Defensible space and fire mitigation in Johnson Lane, NV

Johnson Lane spreads across the northeast corner of Carson Valley, east of US 395, on ground that rises toward the Pine Nut Mountains. The USDA Forest Service ranks its wildfire risk to homes higher than 98.3% of US communities and 83% of Nevada's.

At a glance

• Risk to homes higher than 98.3% of US communities
• 72% of buildings in the indirect (ember) zone, 28% direct
• Median home built 1995: plantings are about 30 years old
• About 17 miles and 28 minutes from our yard, without traffic

Why are 30-year-old plantings the issue?

The median Johnson Lane home was built in 1995, and about 37% went up in 2000 or later (American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). Only about 17% predate 1980. Landscaping put in when a house was new is now about 30 years old. Where it included a row of evergreens for wind and privacy, or junipers along the foundation, a hedge that started at knee height is today a wall of dense, resinous foliage, sometimes touching the eaves.

The Living With Fire guide names junipers among the plants to keep out of the first 5 feet from a house, the ember-resistant zone. Our guide to junipers and other high-hazard plants explains why. Taking out a mature juniper row, grinding the stumps and hauling the debris is a routine day for our crew.

Embers in the middle, brush on the edge

The Forest Service puts 72% of Johnson Lane's buildings in the indirect exposure zone and 28% in the direct zone. None is rated minimal. The direct share is typically the edge of a community, where lots meet open sagebrush. The indirect share is the interior, where the danger is embers and fire passing from one property to the next.

So the plan depends on where you are. On an interior street, we put the effort into the first 30 feet: foundation plants, dead material, limbs over the roof, the hedge on the fence line. On an edge lot, we add the 30 to 100 foot zone and cut the native brush down with a mower.

Room to work, and room to burn

About 95% of homes here are detached houses and 94% are owner-occupied. The community covers about 22 square miles with fewer than 2,800 housing units, so lots run large. Where a parcel has a paddock, a shop or an unused back half in native brush, that ground is part of the plan.

A lot that size has space for our Bobcat T870 and brush mower, and the back half is exactly where it earns its keep. See lot clearing and brush mowing in Johnson Lane.

Dry ground, slow regrowth

A gauge inside the community (Minden 6.0 NNE) averages about 8.1 inches of precipitation a year in NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals. That is desert. Native brush that is mowed comes back slowly, which makes mowing good value. It also means irrigated trees and shrubs that lose their water die and dry out quickly, and dead plants are the first thing the guide says to remove from every zone.

Fires mapped near Johnson Lane

The National Interagency Fire Center has 11 perimeter records of 300 acres or more since 1980 with centers within about 10 miles. They include the S. Pinenut Fire of 1983 at 1,797 acres, the Highway 50 Fire of 2003 at 588 acres, centered about 6.5 miles away, the Badger Fire of 2005 at 656 acres and, across the valley on the Carson City side, the Waterfall Fire of 2004 at 8,765 acres. More numbers are on our large wildfires since 1980 page.