Special Issue Link: 10 Articles on Native Plants and Fire Safety

Read the articles HERE

  • FIRE ON CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPES by Jon E. Keeley
    The California wildfire problem involves wildfire hazards to the urban environment and protection of natural resources. Managing this risk involves fire suppression, changing home construction standards, reducing landscaping fuels, and more serious attention to zoning decisions.
  • HOW CNPS DEVELOPED A POLICY ON NATIVE PLANTS AND FIRE SAFETY by Betsey Landis
    Extensive inquiry and discussion has resulted in a CNPS policy for the state of California that protects native plants, ensures fire safety, and suggests ways to implement it.
  • THE WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE FIRE PROBLEM by Jack Cohen
    Homes can survive wildfires without the necessity of wildfire control. But this will require changing our mindset from wildfire exclusion to wildfire compatibility.
  • INTERPRETING FIRE AND LIFE HISTORY INFORMATION IN THE MANUAL OF CALIFORNIA
    VEGETATION by Todd Keeler-Wolf, Julie M. Evens, and John O. Sawyer
    The natural history and fire information in the new edition of A Manual of California Vegetation provides land managers and others with better ways to preserve the state’s natural heritage.
  • INVASIVE SPECIES AND FIRE IN CALIFORNIA ECOSYSTEMS by Adam M. Lambert, Carla M.
    D’Antonio, and Tom L. Dudley
    Although fire is a natural disturbance in many California plant communities, invasive species can alter fire dynamics in ways that are transforming some of these communities.
  • SUSTAINABLE AND FIRE-SAFE LANDSCAPES: ACHIEVING WILDFIRE RESISTANCE AND
    ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN THE WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE by Sabrina L. Drill
    UC Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles, has developed an educational program to help homeowners create and maintain fire-safe landscaping, while also being good stewards of the land and avoiding the use of invasive plants.
  • THE ROLE OF FIRE SAFE COUNCILS IN CALIFORNIA by Yvonne Everett
    All over California, where communities meet wildlands, citizen groups are working together to help protect their neighborhoods from wildfire. They call themselves Fire Safe Councils.
  • FIRE-RESISTANT LANDSCAPING: A GENERAL APPROACH AND CENTRAL COAST
    PERSPECTIVE by Suzanne Schettler
    Wildfires are capricious and yet there are steps we can take to reduce the risk to a home when designing or retrofitting a landscape setting.
  • WILDFIRE SAFETY: LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA by Greg Rubin
    It is possible to create defensible space around your home while still embracing the natural ecology that surrounds it. Some pragmatic tips for enhancing fire safety without wholesale environmental destruction.
  • THE MENDOCINO COUNTY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL by Julie Rogers
    From humble beginnings, Fire Safe Councils such as this one in Mendocino County are helping communities “survive and thrive” in wildfire-prone environments.