Seeding Fuel-Break Areas in Southern California
| Authors: | Lisle R. Green, G.C. Edmunson, D.R. Cornelius, Anthony B. Evanko |
| Year: | 1963 |
| Type: | Other |
| Station: | Pacific Southwest Research Station |
| Source: | Fuel-Break Report No. 10. Berkeley, Calif.: Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 18 p. |
Abstract
A fuel-break is a wide strip or block of land on which native brush fuels have been reduced or eliminated to facilitate fire control. Brush removal creates a plant vacuum which should be filled rapidly with plants that will protect the soil against erosion, produce lower fuel volume than native chaparral, and possibly provide grazing for wild or domesticated animals.
Fuel-breaks are usually constructed along ridge tops, but also along mountain roads, and valley or canyon bottoms. Topography may be steep and irregular, soils shallow and course; rocks, brush, and stumps may cover much of the soil surface. Where site conditions are otherwise good, competition from weedy plants may be excessive.
The special problems are adverse conditions associated with brush-to-grass conversion require strict attention to practices that contribute to revegetation success. The objective of this paper is to summarize the experience and recommend the practices that favor establishment of grasses on cleared chaparral land in southern California.