Incline Village tree and wildfire data sheet

Incline Village sits on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, inside the Tahoe Basin, where tree removal is governed by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. This sheet sets its Census figures beside Washoe 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. The Nevada side of the lake only: we do not work in California.

The exposure row is the headline

Risk to homes ranks above 97.7% of US communities and above 75.4% of Nevada communities, the same national rank as Reno. The difference is how the buildings are distributed: 61.0% in the direct zone, 38.2% indirect and 0.7% minimal. Washoe County as a whole has 16.3% in the direct zone. Almost every building here stands among trees.

The fire list is short, only seven records within about 10 miles, and none is very close: Royal in 2003 (339 acres, 4.0 miles), Little Valley in 1981 (5,142 acres, 7.0 miles) and 2016 (2,292 acres, 7.1 miles), Martis in 2001 (14,429 acres, 7.8 miles) and Davis in 2024 (5,824 acres, 9.6 miles). The exposure comes from the forest, not from a record of recent fire at the door.

An older, high-value housing stock

The median home was built in 1981, and 47.1% of homes predate 1980. Only 11.7% date from 2000 or later. The median home value is $1,454,600, the highest on any sheet, nearly three times the Washoe County figure of $539,900. Owner-occupancy is 71.0%, mobile homes only 1.1%, and heating by wood 0.7%.

Mature trees near high-value roofs raise the stakes of a wrong call, and the Census count does not tell second homes from primary ones. Our vacation home guide covers owners who are away part of the year.

Tahoe rules, in one paragraph

In the Tahoe Basin the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency requires a permit to remove a live tree over 14 inches in diameter at breast height, and over 6 inches on lakeshore lots between the house and the lake. A dead tree that could fall on a house needs no permit. The agency decides. Our Tahoe diameter guide and the defensible space page go further.

Battle Born does tree removal, including crane-assisted removal, on the Nevada side of the lake; the arborist sets the plan at a free estimate.

The weather rows, read carefully

The Incline Village station, 1.7 miles away at 6,356 feet, reports a mean temperature of 46.0 F but no precipitation or snowfall normal. The Truckee-Tahoe airport (10.3 miles) and Tahoe City (10.8 miles) are across the lake in California; Tahoe City shows 33.28 inches of precipitation and 179.0 inches of snow, a figure to use only as a reference across the lake.

Drive time from our yard is 30.7 miles, about 48 minutes without traffic. Census margins of error are wide for a community of 4,008 households.