I’ve been getting a lot of questions on landscaping and what will our lush landscape look like after the rebuild. Here are some preliminary research I’ve done and wanted to share with the community. We can still bring back the lush landscape, but at a more conscientious level, like creating a defensible space zone around your home with no vertical path for the fire to travel up. Thus, start from your home’s perimeter and work outwards. HERE is a great resource to illustrate this.

Zone 0 (0-5 ft) - Avoid anything combustible in this zone. No wood mulch. Try using gravel.

Zone 1 (5-30ft) - Lean and Clean - the goal is to eliminate fire paths between vegetation by increasing spacing between trees, removing lower branches of trees and shrubs. Maintain the plants with proper irrigation and remove dead/dry material.

Zone 2 (30-100+ft) - reduce the density of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants or grasses.

Does that mean no trees? No, it just means that you have to select your trees carefully. HERE is a good resource for selecting your trees.

Can you still have a privacy hedge? Yes and no. It depends on how far away the hedge is away from your structure. Again, maintenance is crucial. Plant selection is key.

CalFire also has a great site for guidance. https://readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/fire-smart-landscaping/

If you want to know which plants are fire hazardous, please check out this list prepared by the city of Marin. https://firesafemarin.org/create-a-fire-smart-yard/plants/fire-hazardous-plants/ The Fire Safe Marin website has a lot of great resources that is applicable to us in the Palisades.

Shelly Sparks RLA has also prepared this powerpoint addressing this issue: Don't Play with Fire