Lot clearing and brush mowing in Ruhenstroth, NV

Ruhenstroth is a compact community south of Gardnerville: about 730 housing units in about 2.8 square miles, nearly all detached houses. It is about 26 miles from our Carson City yard, about 39 minutes without traffic.

At a glance

• 24 large fire perimeter records mapped within about 10 miles
• Brush mower and masticating head on the same machine
• About 44% of homes built in 2000 or later
• Roughly 2.5 acres of census land per housing unit

Mow it or masticate it?

It depends on how woody the growth is. A brush mower cuts sagebrush, rabbitbrush, weeds and grass to a low stubble. A masticating head is a toothed drum that grinds heavier material, such as dense old brush, saplings and small trees, into coarse mulch where it stands.

Where a Ruhenstroth lot has pinyon or juniper seedlings coming up through the sage, or brush that has never been cut, mastication does in one pass what would otherwise take saws, a chipper and a truck. The comparison is laid out in mastication vs brush mowing vs hand clearing.

Why is fire the main reason to clear here?

The record is long. Twenty-four fire perimeter records of 300 acres or more since 1980 have a mapped center within about 10 miles of Ruhenstroth, one of the higher counts in Douglas County. Among them are Numbers in 2020 (18,380 acres), Conner in 2025 (17,714 acres), Preacher in 2017 (5,386 acres) and Ray May in 2011 (3,815 acres).

The USDA Forest Service ranks wildfire risk to homes in Ruhenstroth higher than 96.9% of US communities and puts about 31% of its buildings in the direct exposure zone.

Where should the mulch end up?

Away from the house. Masticated wood is still fuel; it has only been moved from waist height to the ground. UNR Extension's Living With Fire guide says to remove wood mulch from the first 5 feet around a home and, from 5 to 30 feet, to use mulch only in patches surrounded by something that will not burn.

So the machine works the outer ground, 30 feet from the house and beyond, and the crew clears the inner zones by hand and hauls that material off. Wood chips: uses and limits in a fire-prone yard goes further into it.

Clearing for a house, a shop or a fence

About 44% of Ruhenstroth's homes date from 2000 or later (ACS 2020-2024, approximate for a community this size), and the Census area averages roughly 2.5 acres of land per housing unit. Owners adding a building or fencing a boundary can have the footprint cleared, the stumps taken out and the debris hauled in one job. The arborist walks the lot first and flags any tree worth designing around.

Builders can read more at lot clearing for builders and land owners.