"LEAN, CLEAN, AND GREEN"?   What do we mean?

Lean - small amounts of flammable vegetation,
Clean - no accumulation of dead vegetation or other flammable debris, & 
Green - Plants are healthy and green during the fire season.

Lean, Clean and Green Checklist

• Emphasize the use of low growing herbaceous (non-woody) plants that are kept green during the fire season through irrigation if necessary.  Herbaceous plants include lawn, clover, a variety of groundcovers, bedding plants, bulbs, perennial flowers, and conservation grasses.

•  Emphasize use of mulches, rock, and non-combustible hard surfaces (concrete sidewalks, brick patios, and asphalt driveways).

• Deciduous ornamental trees and shrubs are acceptable if they are kept green, free of dead plant material, ladder fuels are removed, and individual plants or groups of plants are arranged in a manner in which adjacent wildland vegetation cannot convey a fire through them to the structure.  Shorter deciduous shrubs are preferred. 

• Minimize the use of ornamental coniferous shrubs and trees (such as juniper, arborvitae, and mugo pine) and tall exotic grasses (such as pampas grass).

• Where permitted, most wildland shrubs and trees should be removed from this zone and replaced with more desirable alternatives (see first item on this list).  Individual specimens or small groups of wildland shrubs and trees can be retained so long as they are kept healthy, free of dead wood, and pruned to reduce the amount of fuel and height, and ladder fuels are removed.

• For some areas substantial removal of wildland vegetation may not be allowed.  In these instances, wildland vegetation should conform to the recommended separation distances, be kept free of dead plant material, pruned to remove ladder fuels and reduce fuel load, and arrange so it cannot readily convey a fire from the wildlands to the house.  Please become familiar with local requirements before removal of wildland vegetation.

• Tree limbs within 15 feet of a chimney, encroaching on powerlines, or touching the house should be removed.

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