fuels-reduction-guide-2023 - Flipbook - Page 17
Shaded Fuel Breaks
In a shaded fuel break, trees are typically spaced so their crowns no longer
touch, lower branches are pruned, and brush and dead and down material
are removed or replaced with masticated material. Shaded fuel breaks are
most often placed strategically on ridgetops, roads, and around structures.
Shaded fuel breaks are strips of land in
which vegetation has been modified to
act as strategic “defensible landscape.”
The purpose is to reduce the amount
of combustible material so that when
a fire hits the shaded fuel break it will
uring the 2020 Creek Fire,
thousands of residents and
visitors were safely evacuated along
the Highway 168 corridor, where
Highway 168 Fire Safe Council
had received grant funding to
construct a roadside fuel break and
clear dead trees from the massive
beetle kill caused by drought. The
role these fuel breaks and tree
removal played in keeping this fire
Creek Fire
D
decrease in intensity, cool down, and
drop from the canopy to the ground.
Along roadways, shaded fuel breaks
create safer ingress and egress routes
for fire personnel and citizens.
from being much more destructive
cannot be understated. They played
a key role in buying time, allowing
for preparation around communities
and managing fire activity. Dozers
were able to quickly open up and
expand fuel breaks, turning them
into constructed line that aided
fire fighters in saving homes and
resources.
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