, Chico


Eastern Cascades 10-40yrs

Modoc Plateau, Mammoth, Alturas


Sierra Nevada 5-20yrs

Lake Tahoe


Central Coastal Mountains  & Central Foothills 

10-120yrs (coastal redwoods)

10-60yrs (chaparral 

Napa, San Jose Bay Area, Monterey

Central California

3

Central Valley 30-90yrs

Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, Fresno, Bakersfield


Central Basin 20-80yrs

Bridgeport, Bishop


Northern Basin 20-130yrs

Ft Bidwell, Menlo Baths


Southern California

4

SoCal Mountains 

30-130yrs

Ojai, Santa Clarita, Big Bear, Palm Desert


Baja Coast 

15-30 yrs (chaparral)

20-90yrs (chamise-redshank)

LA, Santa Ana, San Diego


Mojave Basin 

30-130yrs

Death Valley, Ridgecrest, Victorville, Vidal


Sonoran Basin 

500-1000yrs

Blythe, Ocotillo, Salton Sea


Colorado

6

Wyoming Basin 

7-20 yrs (prairie & ponderosa pine)

20-50yrs (upper montana)

300+ yrs (spruce-fir)

60-125yrs sagebrush steppe

100-300+ wyoming-big sagebrush


Colorado Plateau 

300-600+ yrs (pinyon-juniper)

8-25yrs (mixed conifer)


Southern Rockies 

100-300yrs: subalpine forest

7-25yrs: prairie-ponderosa

20-30yrs: ponderosa-doug fir


Arizona/New Mexico Plateau & Southwestern Tablelands

7-25yrs: prairie-ponderosa

60-300yrs: sagebrush 

300-600+: pinyon-juniper


Great Plains  1-35yrs

Florida

4

Longleaf Pine 2-5yrs


Flatwoods 1-10yrs


Sandhill-Prairie 1-5yrs


Everglades 1-300yrs

Northern Idaho

6

Columbia Plateau ()

x

 

Blue Mountains ()

x


Snake River Plains ()

x


Northern Rockies ()

x


Idaho Batholith ()

x


Middle Rockies ()

x


Northern Basin ()

x

Southern Idaho

6

Columbia Plateau ()

x

 

Blue Mountains ()

x


Snake River Plains ()

x


Northern Rockies ()

x


Idaho Batholith ()

x


Middle Rockies ()

x


Northern Basin ()

x

Montana

4

Northern/Canadian Rockies ()

x

Eureka, Whitefish, Kalispell, Missoula


Idaho Batholith ()

x


Middle Rockies ()

x


Glaciated & Great Plains ()

Billings, Great Falls, Cut Bank, Plentywood, Glendive, Colstrip

New Jersey

5

Ridge & Valley ()

x


Northeastern Highlands ()

x

 

Northern Piedmont ()

x


Altantic Coastal Pine Barrens ()

x


Middle Atlantic Coastal Plains ()

x


New Mexico

7

Colorado Plateau ()

x


Southern Rockies ()

x


AZ/NM Plateau ()

x


AZ/NM Mountains ()

x


Chihuahuan Desert ()

x


High Plains ()

x


Southwestern Tablelands ()

x

Oklahoma

8

High Plains


Southwestern Tablelands


South Central Plains


Ouachita Mountains


Arkansas Valley

 

Boston Mountains


Ozark Highlands


Central Irregular Plains

Oregon

7

Coast Range


Willamette Valley


Cascades & Klamath Mountains


Eastern Cascades


Columbia Plateau


Blue Mountains


Northern Basin Range

North/West Texas

6

Chihuahua Desert


High Plains


Southwestern Tablelands


Central Great Plains


Cross Timbers


Edwards Plateau

South/East Texas

5

Southern Texas Plains

Laredo, Hondo


Blackland Prairies

Dallas, Austin, San Antonio


East Central Texas Plains


Western Gulf Coastal Plains

Houston, Corpus Christie


Southern Central Plains


Utah

3

Central Basin Range


Wasatch & Uinta Mountains


Colorado Plateau

Washington

7

Coastal Range


Puget Sound


Cascades & Eastern Cascades


Columbia Plateau


Northern Rockies


Northern Cascades

Wyoming

5

Middle Rockies


Southern Rockies


Wyoming Basin


High Plains


Northwestern Great Plains

x

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