Lot clearing and brush mowing in Galena and along Mt. Rose Highway (89511)

ZIP 89511 runs up the Mt. Rose Highway corridor on the south edge of Reno. Our reference point for it sits at about 5,634 feet, more than 1,100 feet above downtown Reno, in USDA hardiness zone 6b.

At a glance

• About 5,634 feet at our map point, zone 6b
• Davis Fire (2024, 5,824 acres) mapped about 4.4 miles away
• Masticating head for brush and small trees, tree crew for the rest
• About 35 minutes from our Carson City yard

Why is mastication the main tool up here?

A brush mower is built for sagebrush flats. Under a stand of pines the fuel is different: shrubs in the gaps, thickets of young trees a few inches through, dead limbs on the ground. The masticating head grinds that material where it stands and leaves it as a layer of chips, so there are no piles to burn and little to haul.

Anything too big for the head is a tree job. The crew takes it down, chips the brush and loads the logs.

What stays and what goes?

The University of Nevada, Reno Extension's Living With Fire guide describes the outer zone, 30 to 100 feet from the house, as a reduced fuel zone: separation between shrubs or small groups of shrubs and trees, and ladder fuels removed. Ladder fuels are the low growth that lets a ground fire climb into the crowns. In pine country the same guide says needles on the ground in that zone should not be deeper than 3 inches.

None of that means cutting the forest down. On the site walk the arborist marks the healthy, well-spaced trees to keep and the crowded, dead or damaged ones to take, and the operator works around the marks. See ladder fuels and limbing up for the pruning half of the job.

Slopes and what a machine can do on them

A tracked loader handles rough ground well, within limits. Steep pitches, rock outcrops and the ground right beside a house are hand work: saws, a chipper and people carrying brush. A parcel on this corridor usually ends up as a patchwork, with the machine on the benches and the hand crew on the banks.

Chips are placed with fire in mind. The Living With Fire guide says to remove wood mulch from the first 5 feet around a home, so masticated material belongs out in the reduced fuel zone and not against the foundation.

Three fires within about five miles

The National Interagency Fire Center maps the Davis Fire of 2024 at 5,824 acres, centred about 4.4 miles from our 89511 reference point. The Washoe Drive Fire of 2011 is mapped at 3,178 acres, about 4.1 miles away, and the Arrowcreek Fire of 2000 at 2,788 acres, about 3.3 miles away.

ZIP areas have no Forest Service rating of their own. For Washoe County as a whole, the Forest Service ranks risk to homes higher than 97.2% of US counties. We publish no rain or snow figure for this corridor because the nearest long-record stations are too far away or too much lower to stand for it.

Clearing a building lot on the corridor

About 42% of the ZIP's homes were built in 2000 or later (American Community Survey), and lots are still being built on. For a new home site the plan is drawn twice: the pad, driveway and utility runs that must be cleared, and the 100 feet around the future house that should be thinned. Doing both in one visit means the equipment is hauled up the hill once.

Parts of 89511 are inside Reno city limits and parts are unincorporated Washoe County, so find out which you are in before the trees are touched.