Fuel Modification
While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in the state is starting earlier and ending later year over year. Between January 1, 2020 and October 25, 2020, Cal File, in combination with the United States Forest Service, have reported 8,834 fire events which have burned over 4 million acres. This is ten times greater than the previous five years combined. With population growth and the increased sensitive interface between development and nature, Local and state fire agencies developed and adopted codes that require vegetation management and special construction features. Along with building construction related codes, the Fuel Modification Plan is a vegetation management code that requires landscaped areas adjacent to new buildings be dedicated for permanent vegetation management activities. The Fuel Modification Program brings fire-safe landscaping and construction features together to improve community safety and reduce property loss during wildfire emergencies. The goal of a landscape architect is to interpret and fully understand the programs and processes developed by each agency and to converge aesthetic landscape design with fire safety for their clients.
Savage Land Design provides years of experience preparing fuel modification plans all over Southern California and has proven success with county and city agencies including Los Angeles County, Beverly Hills, Laguna Beach, Riverside County and Orange County Fire Authorities for both new and existing properties. For large scale projects, Savage Land Design along with partner company SLD Air, work together to provide a comprehensive aerial and ground level site analysis of the existing site which includes slope/ terrain analysis, existing vegetation low level cover, tree locations and plant health as well as existing and proposed structure locations. The combination of SLD Air’s drone services and ground level site analysis by our experienced team allows Savage Land Design to begin their process with an accurate picture of the site and successfully implement the fuel modification program of the local jurisdiction.
Her is a link to the Cal Fire Hazard Severity Zones Maps