These introduced trees line roadways for miles, cover acres once home to blankets of native plants, and crowd older homes in dense hillside neighborhoods from Malibu to Marin. In California’s wildland-urban interface-the place where neighborhoods meet wild canyons, hillsides, and forests-the most common tree is the eucalyptus (mostly Eucalyptus globulus, E. Yet, trees are a vital part of both the fire-safe landscape and the sustainable neighborhood, providing habitat for wildlife, shade for our homes and outdoor living spaces, and food for our families. Even firefighters are trained to drop trees, cut fire lines, and remove natives. Fire safety campaigns talk about cutting, removal, and clearance. Dramatic news videos show forests ablaze, with flames consuming massive trees in seconds. Though that story is hypothetical, trees in the fire-safe landscape are often looked upon as the bad guys. He assumes the tree fed the fire and has it cut down. Days later, when the owner returns, the house is gone as are the fallen limbs, but the disfigured tree remains. The sheriff urges the owner to flee, leaving the oak limbs scattered across the grass. The massive branches crash to the ground. In one garden, a panicked homeowner hacks at the spreading limbs of an old live oak. Alarmed residents across the canyon hastily cut away branches and brush in a desperate attempt to clear decades of accumulated fuel. As fire engines converge on the scene, the distant sound of chainsaws can be heard. He is only gone minutes when he looks back to see a wildfire, ignited from the hot engine’s manifold, racing up the hill to houses perched above. On a hot, breezy, fall afternoon, a gardener leaves a weed cutter lying in the dry grass of a hillside neighborhood. The Lafayette garden of Katherine Greenberg, showing relatively fire-resistant coast live oaks ( Quercus agrifolia) planted away from the house only vine maples ( Acer circinatum) and native currants ( Ribes spp.), all deciduous, are planted near the house.
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