Zone 1 — 0 to 5 feet
The ignition zone. Nothing combustible touching the house: no bark mulch against siding, no shrubs under windows, no firewood on the deck, gutters clean.
Fire mitigation & defensible space
Idaho summers keep getting longer and drier. If your property backs the foothills, rangeland or a greenbelt, the fuel around your house is the part of wildfire risk you can actually control.
The work
Cutting the fuel ladder before it reaches your roof
Most homes lost to wildfire aren’t hit by a wall of flame — they’re ignited by embers landing in receptive fuel right next to the structure, or by fire climbing from grass to brush to low limbs to canopy. Defensible space breaks that chain.
We have the crew and equipment to clear combustible material quickly and efficiently, and we’ll walk your property and tell you where the actual risk is instead of just selling you hours.
- Ladder fuel removal — limbing trees up so fire can’t climb from ground to canopy
- Brush and scrub clearing — sage, bitterbrush and volunteer growth near structures
- Dead material removal — standing dead trees, deadwood, downed limbs, needle and leaf litter
- Canopy separation — thinning so crowns don’t touch and carry fire tree to tree
- Structure clearance — limbs off roofs, out of gutters, away from decks, eaves and propane
- Fire breaks and access — clearing along fence lines, drives and property boundaries
- Chipping on site or haul-off — so the fuel actually leaves, rather than becoming a new pile
How it’s structured
The three defensible space zones
Zone 2 — 5 to 30 feet
Lean, clean and green. Grass mowed short, brush removed or well separated, tree limbs raised, canopies not touching, dead material gone.
Zone 3 — 30 to 100+ feet
Fuel reduction, not clear-cutting. Thin dense stands, remove dead and dying trees, break up continuous brush so fire drops out of the canopy before it arrives.
Some insurers, HOAs and Ada County programs have their own defensible space requirements — and some offer incentives. Check with your carrier; we’re happy to document the work we do so you can submit it.
Free property evaluation — no hassle, no obligation
We’ll walk your lot before fire season and give you a straight assessment and a written price.