Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

You are here: Home Our Resources Literature Fire in the wildland-...

Fire in the wildland-urban interface: selecting and maintaining firewise plants for landscaping

Author: Doran, J.D.; Randall, C.K.; Long, A.J.
Date: 2004
Periodical: Circular 1445. Gainesville: University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, School of Forest Resources and Conservation. 6 p
Link: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FR147
Abstract: One of the major issues in the southern wildland-urban interface is the loss of homes to wildfire. For homeowners who live in an area with a medium to high risk of wildfire, this document provides useful information for protecting your property. While fire control agencies play an important role in fire prevention and the protection of homes, there are actions that individual homeowners can take to reduce the vulnerability of their home to wildfire. Creating an area of defensible space is one of the most important. Defensible space is defined as an area of modified vegetation between natural areas (e.g., woodlands) and homes that breaks up the continuity of plants and allows firefighters to protect the home or, in the absence of firefighters, allows the home to better survive on its own. Recommendations for defensible space suggest maintaining an area extending at least 30 feet outward from a house with plants that are low in flammability (referred to as firewise plants).


Personal tools

powered by Southern Regional Extension Forestry