The Los Altos Hills County Fire District encourages residents to use vegetation management practices to reduce the chance of large, damaging wildfires, by reducing fire hazards on their properties. The Santa Clara County FireSafe Council provides guidelines for how to create defensible space around a property.
Vegetation Management practices include:
Home Ignition Zones
- Choose fire-resistant building materials
- Limit the amount of flammable vegetation in the three home ignition zones
- Immediate Zone: 0- to 5-feet around the house
- Intermediate Zone: 5- to 30-feet around the house
- Extended Zone: 30- to 100-feet around the house
Landscaping and Maintenance
- Trim branches that overhang the home, porch, deck, etc.
- Prune branches of large trees up to 6- to 10-feet, depending on their height, from the ground
- Remove plants containing resins, oils, and waxes
- Use crushed stone or gravel instead of flammable mulches in the Immediate Zone (0- to 5-feet around the house)
- Keep landscaping in good condition
How can LAHCFD help you with your vegetation management practices?
The District offers residents various programs to assist them in implementing vegetation management practices on their properties.
- Through the Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) Assessment and Rebate Program – residents can register for a NFPA-certified assessor to:
- visit their property,
- conduct an inspection to document potential hazards around the home and property, and
- provide a customized assessment report that includes photographs of potential hazards, recommended mitigation measures, and available resources to complete those mitigation measures.
Once residents have conducted landscaping and maintenance as described above, removing those trimmed limbs, branches, plants, and brush is important. We offer two programs to help residents rid their properties of this vegetation:
- Monthly Brush Chipping Program – Register to have the removed limbs, branches, and brush chipped and hauled from the property. Residents can also opt to keep the chips for use on the property.
- Vegetation Removal Monthly Drop-off Program – On the third Saturday of each month, residents can drop off their removed vegetation at Foothill College Campus, Parking Lot 1, from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm.
Implementing vegetation management practices on individual properties is the first step toward making the District safer. However, you’re only as safe as your neighbor! Encourage your neighbors to participate in their own home hardening and defensible space practices and join together to form a more resilient community. Visit our Firewise USA® webpage for more information.
What LAHCFD is doing to protect the community?
To learn about other programs in which residents can participate, please visit our Programs page.
Santa Clara County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
For more education on wildfire risks and mitigation efforts in the Fire District, review the District’s Addendum to Revised Annex 4 of the Santa Clara County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (County-CWPP). The County-CWPP is a strategic plan, which identifies countywide issues and common strategies for creating a safer wildland-urban interface community. The County-CWPP includes sections of annexes identified for each jurisdiction to address their specific issues and goals. Revised Annex 4 and its Addendum specifically addresses the Los Altos Hills County Fire District, encourages specific pre-planning actions for the resiliency of property in wildfires, and for self-reliance of residents and community in the event of a disaster. These documents are not inclusive of all strategies to address the threats and realities of wildfires and disasters. They are designed to be dynamic documents that will be revised as fire science and wildfire experiences dictate new approaches and best practices.
Learn more about the LAHCFD CWPP Annex 4 and Addendum