5 to 30 Feet: The Intermediate Zone

Employing careful choices and utilizing landscaping & hardscaping best practices can help influence and decrease fire behavior. Below are recommended actions within the 5 to 30-feet from the furthest exterior point of the structure to reduce the risk to your home from wildfires:

• Keep lawns and native grasses mowed to a height of four inches. 
  • Grasses and weeds are to be cut to four inches or less throughout fire season to help prevent a fire from spreading. Ashland Municipal Code requires initial cuttings to be completed no later than June 15th of each year and to maintain those heights throughout fire season (AMC9.04).
• Remove all cut vegetation, dead material, and debris from the property. This includes leaves and pine needles.
• Water plants, trees, and lawns to keep them from becoming dry.
• Remove ladder fuels (vegetation under trees) so a surface fire cannot reach the crowns. Prune trees at least six (6) to ten (10) feet from the ground. For trees under 18 feet tall, do not exceed 1/3 of the overall tree height.
  • The lowest limbs of trees should clear any vegetation underneath the tree by at least three times the height of the undergrowth.
• Tree and shrubs in this zone should be limited to small clusters of a few each to break up the continuity of the vegetation across the landscape. Thin trees and shrubs to prevent interlocking canopies. 
  • Space trees (or small groupings of trees) at least 18 feet apart at branch tips (i.e. space between the drip lines of trees); increase that distance if on a slope. Conifers are more flammable than deciduous trees and should be prioritized for establishing recommended spacing.
• Use flower beds, walkways, rock walls, and watered lawns to break up the continuity of vegetation in this zone. Fuel breaks can also be created using driveways, and noncombustible patios and decks.
• Select only "Fire-resistant" landscape plants when planting in this zone.
  • Ashland's Wildfire Safety Ordinance prohibits the planting of flammable plants within 30-feet of any structure, including structures on neighboring parcels. (Effective as of October 18, 2018. AMC18.3.10.100, AMC9.04).
• Tree placement should be planned to ensure the mature canopy is no closer than ten feet to the edge of the structure. Trim trees so foliage is no closer than 10 feet from the outlet of any chimney, roofline, eave, or wall.
• Clear vegetation and tree litter from under large stationary propane tanks. Maintain a 10-foot clearance from dry vegetation around these tanks at all times.