Kathryn Barger’s mother once told her that “the trees did build a community.”
But given the flammability of Southern California, it will soon be rebuilt and replanted after massive damage in recent fires, what kind of trees are the safest?
I have some answers because readers who like tree reading have been responding to my column where members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors say that spiral-free communities may be sterile and I’m talking better than lowering to ashes.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitz finalist.
My aim is to suggest that given the horror of wind-driven fires that are approaching the wild and conventionally swallowing communities, we need to feel smart about our reconstruction and where to rebuild and replant. But I didn’t express such good words well, and I’ve learned something, thanks to readers and experts including my colleague Jeanette Marantos.
“You messed up the feathers of the tree advocates,” said eco-horticultureist Diana Nicole.
Others I interviewed with have generally agreed with several things:
Structure, rather than vegetation, is the main fuel for spreading fires ignited by wind discs.
Fire-proof structures are crucial, but fire-proof landscapes are also important and can help protect the house.
Brushing and clearing is a misunderstood term. The best strategy is to have more right vegetation than the wrong ones.
Luke Benson, left, Isaac Yelchin is in the Santa Monica Mountains in Topanga State Park in December 2024 ) Biologists in resource conservation areas. Your property can save your home.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Alexandra Syphard, a research scientist and fire ecology expert at the Institute of Conservation Biology, said California’s Chaparral and coastal sage scrubs tend to replace them than non-native grasses that replace them after replacing them. The flammability is less flammable.
“Most people have always thought you need to reduce vegetation, and I don’t recommend you not. Around your property, firefighters need a safe place to be able to enter and protect the house,” Syphard said. “But you don’t need the moon to your property,” she said. There is growing evidence that the right green plants are protective barriers.
Syphard says having healthy, irrigated California live oaks and sycamore trees on your property can save you on your home. They contain a lot of moisture, are more fire-resistant than the structure, and can intercept flight embers before reaching the building.
Many homes are destroyed by fires ignited inside the house, rather than on roofs or outdoor walls, Syphard said. These embers are frequently accessed through ventilation holes, garage doors and windows. “The curtains will easily break under radiant heat, which is a very common source of entry for Embers,” Syphard said.
Eaton Canyon biologist Cristhian Mace told me that the Eaton Canyon natural area and nature center were destroyed by fire, but the oaks and sterile trees were in pretty good shape, with some leaves singing but the trunks and limbs largely intact.
When she visited the center headquarters after the fire, Metz said: “The concrete walls are still standing…the metal fire doors are still standing, but all the windows are gone and the roof has crawled in. I think the fire is…the glass melts , enter…prosper! ” Auditoriums, gift shops, classrooms, park offices, and several snakes and lizards used for educational purposes are gone. But Metz noticed a survivor.
“A wall is … leaning against California’s Lilac Island,” Mays said. “There is burning around the building, but the shrub remains high and can lift the wall.”
If experts were rebuilding in Altadena or Palisades, what would they plant? Eaton Canyon biologist Cristhian Mace recommends Oak, Sycamore (Part 1), Toyon, Lemonade Berry and Lilac.
(Devin Oktar Yalkin / Times)
But just as some trees and plants withstood the Eaton and Palisade fires, others seemed to be lit.
“The palms of the Mexican fan should be removed and planted in California should be prohibited. The interior canopies of Italian cypress trees must be kept clean or removed from any community.
She added highly flammable eucalyptus to the phone and explained that her roots were in Altadena, where she lived in two houses, both with Mexican fan palm trees nearby, both of which are in Lost in the Eaton fire. Stewart said she saw firefighters talking on the news broadcast about how the trees threw away large chunks of burning leaves.
Nicole told me she studied the TV news reports for hours and noticed that in Palisades, palm trees “started like Tiki’s other flammable vegetation.”
In Los Angeles, it’s like saying we should get rid of the Dodgers, surfing or food trucks. Feel free to send me your thoughts because I would love to investigate the topic of the palm tree ban.
I asked Syphard, Nicole, Mace and Stewart what would they plant if they were rebuilding in Palisades or Altadena.
“I’ll feel that green oaks are safer,” Syphard said. But she added that even fire-resistant trees can burn, and she suggested removing dead limbs, leaves and debris from all vegetation.
On January 9, a burnt palm tree stall was in the burnt remains of a house destroyed in the Palisade fire.
(Brian van der brug / los angeles Times)
Nicole recommended Live Oak and Toyon in California, and even included some non-natives, including Paradise Bird. “If you cut into it, the water will flow out of it,” she said.
Mays said she would build a concrete house with oaks, smoked slaves, bongeon, lemonade berries and lilac.
Stewart recommends cactus, succulents and evergreen shrubs called African boxwood.
If you want to learn more about hardening homes, smart gardening and wildfire elasticity, check out Theodore Payne Foundation website.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
