Defensible space and fire mitigation in Genoa, NV

Genoa lines the western edge of Carson Valley along Foothill Road and Jacks Valley Road, with pine and brush slopes rising straight behind it. No building here is rated as minimally exposed.

At a glance

• About 75% of buildings in the direct wildfire exposure zone
• Walley's Fire (1984) mapped with its center under 2 miles away
• Outside the Tahoe Basin: the 14-inch TRPA rule does not apply
• About 20 miles from our yard

Which side of a Genoa lot matters most?

The west side. Homes along the foot of the range back onto slopes of brush and pine that run up toward the Tahoe rim. Directly exposed, in the Forest Service's terms, means that vegetation is close enough to carry flame to the building.

Our arborist starts the walk at the wall that faces the slope. From there the plan follows the Living With Fire zones: nothing that burns in the first 5 feet, separated and well-kept plants out to 30 feet, and from 30 to 100 feet brush thinned into islands and trees limbed up so a ground fire cannot climb. Where the lot continues up the hill, mowing or masticating beyond 100 feet may be worth doing.

Two ages of houses, two kinds of work

Genoa has an old town center and a spread of newer foothill homes, and the Census figures show both: about 16% of homes were built before 1960, while about 41% were built in 2000 or later (American Community Survey; about 1,300 residents, so approximate).

Around the old houses in town the work is mostly on big shade trees: dead wood out of the crowns, limbs off the roof, old shrubs away from the walls. On the newer homes spread along the foothills the trees are young, and the job is brush on the uphill side and around the driveway. See lot clearing and brush mowing in Genoa for the larger parcels.

More water than the valley floor

A rain gauge 4 miles away at about the same elevation (Gardnerville 5.0 W) averages about 16.3 inches of precipitation a year in NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals. The Minden station out in the valley averages about 9.3. The foot of the range catches more, and brush there grows back faster than it does on the flats. Defensible space cut this year will want a lighter pass again in two or three.

No Tahoe rule, fewer steps

Genoa is in Douglas County but on the valley side of the crest, outside the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's 14-inch permit rule stops at the basin boundary. Our research found no county permit rule for removing trees on private property here.

That means a plan can be carried out as soon as you approve the estimate. If your property is in the historic district or an association, ask the Town of Genoa or the association about their own requirements first.

Fires on this side of the range

Six perimeter records of 300 acres or more since 1980 have centers within about 10 miles of Genoa. The closest is the Walley's Fire of 1984, 316 acres, centered about 1.7 miles away. The Autumn Hills Fire of 1996 is mapped at 3,805 acres and the Gondola Fire of 2002 at 643 acres, each centered about 5 miles away. The Highway 50 Fire of 2003 (588 acres) and the Voltaire Fire of 2018 (517 acres) are in the record too. Risk to homes in Genoa ranks higher than 97.4% of US communities.