GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-08-2003, 01:02 AM

(Aozotorp) writes:

Failure to repress Grass and Brush has led to problems = but no profit for
removal!
What are you going to do with fire danger and no old growth or clear-cuts to
profit from???

The suburbs are going to have to incorporate fire and brush control
districts and tax themselves to provide public safety. While housing
developments are normally built on clear cuts around a few save trees
with no commercial value, they grow more vegetation over time. While
rural land owners often reduce fuel load through grazing, housing
developments rarely are set up to accommodate livestock. A housing
development built in the '70s can have built up a huge fuel load.

Fire suppression is the responsibility of the property owner. I pay
taxes to a rural fire district, and annual dues to the Douglas Fire
Protection Association. The DFPA fights wildland fires that the rural
fire department can't handle. I also maintain a vegetation free zone
around my house, keep a 2500 gallon cistern full all summer, maintain a
Class A fire resistive roof, keep my gutters free of debris in the
summer, keep fire fighting tools ready to go, and maintain strategic fire
breaks. If all else fails, there is always homeowner's insurance.

The image of a forest fire raging through a suburban neighborhood is far from
residents' minds as they barbecue in their back yards. Forest fires are the
stuff of TV news from remote mountain areas.

If they don't make preparations for wildfire, they are incredibly
oblivious. There are wildfire prevention standards built right into
their county development codes, but in states like Colorado the people
won't allow enforcement of the codes. I figure if they can't provide
fire truck access, egress that can't be closed by fire, a water supply
for the pumpers and a combustion free zone around their houses, they
can't whine when their brush pile catches on fire.

Urban logging is an interesting topic. The big limitation is parcel
size. There are virtually no environmental restrictions on urban logging.
It is just rare to find a parcel large enough to justify a commercial
operation. Suburban trees are worth more as firewood than they are worth
as lumber.

There is nothing keeping suburban property owners from reducing fire
hazard on their property. They don't have to file logging plans with the
state forestry department, they don't have to maintain wildlife habitat
and they don't have to reforest. If they want to cut down trees, all
they have to do is fire up their chainsaw and start cutting.

--
http://home.teleport.com/~larryc