Remember, the person most likely to save your life and home is you. Creating defensible space around your home is critical. It helps local and state firefighters protect not only your property, but that of your community. Clear branches, dry grass, leaves, and needles away from the house, and remove excess vegetation. Keep your roof and gutters free of debris. Pile firewood and other flammable materials away from your house. Maintain a ready source of water—preferably from a tank or a supply that doesn’t rely on electricity. Gather valuable and irreplaceable personal items in one place. Have an emergency plan, and be sure to have escape routes mapped out for your family, pets, and livestock. The work you do beforehand is just as crucial as what you do once a fire has arrived. For more ideas and information, visit: www.firewise.org.
1. Is the area within 30 feet of every side of your home(up to 200' if your home is on a slope) free from all combustible materials including firewood?
2. Have you replaced uncut grass, brush, trees or combustible materials with a maintained lawn(watered and mowed), crushed rock, or other non-combustible materials?
Click below to learn more on how to
Make Your House Safe from Wildland Fire www.firewise.org
A Discussion and List of Fire Resistant Plant Species from
MSU-Bozeman
Fires can damage soil and reduce its capacity to hold moisture.
This can affect plants' ability to survive. However, there are a number of groundcovers, herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees that are fire-resistant and are listed here.
Any plant will burn if it is dry enough and the fire slow enough and hot enough. The ability of a plant to survive a fire depends upon the speed and type of fire, the time of year, the moisture-holding capacity of the plant, and the plant species.
Slow-moving fires can do more damage than those that move rapidly across a site. In forest settings, crown fires that travel from the crown of one tree to another often are more damaging than other types because they destroy the foliage and thus reduce the plants' capacity to photosynthesize. This inability
to manufacture carbohydrates weakens the plant and makes it more susceptible to subsequent winter damage and pest infestations. Young trees are more severely affected by this type of fire than older trees.
Ground fires kill the cambium and phloem (parts of the plant responsible for its growth), often girdling or partially girdling the plant, which can lead to the death of the plant.
However, new tissue laid down in the following spring allows many damaged trees to survive.
Succulent plants and those full of water (for instance, in spring), survive fires better than trees with low moisture contents. Shrubs often survive by their ability to re-sprout from their bases.
Degradation of Site Quality
Fires burn soil organic matter, reducing the soil's capacity to store water and fostering compaction. They accelerate erosion and increase the magnitude of fluctuations in soil temperatures. As much as 70 percent of the nitrogen and some other nutrients are lost by volatilization, ash convection, and subsequent leaching after hot fires. However, the nitrogen is often replaced quickly by rain, increased soil microbial activity, and nitrogen fixation. Some nutrients are also released from burned organic matter, often making the total availability of mineral nutrients to the plants higher after the fire than before. Site quality deteriorates more on coarse sands and heavy soils than on sandy and loamy soils.
Following a fire, prune out dead branches and be sure the remaining plants are watered well. There may be no reason to add huge quantities of fertilizer.
Under forest conditions, tree species with thicker, corky bark -- western larch, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, long-leaf pine and bur oak -- often escape severe fire damage. Those with thinner bark, such as alpine fir, Engelmann spruce and lodgepole pine, and many younger trees, are more likely to be killed by ground fires. Conifers as a group are considered more susceptible to fire damage than deciduous species because of their high resin content.
Following is a list of plant species adapted to Montana that have been noted to be fire resistant. Not all species on this list will grow in all parts of the state. Refer to "Choosing Trees and Shrubs for Montana Landscapes" (Montana Extension Bulletin EB 123), "Choosing Herbaceous Perennials and
Biennials" (MontGuide 9903) and "Growing Annual Flowers" (MontGuide 9501) for more information on growing site conditions for selected species.
We have also avoided categorizing plants as "fast-growing" or "slow-growing" since this can be misleading?there are too many variables that can affect the rate of growth of a plant. Some information in the tables pertains only to
observations on a single cultivar, but there is little reason to believe that other cultivars of the same species might not be equally resistant. In one case, an entire family (Rose) is generally considered to be fire-resistant. This family includes apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, hawthorn, cotoneaster, juneberry, raspberry, blackberry and, of course, rose. Some entries include an entire genus (ash, for
example) followed by some individual species. This is because some references list only a genus while others list particular species as being resistant.
Fire Resistant Plant Species Adapted to Montana
Groundcovers and Herbaceous Plants
Common Name Genus and Species
AlfalfaMedicago sativus
BergeniaBergenia spp.
Blanket FlowerGaillardia x grandiflora
Bluegrass, KentuckyPoa pratensis
BuffalograssBuchloe dactyloides
Candytuft, EvergreenIberis sempervirens
Carpet bugleAjuga reptans
Cinquefoil, SpringPotentilla tabernaemontanii
ColumbineAquilegia spp.
Coral BellsHeuchera sanguinea
CoreopsisCoreopsis spp.
CotoneasterCotoneaster ssp.
Cotoneaster, RockCotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster, BearberryCotoneaster dammerii
Daisy, ShastaLeucanthemum x superbum
DaylilyHemerocallis spp.
DrosanthemumDrosanthemum speciosum
Dusty MillerArtemisa stelleriana
FescueFestuca spp.
Fescue, BlueFestuca cinerea
Fescue, TallFestuca arundinacea
Fescue, Creeping RedFestuca rubra
FlaxLinum spp.
FleabaneErigeron hybrids
Four O'clockMirabilis spp.
Geranium, HardyGeranium cinereum
Geranium, BloodredGeranium sanguineum
GeraniumGeranium spp.
Ginger, WildAsarum caudatum
Hen and ChicksSempervivum tectorum
IrisIris spp.
KinnickinnickArctostaphylos uva-ursi
Lambs EarStachys byzantina
LavenderLavandula spp.
LupineLupinus spp.
Mahonia, CreepingMahonia repens
Mock StrawberryDuchesnea indica
Fire Resistant Plant Species Adapted to Montana
Groundcovers and Herbaceous Plants Common Name Genus and Species
YuccaYucca filamentosa Fire Resistant Plant Species Adapted to Montana
Trees
Common Name Genus and Species
Alder, WhiteAlnus rhombifolia
AshFraxinus spp.
Ash, GreenFraxinus pennsylvanica
Aspen, QuakingPopulus tremuloides
BirchBetula spp .
CottonwoodPopulus spp.
HackberryCeltis occidentalis
Locust, BlackRobinia pseudoacacia
News & Updates:
Join Us for the
2010 FIRE SEASON
and
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EDUCATION
Saturday Morning, MAY 22nd - 10:00 AM
COTTONWOOD FIRE STATION
10200 COTTONWOOD ROAD
sponsored by
RAE & SOURDOUGH FIRE DEPTS.
ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED
Volunteer! Have you made a contribution to the Rae Community? Do you know what it takes to deliver fire protection 24/7/365? We have Volunteer positions available and not all members fight fire. We need Support Personnel that can Volunteer needed skills and serve for the benefit of the community.
