After watching three neighbors lose their homes to a wildfire two years ago, slicing and dicing their yard has become less difficult.
This summer, Cindy White expects to see more towering pines fall in her yard and more scrub oak to be hauled away from her Sandy home, a project that started seven years ago for appearance but has now evolved into serious fire prevention. Eventually, all of the dangerous trees and undergrowth will have been removed, leaving the White's with a well-landscaped, less-dangerous house.
"It burned down three of our neighbors homes and almost took the whole block," White said. "Our (landscaping) motives changed after that fire."
Friday, during a demonstration about "defensible space" around homes, White said she "needed a stiff drink" when Salt Lake County firefighters started stripping limbs from her trees with chain saws and had started to mourn the loss of two pine trees next to her front porch before they had even come down.
That reaction is quite common, especially for people afraid that they will lose the privacy that the trees can provide, said Susan Marzec, a wildland urban interface specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who also happens to be White's neighbor. When they have finished, however, people often find that not only have they retained their privacy while improving safety, they have actually improved their yard by opening portions up to more wildlife.
Any doubters about the benefits need only visit Marzec's 1- acre lot, where she has established a defensible space by removing more than 150 trees during the past two summers.
"We bought the house because it was hidden from the world, and we really wanted the privacy," she said. "After all of the work, we have not lost any of the feeling, and we have more wildlife and light. But I had to get over the emotional impact of losing those trees."
Although Friday's demonstration required almost a dozen BLM employees, another dozen firefighters, and a half-dozen of Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman's staff, defensible space is something that is simple — albeit time-consuming and physically taxing — to create. Fire officials recommend the following guidelines:
Remove dangerous or dead plants, especially trees that are close to the home.
Reduce limbs, leaves, and shrubbery around the home to eliminate "fire ladders" that flames use to climb to the tops of trees.
Replace dry, flammable plants, such as scrub oak, with less flammable plants, such as aspen trees or flowers.
The demonstration Friday was prompted not only because of the continuing drought and upcoming fire season, however. This year, State Farm Insurance has started a new program in which they will re-inspect the homes of policyholders in high-fire risk areas and educate them about the landscaping methods and other safety measures that they need to take to adequately protect their homes, said Eric Olsen, State Farm public affairs specialist. The policyholders will have about two years to make the changes.
"We understand that if you're in the woods, you want to be in the woods," Olsen said. "But that cabin is also an investment, so we just want to educate home owners about how to protect their homes."
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com