Sustainable Defensible Space — Landscape Evaluation Program
A grant program that provides homeowners site-specific risk assessment and fire-wise landscape designs that are both sustainable and defensible.
The area most severely affected by wildland fires is the Wild Urban Interface (WUI), where human residences abut wildlands. Our focus is Southern California, one of the world's richest habitats and one of the most fire-prone and inhabited areas.
As a next step from the educational website defensiblespace.org, we collaborated with RCDSMM to conceive a grant program via CALFIRE for WUI homeowners to receive design and risk analysis services free of cost. Paired with the Home Ignition Zone Evaluation Program, the goal of the Defensible Space Landscape Consultation is to educate homeowners residing in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) of greater Los Angeles with individualized landscape designs that are both defensible and sustainable.
Our research, analysis, and design package provides a comprehensive report for homeowners hungered for information and tools to help them defend their homes against the increasingly inevitable reality of living in Southern California’s fire-prone ecology.
Our resulting designs improved sustainability from a fire-wise approach. A key intervention of every design was the creation of a non-flammable buffer, known as ZONE 0 or the Ember Resistant Zone (ERZ), around structures such as the home, decks, sheds, and playhouses.
We toured each property with the residents and discussed their wildfire experiences, concerns, and design needs.
Common landscape upgrades include increasing and protecting the Coast Live Oak woodland around the property’s perimeter to halt flying embers, and educating on how to minimize fire’s ability to travel.
We create a customized plant palettes for each property. Using Plant Master allows us to provide palettes with great images and comprehensive horticultural information to clients. Click on this image for our fire-wise plants palette.