Become The FIRE

Why Environmentally Sensitive Vegetation Management is Crucial

In presettlement times, low intensity landscape fires moved through the Sierra Nevada foothills at regular intervals. This preserved the large trees and thinned out the competing seedlings of woody plants. The flames kept the landscape open and allowed grasses and wildflowers to flourish under a filtered canopy above.

Since the advent of fire suppression, these cleansing flames no longer travel through the foothills, allowing the woody plants to proliferate well beyond healthy numbers. They become so dense that the herbaceous plants of the understory no longer receive sufficient light to grow, and have dwindled or wholly died out in many areas. Unless the low intensity fires return, these native grasses, herbs and flowers will disappear forever.

Environmentally sensitive vegetation management is a program to restore the understory by careful removal of excess woody plants. We can mimic the effects of low level fires by removing the brushy species and thinning the younger trees and shrubs, thus reducing their competition with older mature trees. Often the native grasses and wildflowers will return on their own after such careful thinning, but the land may also be reseeded with native species from local conservation sources for additional erosion control.

The greatest benefit, however, is not just the restoration of our native plant communities, or the improvement in food sources for wildlife- it is the control of inevitable wildfire. For as we protect the plants and animals, we also protect both homesites and residents who share in this biologically rich landscape.