Gardnerville is a Carson Valley town, 4,751 feet up. This sheet puts the town beside Douglas County, Nevada and the United States, then adds the Forest Service ranking, the three nearest NOAA stations and the large fires mapped within about 10 miles. Read it as a town sheet, not a county one.
A town that is not like its county
The county reads like a place of owners and single-family homes: 78.8% owner-occupied and 77.0% single-family detached. Gardnerville is 51.5% owner-occupied and 51.0% single-family detached, with mobile homes at 16.6% against the county's 6.5%. The median home was built in 2001, against 1990 for the county, and 54.6% of homes date from 2000 or later. Only 17.9% were built before 1980.
The median home value, $487,300, is below the county's $615,400. Wood is the main heating fuel for 0.3% of households, against 4.5% for Douglas County; bottled gas heats 1.6%, against 8.1%.
The wildfire gap inside one county
Douglas County ranks above 97.3% of US communities for risk to homes. Gardnerville ranks above 89.6% and above 45.9% of Nevada communities. In the building split, 5.1% of its 2,693 buildings are directly exposed, 3.3% indirectly and 91.7% minimally. For Douglas County the figures are 38.4%, 50.1% and 11.5%. The sheet shows the gap, not its cause.
Thirteen fire records fall within about 10 miles. The closest centers are Walley's in 1984 (316 acres, 5.6 miles) and Autumn Hills in 1996 (3,805 acres, 5.9 miles). The largest are Indian in 1984 (17,771 acres, 9.2 miles) and an unnamed 1984 record of 16,668 acres. The most recent is Preacher in 2012 (1,076 acres, 9.2 miles).
What it means for trees and the work
A town this new has young street and yard trees, and a mix of rental and owner-occupied homes. Tree trimming, early structural pruning and stump grinding are the more likely calls; large old trees will be the exception, found mostly on older lots. The fire rows give less reason to lead with defensible space than they do at Johnson Lane or Indian Hills. For snow, snow removal is available in season, and for those who do burn wood, firewood is a call to the office.
The drive from our yard is 21.0 miles, about 30 minutes without traffic.
Reading the stations
The Minden station, 1.7 miles from the town point at 4,709 feet, is the one to use: 9.34 inches of precipitation, 21.8 inches of snowfall and a mean temperature of 50.1 F. Dagget Pass is 8.0 miles away but sits at 7,334 feet, more than 2,500 feet higher, and its 21.8 inches of precipitation belongs to the mountains.
The Census figures are estimates with margins of error, and the fire list carries only perimeters of 300 acres or more.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates (pulled October 1, 2026)
- USDA Forest Service: Wildfire Risk to Communities (tabular download dated April 15, 2026) (pulled October 1, 2026)
- NOAA NCEI: U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020 (pulled October 1, 2026)
- National Interagency Fire Center: InterAgency Fire Perimeter History and WFIGS perimeters (pulled October 1, 2026)