The State of California maintains a controlled burning program that helps homeowner s associations and other community groups safeguard their property. In areas where heavy fuels intermingle with relatively dense housing, other methods must be used. Around these areas mechanical methods are used. Mechanical fuel reduction refers to the use of chain saws, chippers and plenty of manual labor to diminish fuel loads. Logs, branches and other forest litter are chopped into chips and hauled away, or spread on the ground as a mulch.
Fuel ladders are foliage that runs from the ground to the tree tops.
They can be reduced by removing the lower branches from tree trunks up 10 feet as a minimum. This way fire behavior can be diminished by breaking up the vertical continuity of the fuel ladder. There are attempts by some communities in the state to reduce local fuel loads, but this work isn t cheap unless done on a voluntary basis by local homeowners. The ecology of California dictates that there will be wildfires - it s just a matter of when. Federal and State fire agencies can and do conduct prescribed fires when all environmental impacts have been studied, a plan written and all conditions have been met at the location of the burn.