Fire-smart and water-wise
Tips for a resilient landscape If you’ve kept a garden or maintained a landscape here in Sonoma County, you know just how thirsty plants can get in the dry season. Luckily, many of the guiding principles for having a waterwise garden in our climate have the co-benefit of being firesmart. Many folks are familiar with the concept of defensible space, but keeping that buffer around homes and buildings to reduce the threat of fires doesn’t mean we can’t have beautiful plants in the landscape. Defensible space can simply mean a properly maintained garden or yard. Perhaps the most important factor is maintenance. The most fire-smart landscape design in the world is not very helpful for reducing risk if it isn’t properly
maintained. First, you want to keep the plants on your landscape hydrated throughout the dry season. Summer irrigation, especially with water-wise methods like drip irrigation and greywater, is one of the best tools in your toolbox. Using highly efficient drip irrigation, along with a properly programmed timer, minimizes evaporation and makes sure that the water you’re sending out into the landscape is reaching its intended target: your plants. As you may have guessed, the higher a plant’s moisture content, the more resistant to fire it will be. It is likewise important to remove dead plant material from your landscape, from mature trees and shrubs, to
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branches, firewood and debris require less water and like leaves, needles and cones. maintenance in summer Whether on the ground or months compared to still attached to living plants, ornamentals and plants from this dead material is prime fuel other bioregions. Here are some for fires, and if left unmanaged examples of fire-smart natives: can undo your hard work in Trees: Pacific dogwood, big creating defensible space. For leaf maple, oak species, coast this reason, it’s a good idea to redwood choose plants that don’t need Shrubs: Bush anemone, excessive maintenance — after toyon, coffeeberry all, we want to enjoy our Perennials: Yarrow, sticky landscapes, not just work in monkey flower, California them. fuschia That brings us to plant Groundcovers: Creeping selection. There’s no such thing thyme, creeping mahonia, as a fireproof plant, but some purple stonecrop plants are far more combustible Whichever plants you choose than others. These typically have for your landscape, be sure to waxy, oily or resinous leaves or account for your topography, stems. Juniper, for example, is the vegetation or fuel load highly combustible and is surrounding your site, and sometimes referred to by proper spacing as outlined by firefighters as the Sonoma “gasoline plant.” County’s Fire Ornamental Ordinance. “It’s a good grasses and berries You can idea to choose find more are similarly high risk, and if you information plants that choose to include and resources don’t need them in your through your landscape, local fire excessive consider doing so department, maintenance sparingly and away CalFire and — after all, we Fire Safe from the home. Deciduous Sonoma. Be want to enjoy plants will typically sure to stay our have more fire-smart, be moisture content water-wise landscapes, in their leaves in and enjoy the not just work summer months beauty of our than evergreens, watershed. in them.” and less fuel during their This article dormant season. Non-woody was authored by Connor deciduous and low-growing DeVane, Programs Coordinator, plants are good options. Daily Acts, on behalf of RRWA. It is important to remember RRWA (www.rrwatershed.org) is that fire is part of our region’s an association of local public ecology. agencies in the Russian River Native plant species adapted Watershed that have come to cycles of wildfire burns over together to coordinate regional millennia, and many have programs for clean water, habitat developed fire resistant restoration, and watershed strategies. Natives will also enhancement.
