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# Healthy Landscapes

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Steps the fire service can take to help communities create healthy landscapes that are resilient to wildfire. These steps can help keep communities and firefighters safer.

##### In this section

                - Training
                - Cohesive Strategy
                - Fire-Adapted Communities
                - Outreach Materials
                - Healthy Landscapes
                - Data
                - Research & Technology
                - Wildfire & WUI Blog

Maintaining the health of 3 landscape areas within and surrounding a community can protect residents, the things they value, and responding firefighters from fires in the wildland urban interface (WUI). Healthy ecosystems can also better adapt to climate change, invasive species and insect invasions.

The fire service can work together with local government leaders, businesses, organizations and community members to help create healthy landscapes that can be more resilient to WUI fires. Before beginning any healthy landscape project, make sure that you follow applicable federal, state and local laws, codes and regulations, including those pertaining to the environment and historic preservation.

This video shows how the fire service can help communities create healthy landscapes that will keep people safer and create communities that are more resilient. Audio description MP3

 https://youtu.be/of2raSjd3uE

## Create healthy landscapes

Creating healthy landscapes and maintaining healthy vegetation and ecosystems is an important part of making your community resilient to wildfire events. Climate change has negatively affected wildland landscape health, making fire seasons longer or year-round in some areas.

There are 3 unique but connected landscape areas to consider when developing the U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA) Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) or other fire safety plans:

### 1. Landscapes close to the home

There are 3 zones within the first landscape area. Research shows that proper maintenance of this area can improve home survival.

Starting within Zone 1, the first 5-foot area around the home and working outward, residents can perform landscape maintenance projects to reduce risk to the home during a wildfire. This area is the easiest for homeowners to maintain and has the greatest impact in reducing risk to the home during a wildfire.

Learn more about defensible space fire zones and why defensible space is important.

### Recommended

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Share USFA's wildfire safety outreach materials to help with community buy-in for wildfire safety project work.

Defensible space fire zones

### 2. Landscapes within the community

Areas of open spaces, parks, and trails with trees and shrubbery in and around a community are sometimes referred to as urban forests. Think about how the features of these urban forests can be improved when developing a CWPP or other forest health plan for wildfire safety.

Encourage community leaders to work with local foresters and urban forest managers to develop your plan and help choose native plants, being careful to avoid invasive, more flammable non-native species. These plans should be tailored to your local vegetation to address the conditions identified in your urban forests.

### 3. Wildland landscapes surrounding the community

Wildland landscapes are the dense natural areas that surround the community. These large natural areas can be made up of thousands or even millions of acres. They contain diverse natural fuel types, have undergone various levels of development or management, and are under the oversight of state, federal, tribes, cities or other agencies and organizations.

These landscapes require the highest level of collaborative management and partnership. Local fire resources can actively work with the larger land management partners in establishing forest management discussions, project prioritization, strategic planning and implementation efforts.

Wildfire safety projects can help restore healthier wild areas. Fire professionals can help prioritize work based on community risk, evacuation needs, location of homes, and businesses and response considerations. Your CWPP or any healthy forest plan can help guide these efforts if reviewed frequently and updated regularly.

### Recommended

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                - Hazardous fuels treatments slow fire advance on HK Complex PDF
                - Summary of actions taken to implement the Healthy Forest Restoration Act
                - Video: Understanding forest ecology

## Document project success

It's important to complete and maintain your healthy landscape projects. You can document and share your project's success for the benefit of others looking for information on wildfire safety through shared sites like LandFire and SouthWRAP.

### Healthy landscape resources

          - Fire Science Exchange  helps connect land managers, practitioners and scientists working in your area.
          - Forest Action Plans  from the National Association of State Foresters provide in-depth analysis of forest conditions and emerging trends where you live.
          - Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges , also called, TREX provides training for prescribed fire projects to help restore ecosystems and improve wildfire safety to communities using prescribed fire.
          - Rocky Mountain Research Station  is working on a research agenda and strategy for fuel treatment effectiveness.
          - U.S. Forest Service  conducts cutting-edge research and develops tools to help land managers better understand and manage forest health.
          - Vibrant Cities Lab  provides local decision makers with the best available science and tools needed to build forestry programs.

#### Recommended reading

The USFA wildfire blog has articles on a wide variety of topics, including community engagement, fire-adapted communities, wildfire safety and prevention, preparedness, planning, codes and standards, wildfire research, and wildland firefighting.

Page last reviewed: June 13, 2022

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