What is the wildland-urban interface?

What counts as WUI

The federal definition has two flavors: places where homes are intermingled with wildland vegetation, and places where homes sit next to a large block of it. Either way the point is the same. The fuel outside the property line and the fuel inside it are connected, and neither stops at a fence.

In practice a lot in the WUI is one with sagebrush, juniper, pine or grass on a hillside behind it, whether the address is rural or an ordinary suburban street.

Why it matters in Northern Nevada

Much of the region is built right against the Sierra front, the Virginia Range and open sage. The USDA Forest Service's Wildfire Risk to Communities puts Carson City's risk to homes higher than 98.5 percent of US communities, and Dayton, Verdi, Spanish Springs and Lemmon Valley are on the same end of the scale. The figures are on our wildfire risk data page and explained in wildfire risk to homes in Northern Nevada.

Local fire districts adopt their own WUI codes, and Nevada's State Forester can direct owners within its jurisdiction to remove a fire hazard (NRS 472.500). The statute does not name a distance, so be wary of any claim that state law requires a number of feet.

What an arborist does about it

Work in the WUI centres on defensible space: the Living With Fire guide from University of Nevada, Reno Extension sets Zone 0 at 0 to 5 feet, Zone 1 at 5 to 30 feet and Zone 2 at 30 to 100 feet. Battle Born's fire mitigation work includes lot clearing, brush mowing and masticating, and the arborist can plan zones for a specific property. Slash left from clearing is part of the plan too.