Pebble Beach steps up to reduce wildfires in its forests. Meanwhile in P.G. Washington Park the dead trees and weeds pile up.
Fire requires fuel to survive. For wildfires, this comes in the form of natural materials that burn, such as dead trees, fallen branches, shrubs and dry grasses. The District uses several methods to remove fuel sources that would otherwise stoke a fire.
Heavy equipment, called masticators, provides mechanical fuel reduction, removing and grinding heavy debris such as dead or fallen trees. Toppled trees are particularly common after major storms and form flammable pathways for fires to travel long distances.
Hand crews then clear vegetation known as ladder fuel, which forms a vertical path for fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. The resulting canopy fires burn hotter and spread faster than other types of fires, making them especially difficult to contain. By removing these fuels, crews remove a fire’s ladder to the canopy and keep flames closer to the ground. “We’ve taken them down to a couple feet. That’s our goal because those are easy to get,” says Trenner.