Lot clearing and brush mowing in Spanish Springs, NV

Spanish Springs is a valley of single-family homes north of Sparks along Pyramid Highway. The American Community Survey counts about 95% of its housing as detached houses and about 92% as owner-occupied, with a median build year of 2002.

At a glance

• 0% of buildings in the minimal exposure zone; 32% direct, 68% indirect
• Wildfire risk to homes higher than 98.6% of US communities
• Reservoir Fire (1999, 6,163 acres) mapped about 3.7 miles away
• About 53 minutes from our Carson City yard

What does zero minimal exposure mean?

The Forest Service sorts every building into one of three exposure types. Direct means wildland vegetation is next to it. Indirect means embers and fire passing between homes. Minimal means far enough from both. In Spanish Springs the split is 32.0% direct, 68.0% indirect and nothing in the minimal column, out of about 8,100 buildings.

Put plainly, there is no interior of the community that the model treats as out of reach. Every lot has a reason to keep dry fuel down.

Which part of a Spanish Springs lot gets mowed?

The part that was never landscaped. On a lot bigger than its lawn, that is typically the rear and the sides: native brush, weeds along the fence, a slope nobody waters. A brush mower cuts that to a low stubble in one pass, and the crew trims by hand near fences, sheds and utility boxes.

The University of Nevada, Reno Extension's Living With Fire guide asks for all dead or dried vegetation to be eliminated out to 100 feet from the house and for separation between shrubs. On a lot at the edge of the valley, 100 feet often reaches the back line, so the mowed band and the property boundary end up being the same thing.

A young community still filling in

Only about 4% of homes here were built before 1980, and about 57% date from 2000 or later. There are few big trees to work around and still some vacant parcels. For an owner getting one ready, lot clearing takes the brush out by the roots where the pad and drive will go and mows the rest.

Associations with common ground to maintain can ask for the same mowing on a schedule. Our page for HOAs and property managers explains how that is set up.

How dry is it?

The Spanish Springs weather station averages about 9.2 inches of precipitation a year (NOAA 1991-2020 normals). Spring moisture grows the grass; the long dry summer cures it. Mowing is timed between the two.

On hot, dry, windy days any machine working in cured grass is itself a fire risk. Summer mowing is planned around the conditions and around any restrictions your fire agency has in force.

Fires mapped around the valley

The National Interagency Fire Center maps the Reservoir Fire of 1999 at 6,163 acres, centred about 3.7 miles from the middle of Spanish Springs, the Prater Fire of 2017 at 2,700 acres, about 7.5 miles away, and the Pah Rah Fire of 1999 at 10,603 acres, about 8.1 miles away.