Reducing Fire Hazard
A healthy forest is the best defense against wildfire. Now, the risk of catastrophic wildfire on Preservation Ranch is high due to past clear-cut logging that dramatically changed the forest composition and left it dominated in many areas by immature, closely-spaced tanoak trees.
Preservation Ranch's proposal will help reduce this fire risk in many ways:
- Forest restoration will greatly reduce fire hazard by managing dense stands of tanoak to create growing space for conifers then planting over 1 million redwood, Douglas fir and sugar pine seedlings.
- Conservation easements on 15,000 acres of forest will encourage the growth of large, more widely spaced trees that are more fire-resistant.
- Vineyards on ridge tops will act as fire breaks.
- Upgraded roads and new irrigation reservoirs will improve the ability of fire fighters to access and control fires.
- Preservation Ranch personnel will be on site year-round to watch for fires.
