 This program deals with designing and installing firewise landscapes in areas known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. The Wildland-Urban Interface is the area where homes and structures meet the natural environment of forests and wildlands. As people move into fire prone areas, they increase the risk that their homes and surrounding vegetation will burn in time of catastrophic wildfire. When wildfires occur today in these areas, limited resources often force firefighters to choose between attacking the fire or defending the home. Living in wildland areas can be made safer by applying the principles of firewise landscaping. Successful landscaping combines the desires of the owner and appropriate design elements to create a personal environment. It directs where shadows fall, how breezes flow, and can frame an inviting glimpse of the world beyond. Good planning and good design start with basically five factors, function being the most important factor. The function of the landscape, that is to say how will it serve mankind and human needs, will be of priority concern and consideration in a good design, as well as in good maintenance. The second factor would probably be what I would call the fit factor. How does it fit nature? How does it fit the environment? How does it fit the parameters that are thrust upon it by the locale in which this home will reside? The next factor would be a financial factor. In other words, can we afford to design, install, and most importantly to maintain this project over the life of the home? The next factor would probably be what I call the fun factor, and that's where we think about the aesthetics and the beauty and the look of the landscape. And the fifth factor would be what I call the follow-through. The follow-through becomes the most important factor with regard to balancing nature, balancing human needs, balancing safety in terms of soils and plants and fire, and all the other factors that come to bear when we live in that interface zone. Frontyards tend to be relatively public and formal, while backyards are more private and personal. Firewise designs incorporate the needs of both areas, the structure and surrounding properties. For professionals working in fire prone areas, Firewise planning is a valuable service that landscape architects and designers can offer to homeowners and other clientele. Firewise techniques serve as a filter through which plan should be reviewed and additional options offered to property owners. Often subtle adjustments in plant selection and placement can improve fire safety and meet the needs of the owner and the requirements of the environment. The practical end of it is to make it functional for the use of the yard, what the family wants to use the property for, whether it be a pool or a deck or a patio or a tennis court or whatever it may be. With the knowledge and understanding of the locale and the desires of the homeowner, a conceptual layout of the property is developed. This schematic design provides the starting point from which more detailed plans evolve. Information on soil conditions, property contours and boundaries, irrigation plans and plant descriptions and placement contribute to the final plan. From there, contractors will be able to install a landscape that is functional, beautiful, long-lasting, and of course, Firewise. Well, the first thing you want to do is there's a fancy word for it, site analysis, looking at the site and looking at what's there. And trying to pay attention to the assets and liabilities of the place, what plants are there, what the terrain is, what the microclimate is. And then rather than just stripping off, make some intelligent choices about what to remove and what to keep, and also have some goals in mind about what you're doing. Ideally, landscape plans, like building plans, should be done as the property is being developed. But in practice, landscaping is usually designed after the fact. So let's look at landscaping for existing structures or those being modified. Given an existing site, Firewise landscaping begins with a look at the construction and style of the central structure. The building massing, roadways, sidewalks, that makes up the built structure and then around that then we create the landscape. Other elements such as trellises and decks and particularly the roof material contribute to a Firewise design. Also, information on the overall terrain, native vegetation, prevailing winds, seasonal weather and the areas history of wildfire will contribute to the ultimate design and installation. The consideration of neighboring developed and natural properties is important in determining how areas surrounding a structure can be adapted for Firewise landscaping. Well-designed and maintained areas around a structure can offer a defensible space. It is here that landscaping can achieve fire safety without sacrificing visual harmony. Fire officials recommend a minimum 30-foot vegetation clearance around a structure. Fire crews need this space in the event they must protect the structure during a wildfire. However, most properties have limited space around and between structures. To meet vegetation clearing recommendations, consider designing zones surrounding the structure and extending outward. Although four zones are shown here, not all of the zones will figure in every Firewise landscaping design. The design objective of the zone concept is to progressively reduce vegetation flammability and fuel volume as we near the structure. Zones can effectively slow a wildfire's approach while reducing its intensity. Zone 4 is a natural zone of native or naturalized vegetation. In this area, use selective finning to reduce the volume of fuel. Removing highly flammable plant species offers further protection while maintaining a natural appearance. Zone 3 is a low-fuel volume zone. Here, selected planting of mostly low-growing and fire-resistant plants provides a decreased fuel volume area. A few well-spaced fire-resistant trees in the zone can further retire to fire's progress. Zone 2 establishes a vegetation area consisting of plants that are fire-resistant and low-growing. An irrigation system will help keep this protection zone green and healthy. Zone 1 is the protection area immediately surrounding the house. Here, vegetation should be especially fire-resistant, well-irrigated and carefully spaced to minimize the threat from intense flames and sparks. These protection zones offer a flexible design technique that may vary for each property, depending on many factors, such as the slope of the terrain, the type of vegetation involved, property boundaries, and many others. The zone concept can be applied to a single structure or a group of structures in a developed community. In the case of a planned community, obviously, again, you're sort of dealing in larger massings of planting. And in fact, it probably gives us more of an opportunity really to develop a more cohesive landscape in that case. So we can very easily sort of develop these very distinct fire-safe zones. Whether landscaping for a single property or a larger development, the selection and placement of plants affects fire safety. You want to avoid having a continuous fuel source. In creating defensible space through landscaping, you're breaking up that fuel source, which could be plants, it could be wood fences or structures or whatever gets that fire up to the house. Then that fuel, which is your house, that giant chunk of fuel, when that burns, that could ignite your neighbor's house or vice versa. And so it's really important to not let that happen. After deciding how fire-wise zones can be incorporated into a landscape, one of the more critical aspects of fire-wise landscaping is the selection of plants. Although some plants are known to be extremely flammable, it is not simple to classify one plant as more fire-resistant than another. We look at certain characteristics of plants and some of those characteristics include things such as the doffage of the plant. Or in other words, how much material does it drop over the period of a year that can build up and create a fire hazard itself, laying fire material or fire debris under the plant? That's one area of concern. Another area of concern is the retention of water within the plant. How much water will this plant retain? And certainly along that same line, how much salt? Literally table salt and other salts will it retain, because all of these materials tend to slow down the progress of fires, tend to cool the fire and tend to keep it from spreading in quite such the manner that it would with dry material. We're also looking for such factors as aromas, if you will, aromatic oils, because many of these oils tend to be rather flammable and can add to the heat of the fire, the speed with which it spreads and so forth. We're also concerned about such things as the fire fuel load, if you will. In other words, how much fuel or material is found in a given plant that will add to the fuel for the fire to burn? And I believe one of the most important factors, quite frankly, is how large the plant is in relation to its proximity to those areas that we don't want to burn. Fire resistance of a plant depends more on the growing conditions and proper maintenance than whether it is native to the region. I don't believe natives are any more fire resistant. I mean, I think you can find some good fire resistant natives and you can find some bad fire resistant natives in the same with introduced plants. Any plant will burn. It's a question of what ignites it, what temperature it's ignited at, and then how much fuel is there. Carefully grouping plants can reduce flammability problems. For example, when it is not practical or desirable to remove a fire prone plant, surrounding it with more fire resistant plants reduces danger, while sustaining the overall visual impact. Trees with low ground covers or lower growing plants is a good mix to utilize. If you are using larger growing shrubs, if they are sort of placed in a more open area or massed in smaller groupings, that would be appropriate. Introducing traditional wooden features like fences, trellises and decks can present fire a direct path to a house. The use of barriers like driveways, walks and masonry walls can help retard the progress of a fire toward a structure or other plants, while offering expanded design opportunities. A lot of people think the fire wise landscape is a very stark looking landscape and I think that that's not the way it needs to be. Every successful landscape depends on healthy plants. This is especially true when designing with fire safety in mind. Irrigation systems help keep plant tissues filled with water, reducing their flammability. Regardless of the type of system, proper care after installation will help ensure that the vegetation will remain as fire wise as possible during the most critical times of the year. Any plant or grass that becomes dry because of a drought is going to be more prone to a fire. And an irrigation system will keep the moisture there that as the plant drinks up the moisture, it makes the plant less fire prone, more fire wise. Although we can significantly alter the landscape to help protect homes, fire wise is never fire perfect. No matter what kind of design is implemented, maintenance is really the key to fire protection. No matter how well something is planned and installed, the maintenance over the long term will determine just how fire is safe in a given location and a given property remain. So as we begin to move into the wild natural area, we begin to move into a zone in which we must take into consideration both nature and man and balance needs of both if we're going to live in that potentially dangerous but at the same time potentially marvelous interface zone.