Defensible space and fire mitigation in Zephyr Cove, NV

In the USDA Forest Service data, wildfire risk to homes in Zephyr Cove ranks higher than about 80% of Nevada communities and 98% of communities nationwide. Two thirds of its buildings are in the indirect exposure zone, where embers do the damage.

At a glance

• About 73% of homes built before 1980, a third before 1960
• Risk to homes higher than 98% of US communities
• Gondola Fire (2002, 643 acres) centered about 4 miles away
• About 38 minutes from Carson City without traffic

Where do embers catch on an older cabin?

The Forest Service rates about 67% of Zephyr Cove's buildings as indirectly exposed and about 30% as directly exposed. Indirect exposure means ignition by embers or by a neighboring building on fire. Embers need something dry to land in, and on a cabin that has stood under pines for 50 or 60 years there is plenty: needles on the roof and in the gutters, limbs resting on shingles, a juniper under the window, needle drifts beneath the deck.

Our work on those items is pruning limbs back from the roof, deck and chimney, removing the shrubs and dead plants in the first 5 feet and hauling out the needles and cones. Cleaning the gutters and screening the vents are jobs for you or a handyman.

The three zones on a Zephyr Cove lot

Many lots here are smaller than 100 feet in any direction. The plan then stops at the property line, and the diagram on this page shows how the rings overlap between neighbors.

Permits on the Nevada south shore

A live tree over 14 inches in diameter at 4.5 feet needs a Tahoe Regional Planning Agency permit. On a lakeshore lot the figure is 6 inches for trees between the house and the lake, which matters along the Zephyr Cove waterfront. Cutting branches in the upper two-thirds of a tree also needs a permit unless they are dead, near a structure or in conflict with utilities.

The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District evaluates properties and issues defensible space tree permits on this shore. The agency decides what may be cut. We can tell you what to ask, and we work from the approved list.

When large trees have to go

Where an evaluation marks a big tree beside a house for removal, there is often no open ground to drop or lower it. We own a crane for that reason. It lifts the tree out in sections over the roof. See crane tree removal in Zephyr Cove. Dead pines are covered in removing dead pines after bark beetles.

Local fire history and weather

Four perimeter records of 300 acres or more since 1980 have centers within about 10 miles of Zephyr Cove. Three are on the Nevada side: the Gondola Fire of 2002 at 643 acres, centered about 4 miles away, the Autumn Hills Fire of 1996 at 3,805 acres and the Walley's Fire of 1984 at 316 acres.

The nearest weather station with a precipitation normal is Daggett Pass, about 3.5 miles away and about 1,100 feet higher, at 21.8 inches a year. Treat that as a reference from higher up the grade, not a Zephyr Cove figure. Either way this shore is far wetter than Carson City's 9.3 inches, and needles and brush build up again each year.