Coast Live Oak
(Editor’s note: I received the following letter from a resident that had some important landscaping tips for fires.)
Ours is one of the few houses still standing in the Alphabet streets.
I’m an architect and I built the house with fire resistance in mind. The materials I used include unpainted stucco, unpainted concrete block and stainless steel. There is a concrete ’skirt’ around most of the house. We have no open eaves.
I marvel over the fact that it didn’t burn, and wonder if in addition to the building materials, the landscaping significantly contributed to its survival.
You suggest that native plants are flammable, but there is actually a tree native to Los Angeles that is fire resistant. It’s the Coast Live Oak, quercus agrifolia. The mountains and valleys around Los Angeles used to be covered with these oaks. It’s said that a squirrel could traverse the San Fernando Valley without touching the ground by jumping from one tree to the next.
Most were cut down long ago to fire the kilns that made the bricks that the original city of Los Angeles was built with. I bemoan the fact that most people don’t realize how important these oaks are to our well-being.
They will stabilize a steep slope, flourish with little water and host all sorts of beneficial wildlife. Another tree that is fire resistant is the Auracaria heterophylia ’Norfolk Island Pine’ that is native to Australia. We have a mature coast live oak and a towering auracaria in our front yard. I believe they had a lot to do with stopping the fire. And amazingly, they’ve both been flourishing ever since January 7!
The aracauria withstood the 100 mile an hour firestorm winds, deflecting them away from our house. One last possible piece of the puzzle of why our house didn’t burn might have something to do with oxygen. We all know that fires need both fuel and oxygen to burn. Because the alphabet streets are relatively treeless due to smaller lots, the houses were like a box of candy for the fire. The trees on our property are large and they touch one another. This likely inhibited the available oxygen for the fire.
Simply put, Palisadians should be encouraged to plant coast live oaks widely and allow them to stretch their limbs tall and wide. And we shouldn’t stop at our properties. An oak tree planting initiative for the mountains this fall would be an excellent idea. The trees could begin to stabilize the hillsides in advance of next year’s rains.
Wendy Suhr
65 years ago my dad would collect acorns from the golf course and come home and scatter them around our newly built home in Pacific Palisades. There are 5 majestic oaks still standing guard over the home he built all those years ago. ‘The house survived fire.
Thank you for this!
Having gardeners come to unoccupied houses is not necessarily a great idea.
There is a tremendous amount of heavy equipment making it hard to access some neighborhoods. More trucks for non-essential services only make the situation more difficult. And please, please if your gardener comes tell them not to use blowers.
We saw a gardener in Marquez Knolls using a gas blower the last time we were at our house. Unbelievable.
This letter has immensely important information! Keep our trees and rebuild with fire resistance in mind.
Thank you, Wendy. I’m so pleased your house and trees survived. Very informative and helpful article. All the parkway trees that were destroyed should be replaced with live oaks.