Printed in the Mendocino County Observer and aired on KZYX&Z Community Radio.
Forest Fuels
June 2, 2005
In many places in Mendocino County, like elsewhere in California, when you look at a forest in terms of fire safety, what you see is a sea of fuel. Up, down, and all around is fuel. I remember seeing a forest fire was it was still very small (under 1 acre) and looking at the vast sea of fuel available to it. Though firefighters were on the scene, the situation seemed hopeless, as fuel was literally everywhere. Before it was contained, that fire burned nearly 50,000 acres.
One of the primary principles of creating fuelbreaks or a defensible space around your home is to break up that ocean of fuel. To do that, it's helpful to think of vertical as well as horizontal fuel continuity.
Vertical continuity has to do with what are known as fuel ladders. Fuels ladders are typically large bushes or low-hanging limbs that allow a ground fire to climb upward into the tree canopy.
Ideally, a fire with a small flame length would be able to burn through a forest without finding fuel that would carry it up into the higher limbs of trees. So if you want to remove fuel ladders, you'll be removing those low limbs and large bushes that would allow a fire to climb upwards.
Horizontal continuity has to do with the spacing of trees. The idea is that, if a fire does get into the tree canopy, you want to make it difficult for it to move from tree to tree. You want to make sure branches of different trees are not touching. The more distance there is between them, the harder it will be for a fire to jump from one tree to another.
It's a common misconception that for fuels management to be effective, everything has to be cut down and bare mineral soil exposed. But you can significantly increase your forests' ability to withstand a fire by breaking up the vertical and horizontal continuity of fuels. The idea is to keep the fire when it comes (and it will) on the ground so that it doesn't destroy your beautiful forest. Or your home
Clare Nunamaker is a Registered Professional Forester and member of NorCal SAF and the Forest Guild.
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707-485-8788
