Your HOA at Work
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With the season change comes Santa Ana winds, otherwise known as the official fire season in California. Over the past several months you have likely noticed several large landscape and slope renovation projects underway throughout Ladera Ranch. Many of these were focused on removing old and overgrown groundcover vegetation, called Acacia redolens.
These locations were prioritized by our Landscape Management team with the help of the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA). The projects were primarily focused on locations regulated as Defensible Space by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and OCFA. Groundcover with excessive growth in a small space that is deemed to be ember receptive and within close proximity to residential structures (100’) is an area recently regulated as Defensible Space by Cal Fire. The following is taken from their website.
DEFENSIBLE SPACE
Keep your property lean and green to help protect your family and home.
Defensible space, coupled with home hardening, is essential to improve your home’s chance of surviving a wildfire. Defensible space is the buffer you create between a building on your property and the grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surround it. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it helps protect your home from catching fire—either from embers, direct flame contact or radiant heat. Proper defensible space also provides firefighters a safe area to work in, to defend your home.
Most of this developer-installed plant material has been in place for 15-20 years. The removal of Acacia redolens throughout Ladera Ranch is an ongoing multi-year project. A portion of your monthly reserve contribution funds the removal projects.
In addition to Defensible Space areas, priority has been given to those project locations that lie within the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones, as determined by Cal Fire. Field reviews are conducted with OCFA and a corrective plan is agreed upon and put into place, which often involves removing all the slope vegetation and then replanting.
More information regarding California’s Fire Hazard Severity Zones can be found at the Office of The State Fire Marshall’s website, at osfm.fire.ca.gov.
FUEL MODIFICATION ZONE
Apart from the project work to reduce vegetation in the Defensible Space areas, Ladera Ranch was developed with a Fuel Modification Zone that surrounds the entire community. This “Fuel Mod” is maintained throughout the entire year by LARMAC’s maintenance contractor, O’Connell Landscape Maintenance. The program focuses on numerous tasks through the different seasons to maintain noxious weed growth, control native vegetation, as well as maintenance pruning in the irrigated zones.
Working closely with OCFA throughout the year to ensure full compliance with the regulated standards is a top priority for LARMAC. With California experiencing longer wildfire seasons, the ongoing work throughout the year by LARMAC has never been more important than it is today.
For information on how to protect your home, visit readyforwildfire.org. For information about Cal Fire, visit fire.ca.gov
