LA Course #GCE-1-2302
Climate Change Tree Strategies
Edited by Richard W Gibney
Sections Go directly to the Section by clicking on the title below
Climate Change Tree Strategies
Edited by Richard W Gibney
Sections Go directly to the Section by clicking on the title below
Note: Click on green text in each section for more information and photos.
Climate Change Where You Live
Edited by Len Phillips
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that we are running out of time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet. These impacts include massive, costly and fatal flooding from storms, heat waves, high windstorms, wildfires, etc. Over the past 20 years, power outages have doubled, a result of more destructive storms and aging infrastructure, and a foreshadowing of what public agencies face as climate change becomes the new reality.
Local and state governments, still dealing with the changes brought about by the pandemic and facing the usual hurdles of limited revenue and slow-moving policy changes, are realizing that climate change is here and cities require immediate mitigation plans as officials shift attention to those immediate needs, they will find a variety of technologies designed for specific climate change scenarios, which vary greatly depending on geography, population, land use and other factors.
Thinking about climate change can easily lead to pessimism. The United States has some 38,000 general purpose local governments, many of them tiny agencies with scant resources in the best of times. How can such towns prepare for historic levels of flooding if they can barely afford a fire department?
For another example, a beach town must worry about the rising ocean, while some inland areas will suffer from catastrophic heat waves and summer storms. Everywhere communities are just starting to think about climate change and how it impacts them, while many other communities have been dealing with climate extremes for years.
To make matters worse, zealous tree planting efforts are being considered today as a major help for cooler cities and arborists must begin planning TODAY, for their tree planting programs in the coming years. The nursery industry is slowly gearing up to try to minimize the major shortage of trees expected to occur during the next 10 years.
Some examples of communities making plans for the future include:
• Ann Arbor, Michigan, the college town of 122,000 residents, developed a “climate emergency declaration” in 2019 and is working to make the city a net-zero producer of carbon. These efforts have included a host of municipal activities, including building affordable housing.
• Wellesley, Massachusetts, another college town with a population of 28,400 residents, has been ahead of
many other cities by annually funding the installation of at least 200 public shade trees every year since the
early 1960's.
• Boxford, Massachusetts along with many other smaller cities have assembled key citizen volunteers to
complete work on a Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2025 and 2030. Residents in this small country town of
8,300 people recently voted approval to begin implementation of this plan.
• Some more common actions from many cities include spending money and deploying technology to deal with
today’s climate change impacts rather than trying to reduce emissions and taking other steps meant as a long-
term brake on global warming.
In late 2021, FEMA awarded $171,700 to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety in the first “Building
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities” (BRIC) program grant award. The money will pay for updating hazard mitigation plans for the Minnesota counties of Jackson, Kittson, Marshall, Pope and Red Lake.
• BRIC grants are designed to “shift the federal focus away from reactive disaster spending and toward
research-supported, proactive investment in long-term local community resilience”.
• BRIC-funded projects have included relatively low-tech but vital work such as wetland restoration, raising
levees, and new flood pumps and electrical systems along with moving affordable housing away from flood
zones. Other projects ensure that hospitals are hooked up to reliable power grids. FEMA says BRIC will award
$1 billion in its second year, helping communities deal with the ongoing and looming impacts of climate
change.
People focused on those immediate impacts can also point to the latest proposed federal budget from the Biden administration, a spending plan the New York Times called “an extreme weather budget.” That proposal, announced in March 2022, included at least $1.8 billion for a Department of Agriculture program to make rural homes more resilient to climate change. This is another signal that at least some governmental thinking is shifting toward immediate needs.
But home upgrades will go only so far when it comes to planning needs for local and state governments. W. Craig Fugate, current Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said that grasping the complexities of climate change requires sophisticated software, machine learning and even artificial intelligence (AI) so that officials have a full picture of what is to come and can plan accordingly. Fugate said, “It’s no good if the hospital doesn’t flood but all the roads leading to it, do”.
When it comes to cutting-edge but relatively realistic technology that can help jurisdictions prepare for climate change, Fugate supports using AI in hazard risk modeling to help determine where and how to build before and redevelop after a disaster.
Such planning, however, is not just about structures or power grids and things. It’s about people: first responders and other members of the local workforce, for instance, or the service industry workers without whom a local economy cannot recover after a climatic disaster.
“Resiliency is not just about rebuilding,” Fugate said. “Stuff is great, but people are more important.” Already, he said, local and state governments are making use of GIS and mapping tools to display risk and lidar (light detection and ranging), a remote sensing method that when combined with other data generates precise, three-dimensional information to build high-resolution topographic maps, which he said are key for flood risk and recovery.
Preparing now for climate change involves more than digital maps and AI, however. Fugate is urging officials to consider bidirectional charging of electric vehicles, which can provide backup emergency power to residences and battery backup to the grid.
Other examples of mitigation technology come from a variety of sources in the U.S. and abroad. The high-tech, wealthy and equatorial country of Singapore, for instance, has produced an in-depth manual that offers guidance about how to ease some of the impacts that climate change will have on Singapore.
That manual serves almost as a preview of the technology that is sure to find its way to more than a few U.S. locations. It is especially useful for urban heat islands or places prone to flooding. For instance, it mentions water retentive and porous pavement systems, which include larger voids compared to conventional pavements. The voids allow water to flow into the ground or into water holding fillers. Retaining water can help store runoff and prevent flooding, provide ground water for trees and plant growth, and also enhance water evaporation which becomes a very important contributor to cooling.
Source
• Thad Rueter, “Building Resilient Cities That Are Ready for Climate Change”. Government Technologies.
June 2022
Climate Change Where You Live
Edited by Len Phillips
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that we are running out of time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet. These impacts include massive, costly and fatal flooding from storms, heat waves, high windstorms, wildfires, etc. Over the past 20 years, power outages have doubled, a result of more destructive storms and aging infrastructure, and a foreshadowing of what public agencies face as climate change becomes the new reality.
Local and state governments, still dealing with the changes brought about by the pandemic and facing the usual hurdles of limited revenue and slow-moving policy changes, are realizing that climate change is here and cities require immediate mitigation plans as officials shift attention to those immediate needs, they will find a variety of technologies designed for specific climate change scenarios, which vary greatly depending on geography, population, land use and other factors.
Thinking about climate change can easily lead to pessimism. The United States has some 38,000 general purpose local governments, many of them tiny agencies with scant resources in the best of times. How can such towns prepare for historic levels of flooding if they can barely afford a fire department?
For another example, a beach town must worry about the rising ocean, while some inland areas will suffer from catastrophic heat waves and summer storms. Everywhere communities are just starting to think about climate change and how it impacts them, while many other communities have been dealing with climate extremes for years.
To make matters worse, zealous tree planting efforts are being considered today as a major help for cooler cities and arborists must begin planning TODAY, for their tree planting programs in the coming years. The nursery industry is slowly gearing up to try to minimize the major shortage of trees expected to occur during the next 10 years.
Some examples of communities making plans for the future include:
• Ann Arbor, Michigan, the college town of 122,000 residents, developed a “climate emergency declaration” in 2019 and is working to make the city a net-zero producer of carbon. These efforts have included a host of municipal activities, including building affordable housing.
• Wellesley, Massachusetts, another college town with a population of 28,400 residents, has been ahead of
many other cities by annually funding the installation of at least 200 public shade trees every year since the
early 1960's.
• Boxford, Massachusetts along with many other smaller cities have assembled key citizen volunteers to
complete work on a Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2025 and 2030. Residents in this small country town of
8,300 people recently voted approval to begin implementation of this plan.
• Some more common actions from many cities include spending money and deploying technology to deal with
today’s climate change impacts rather than trying to reduce emissions and taking other steps meant as a long-
term brake on global warming.
In late 2021, FEMA awarded $171,700 to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety in the first “Building
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities” (BRIC) program grant award. The money will pay for updating hazard mitigation plans for the Minnesota counties of Jackson, Kittson, Marshall, Pope and Red Lake.
• BRIC grants are designed to “shift the federal focus away from reactive disaster spending and toward
research-supported, proactive investment in long-term local community resilience”.
• BRIC-funded projects have included relatively low-tech but vital work such as wetland restoration, raising
levees, and new flood pumps and electrical systems along with moving affordable housing away from flood
zones. Other projects ensure that hospitals are hooked up to reliable power grids. FEMA says BRIC will award
$1 billion in its second year, helping communities deal with the ongoing and looming impacts of climate
change.
People focused on those immediate impacts can also point to the latest proposed federal budget from the Biden administration, a spending plan the New York Times called “an extreme weather budget.” That proposal, announced in March 2022, included at least $1.8 billion for a Department of Agriculture program to make rural homes more resilient to climate change. This is another signal that at least some governmental thinking is shifting toward immediate needs.
But home upgrades will go only so far when it comes to planning needs for local and state governments. W. Craig Fugate, current Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said that grasping the complexities of climate change requires sophisticated software, machine learning and even artificial intelligence (AI) so that officials have a full picture of what is to come and can plan accordingly. Fugate said, “It’s no good if the hospital doesn’t flood but all the roads leading to it, do”.
When it comes to cutting-edge but relatively realistic technology that can help jurisdictions prepare for climate change, Fugate supports using AI in hazard risk modeling to help determine where and how to build before and redevelop after a disaster.
Such planning, however, is not just about structures or power grids and things. It’s about people: first responders and other members of the local workforce, for instance, or the service industry workers without whom a local economy cannot recover after a climatic disaster.
“Resiliency is not just about rebuilding,” Fugate said. “Stuff is great, but people are more important.” Already, he said, local and state governments are making use of GIS and mapping tools to display risk and lidar (light detection and ranging), a remote sensing method that when combined with other data generates precise, three-dimensional information to build high-resolution topographic maps, which he said are key for flood risk and recovery.
Preparing now for climate change involves more than digital maps and AI, however. Fugate is urging officials to consider bidirectional charging of electric vehicles, which can provide backup emergency power to residences and battery backup to the grid.
Other examples of mitigation technology come from a variety of sources in the U.S. and abroad. The high-tech, wealthy and equatorial country of Singapore, for instance, has produced an in-depth manual that offers guidance about how to ease some of the impacts that climate change will have on Singapore.
That manual serves almost as a preview of the technology that is sure to find its way to more than a few U.S. locations. It is especially useful for urban heat islands or places prone to flooding. For instance, it mentions water retentive and porous pavement systems, which include larger voids compared to conventional pavements. The voids allow water to flow into the ground or into water holding fillers. Retaining water can help store runoff and prevent flooding, provide ground water for trees and plant growth, and also enhance water evaporation which becomes a very important contributor to cooling.
Source
• Thad Rueter, “Building Resilient Cities That Are Ready for Climate Change”. Government Technologies.
June 2022
Responding to Wildfires
Edited by Len Phillips
In response to a major wildfire that wiped out much of the town, Paradise, California is imagining a safer and more sustainable future with a design that buffers the town with parks, athletic fields, and orchards—areas less likely to burn than the former forests.
Three and a half years after the deadliest wildfire in California history destroyed the small town of Paradise, residents are slowly rebuilding. By the third anniversary of the fire, more than 1,000 homes out of the 14,000 homes that were destroyed have been rebuilt. By the end of this year, the town expects that 10,000 of the 40,000 people who were displaced will have moved back into new housing in Paradise. But, as climate change continues to increase the risk of megafires, the town is now also creating protections from future fire catastrophes.
A landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm, is working with town leaders to build a 90,000-acre buffer zone around the entire town to isolate and slow the spread of future fires. The design proposes surrounding the town with new parks, athletic fields, orchards, and other amenities that are less likely to burn than forests, are to be built in the buffer zone. The design carefully considers current land uses, ownership, and fire risk. Trees and shrubs would be cleared along an electric transmission corridor in an area that will become a bike trail. Sheep will also graze in the buffer zone area to reduce dry grass and vegetation regrowth that can burn.
Controlled fires designed to reduce fire fuel will also take place in the buffer zone, with the existing roads and other barriers used as fire breaks. The surviving forests will be selectively thinned to further reduce risk. More recreation for visitors and residents will be added to enhance a land use that the community depends on for the local economy. In an outer zone, fires would be allowed and controlled to burn naturally as a way to eliminate fire fuel.
Because Paradise is a community that is coming out of a trauma, these plans will illustrate how the changes will happen in ways that feel natural to the residents. These ideas are not necessarily radical. They are very innovative and do not necessarily call for a wholesale, radical change to the community. The Parks and Recreation Department has already started acquiring land for the buffer zone around the town. They are using funds from the settlement that Paradise received from the electric utility responsible for the last fire.
Communities in other at-risk areas could apply the same fire-mitigation approaches. A quarter of California’s population lives in the wildland-urban interface where the fire danger is high. Many residents are still just at the edge of learning how to live with fire. One of the things that this project attempts to do is to begin to encourage Californians and others, to act in terms of how to identify the technical and ideological actions needed in order to respond to the ever-present and constantly accelerating challenges of climate change in the American West.”
Source
• Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company, “A Smarter Urban Design Concept for a Town Decimated
by Wildfires”, 05-03-22
Edited by Len Phillips
In response to a major wildfire that wiped out much of the town, Paradise, California is imagining a safer and more sustainable future with a design that buffers the town with parks, athletic fields, and orchards—areas less likely to burn than the former forests.
Three and a half years after the deadliest wildfire in California history destroyed the small town of Paradise, residents are slowly rebuilding. By the third anniversary of the fire, more than 1,000 homes out of the 14,000 homes that were destroyed have been rebuilt. By the end of this year, the town expects that 10,000 of the 40,000 people who were displaced will have moved back into new housing in Paradise. But, as climate change continues to increase the risk of megafires, the town is now also creating protections from future fire catastrophes.
A landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm, is working with town leaders to build a 90,000-acre buffer zone around the entire town to isolate and slow the spread of future fires. The design proposes surrounding the town with new parks, athletic fields, orchards, and other amenities that are less likely to burn than forests, are to be built in the buffer zone. The design carefully considers current land uses, ownership, and fire risk. Trees and shrubs would be cleared along an electric transmission corridor in an area that will become a bike trail. Sheep will also graze in the buffer zone area to reduce dry grass and vegetation regrowth that can burn.
Controlled fires designed to reduce fire fuel will also take place in the buffer zone, with the existing roads and other barriers used as fire breaks. The surviving forests will be selectively thinned to further reduce risk. More recreation for visitors and residents will be added to enhance a land use that the community depends on for the local economy. In an outer zone, fires would be allowed and controlled to burn naturally as a way to eliminate fire fuel.
Because Paradise is a community that is coming out of a trauma, these plans will illustrate how the changes will happen in ways that feel natural to the residents. These ideas are not necessarily radical. They are very innovative and do not necessarily call for a wholesale, radical change to the community. The Parks and Recreation Department has already started acquiring land for the buffer zone around the town. They are using funds from the settlement that Paradise received from the electric utility responsible for the last fire.
Communities in other at-risk areas could apply the same fire-mitigation approaches. A quarter of California’s population lives in the wildland-urban interface where the fire danger is high. Many residents are still just at the edge of learning how to live with fire. One of the things that this project attempts to do is to begin to encourage Californians and others, to act in terms of how to identify the technical and ideological actions needed in order to respond to the ever-present and constantly accelerating challenges of climate change in the American West.”
Source
• Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company, “A Smarter Urban Design Concept for a Town Decimated
by Wildfires”, 05-03-22
Fire-Resistant Trees
Edited by Len Phillips
Fire-resistant trees are those that do not readily ignite from a flame or other ignition sources. Their foliage and trunks do not significantly contribute to fuel and the fire's intensity.
Some Characteristics of Fire-Resistant Trees
• High-water content in their bark and leaves
• Large thick leaves
• Produce less wax, resin, or oil compared to most trees
• Thin sap and do not have a strong smell
• Can be damaged or killed by a wildfire, but their bark and foliage burn slower and can reduce the speed
at which a fire intensifies
The Best Fire-Resistant Trees
Ranked in approximate order of fire resistance.
1. Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) is an evergreen oak. It is native from California south to Baja, Mexico. It is
also called the California Live Oak or Holm Oak. It is a highly variable and often a shrubby evergreen oak
tree. It typically has a multi-branched trunk and reaches a mature height of 33 to 82 feet (11-25m). Some of
these trees are more than 250 years old, with trunk diameters up to 13 feet (4m). Older trees often have
highly contorted, massive and gnarled trunks.
2. Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) has thick bark and large leathery leaves which are glossy and resistant to
heat and drought and are slow to burn. The Bur Oak is generally considered to be an excellent pest free low-
maintenance, long-lived deciduous tree with a deep root system. Quercus macrocarpa has a massive trunk
and branches covered in a thick gray-brown bark that becomes very deeply ridged and furrowed with age.
3. Flowering Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is native to southeastern Europe, particularly the
Balkan mixed forests. This tree can grow to well over 100 feet (32m) in height. But it’s also widely cultivated in
temperate climates throughout the world. The fruits, bark and leaves have a high-water content. The Flowering
Horse-Chestnut is sometimes called Horse-Chestnut, European Horse-Chestnut, Buckeye, Spanish Chestnut,
and Conker tree. It is called a “Conker tree” because its round, hard seeds have traditionally been used by
British children to play a game called “conkers”. In the game, each child has a conker seed on the end of a
string and takes turns trying to break another child's seeds with it. Every October the world Conker
championships are held in the village of Ashton, England.
4. Japanese Elm (Ulmus davidiana var. japonica) is one of the larger and more graceful elms. Native to Asia, its
size and shape is extremely variable. For instance, it can be a short tree with a densely branched broad crown
or it can be tall and single-trunked with a narrow crown. This tree prefers moist, well-drained loams which
provides it with its fire resistance. The Japanese Elm is widely planted in Japan as a street tree. It was
introduced into the United States in 1895. The tree can grow up to 40 feet (13m) tall. The tree is also resistant
to the elm leaf beetle and has a low to moderate resistance to Dutch elm disease.
5. American Mountain-ash (Sorbus americana) is a relatively small tree, only reaching a height of 15-20 ft., (3-
7m) but it can reach 30 feet (9m) in favorable places. It is native to Eastern North America, although the
largest specimens can usually be found around the Great Lakes region. The Mountain Ash’s scattered
flower clusters yield colorful hanging fruits, which are a treat for birds. The abundance of long-lasting juicy
fruits give the tree its fire resistance. The emerald ash borer does not attack the American Mountain Ash, as it
is in a different genus from the other ash (Fraxinus) trees.
6. Southern Magnolia or Bull Bay (Magnolia grandiflora) is native to the southeastern United States, from coastal North Carolina to central Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma. Its hard, heavy timber is used to
make furniture, pallets and veneer. Its fire resistance comes from its hard wood that burns very slowly if at all.
These giants typically grow to over 100 ft (30m) tall. Today, the largest specimen is currently standing in Smith
County, Mississippi, at 121 ft (39.5m).
7. Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), is also known as the Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, Western Yellow-pine, or
Filipinus pine. It suffers virtually no crown damage during less intense fires. This is because it sheds the lower,
vulnerable branches as it matures. The tree is native to the western United States and Canada, and the most
widely distributed pine species in North America. Montana has selected Ponderosa Pine as the state tree. It
typically grows to a height of about 100 ft (30m). However, in January of 2011, researchers measured a Pacific
Ponderosa Pine in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest of Oregon to be a whopping 268 feet (80m) high.
8. Baobab Tree (Adansonia sp.) has one of the most fire-resistant woods of all tree species. The Baobab is also
known as the "upside down tree". It can grow to be nearly 100 feet (30m) tall. It is the Baobab’s bulk and
stature that is so astonishing. Many have trunks 30 feet (9m) in diameter. The tree is native to Madagascar,
mainland Africa and Australia. Trees have also been introduced to other regions. However, the South African
species is the largest and oldest, (reportedly more than 6,000 years old.) The naturally occurring hollowed-out
tree trunks are often used as tourist attractions and tourist businesses.
9. Beech (Fagus grandifolia), commonly known as the American Beech or North American Beech. These trees
have glossy dark green leaves that change to a bronze color and produce edible beechnuts in autumn. It is an
ornamental tree that is also great for providing shade. The Beech tree requires low to medium amounts of
water and is slow growing. American Beech is a large, graceful native tree, excellent for large, park-like
landscapes where it has room to spread its wide, low-growing branches. They can get up to 50ft – 70ft (15-
22m) tall and spread 35ft – 40ft (11-12m) wide. The smooth bark is resistant to fire.
10. The Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) tree is an ornamental favorite in many urban areas around the
world. It features lustrous dark green leaves that turn a beautiful bright red and orange color in autumn. They
produce green flowers in the spring and small fruits that turn red when they ripen in autumn. The Chinese
Pistache tree can grow 25ft –35ft (8-11m) tall and spread 25ft – 35ft (8-11m) when fully matured. This species
is planted as a street tree in temperate areas worldwide due to its attractive fruit and autumn foliage. They
require low-watering and full sun exposure, making them very fire, drought and heat tolerant.
11. Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) has plump pine needles that do not dry out when the tree
sheds them. Instead, they amass on the ground around the tree, trapping water. The most amazingly fire-
resistant tree of all time was discovered as recently as 2012. That’s when a plot of land in Spain which had
originally been used to study a deadly tree pathogen burned to the ground. But then among the ash emerged
a promising patch of green. Could Mediterranean Cypress trees be planted in wildfire-prone areas as
firebreaks to protect local trees? The research continues. This tree grows 65 – 100 ft (20-30 m) in height.
12. Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) has very thick, fire-resistant bark. It is an eastern North American pine. Its native
range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to
Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Also known as Gray Pine, it grows to 55 - 75 ft (17–24m) tall.
13. Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is the sole living species in the genus and one of three species
of coniferous trees known as Redwoods. Giant Sequoias are among the oldest living organisms on Earth and
are the verified third longest-lived tree species. They grow to a height of 165-280 ft (50–85 m) and have very
thick, fire-resistant bark.
14. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus species) utilize tall crowns in order to keep flammable leaves and dead branches
high from the ground and away from fire. Eucalyptus is a fast-growing evergreen tree native to Australia. As
an ingredient in many products, it is used to reduce symptoms of coughs and colds.
15. Pine (Pinus species) utilize tall crowns in order to keep flammable leaves and dead branches high from the
ground and away from fire. During the blaze, pinecone spines act as a fire-resistant shell to protect seeds.
Pine is one of the more extensively used types of wood used as lumber. They can grow to a height of 150 –
210 ft (45-70m).
Year-round tree care and vegetation management are essential to maintaining a defensible space on properties that need protection from fire.
Sources:
• Urban Tree Farm Nursery, “Fire Resistant Trees”, 2019
• Vintage Tree Care, “The Best Fire-Resistant Trees to Plant to Create a Defensible Space”, Tree Care, Dec 9,
2021
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Edited by Len Phillips
Fire-resistant trees are those that do not readily ignite from a flame or other ignition sources. Their foliage and trunks do not significantly contribute to fuel and the fire's intensity.
Some Characteristics of Fire-Resistant Trees
• High-water content in their bark and leaves
• Large thick leaves
• Produce less wax, resin, or oil compared to most trees
• Thin sap and do not have a strong smell
• Can be damaged or killed by a wildfire, but their bark and foliage burn slower and can reduce the speed
at which a fire intensifies
The Best Fire-Resistant Trees
Ranked in approximate order of fire resistance.
1. Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) is an evergreen oak. It is native from California south to Baja, Mexico. It is
also called the California Live Oak or Holm Oak. It is a highly variable and often a shrubby evergreen oak
tree. It typically has a multi-branched trunk and reaches a mature height of 33 to 82 feet (11-25m). Some of
these trees are more than 250 years old, with trunk diameters up to 13 feet (4m). Older trees often have
highly contorted, massive and gnarled trunks.
2. Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) has thick bark and large leathery leaves which are glossy and resistant to
heat and drought and are slow to burn. The Bur Oak is generally considered to be an excellent pest free low-
maintenance, long-lived deciduous tree with a deep root system. Quercus macrocarpa has a massive trunk
and branches covered in a thick gray-brown bark that becomes very deeply ridged and furrowed with age.
3. Flowering Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is native to southeastern Europe, particularly the
Balkan mixed forests. This tree can grow to well over 100 feet (32m) in height. But it’s also widely cultivated in
temperate climates throughout the world. The fruits, bark and leaves have a high-water content. The Flowering
Horse-Chestnut is sometimes called Horse-Chestnut, European Horse-Chestnut, Buckeye, Spanish Chestnut,
and Conker tree. It is called a “Conker tree” because its round, hard seeds have traditionally been used by
British children to play a game called “conkers”. In the game, each child has a conker seed on the end of a
string and takes turns trying to break another child's seeds with it. Every October the world Conker
championships are held in the village of Ashton, England.
4. Japanese Elm (Ulmus davidiana var. japonica) is one of the larger and more graceful elms. Native to Asia, its
size and shape is extremely variable. For instance, it can be a short tree with a densely branched broad crown
or it can be tall and single-trunked with a narrow crown. This tree prefers moist, well-drained loams which
provides it with its fire resistance. The Japanese Elm is widely planted in Japan as a street tree. It was
introduced into the United States in 1895. The tree can grow up to 40 feet (13m) tall. The tree is also resistant
to the elm leaf beetle and has a low to moderate resistance to Dutch elm disease.
5. American Mountain-ash (Sorbus americana) is a relatively small tree, only reaching a height of 15-20 ft., (3-
7m) but it can reach 30 feet (9m) in favorable places. It is native to Eastern North America, although the
largest specimens can usually be found around the Great Lakes region. The Mountain Ash’s scattered
flower clusters yield colorful hanging fruits, which are a treat for birds. The abundance of long-lasting juicy
fruits give the tree its fire resistance. The emerald ash borer does not attack the American Mountain Ash, as it
is in a different genus from the other ash (Fraxinus) trees.
6. Southern Magnolia or Bull Bay (Magnolia grandiflora) is native to the southeastern United States, from coastal North Carolina to central Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma. Its hard, heavy timber is used to
make furniture, pallets and veneer. Its fire resistance comes from its hard wood that burns very slowly if at all.
These giants typically grow to over 100 ft (30m) tall. Today, the largest specimen is currently standing in Smith
County, Mississippi, at 121 ft (39.5m).
7. Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), is also known as the Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, Western Yellow-pine, or
Filipinus pine. It suffers virtually no crown damage during less intense fires. This is because it sheds the lower,
vulnerable branches as it matures. The tree is native to the western United States and Canada, and the most
widely distributed pine species in North America. Montana has selected Ponderosa Pine as the state tree. It
typically grows to a height of about 100 ft (30m). However, in January of 2011, researchers measured a Pacific
Ponderosa Pine in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest of Oregon to be a whopping 268 feet (80m) high.
8. Baobab Tree (Adansonia sp.) has one of the most fire-resistant woods of all tree species. The Baobab is also
known as the "upside down tree". It can grow to be nearly 100 feet (30m) tall. It is the Baobab’s bulk and
stature that is so astonishing. Many have trunks 30 feet (9m) in diameter. The tree is native to Madagascar,
mainland Africa and Australia. Trees have also been introduced to other regions. However, the South African
species is the largest and oldest, (reportedly more than 6,000 years old.) The naturally occurring hollowed-out
tree trunks are often used as tourist attractions and tourist businesses.
9. Beech (Fagus grandifolia), commonly known as the American Beech or North American Beech. These trees
have glossy dark green leaves that change to a bronze color and produce edible beechnuts in autumn. It is an
ornamental tree that is also great for providing shade. The Beech tree requires low to medium amounts of
water and is slow growing. American Beech is a large, graceful native tree, excellent for large, park-like
landscapes where it has room to spread its wide, low-growing branches. They can get up to 50ft – 70ft (15-
22m) tall and spread 35ft – 40ft (11-12m) wide. The smooth bark is resistant to fire.
10. The Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) tree is an ornamental favorite in many urban areas around the
world. It features lustrous dark green leaves that turn a beautiful bright red and orange color in autumn. They
produce green flowers in the spring and small fruits that turn red when they ripen in autumn. The Chinese
Pistache tree can grow 25ft –35ft (8-11m) tall and spread 25ft – 35ft (8-11m) when fully matured. This species
is planted as a street tree in temperate areas worldwide due to its attractive fruit and autumn foliage. They
require low-watering and full sun exposure, making them very fire, drought and heat tolerant.
11. Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) has plump pine needles that do not dry out when the tree
sheds them. Instead, they amass on the ground around the tree, trapping water. The most amazingly fire-
resistant tree of all time was discovered as recently as 2012. That’s when a plot of land in Spain which had
originally been used to study a deadly tree pathogen burned to the ground. But then among the ash emerged
a promising patch of green. Could Mediterranean Cypress trees be planted in wildfire-prone areas as
firebreaks to protect local trees? The research continues. This tree grows 65 – 100 ft (20-30 m) in height.
12. Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) has very thick, fire-resistant bark. It is an eastern North American pine. Its native
range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to
Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Also known as Gray Pine, it grows to 55 - 75 ft (17–24m) tall.
13. Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is the sole living species in the genus and one of three species
of coniferous trees known as Redwoods. Giant Sequoias are among the oldest living organisms on Earth and
are the verified third longest-lived tree species. They grow to a height of 165-280 ft (50–85 m) and have very
thick, fire-resistant bark.
14. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus species) utilize tall crowns in order to keep flammable leaves and dead branches
high from the ground and away from fire. Eucalyptus is a fast-growing evergreen tree native to Australia. As
an ingredient in many products, it is used to reduce symptoms of coughs and colds.
15. Pine (Pinus species) utilize tall crowns in order to keep flammable leaves and dead branches high from the
ground and away from fire. During the blaze, pinecone spines act as a fire-resistant shell to protect seeds.
Pine is one of the more extensively used types of wood used as lumber. They can grow to a height of 150 –
210 ft (45-70m).
Year-round tree care and vegetation management are essential to maintaining a defensible space on properties that need protection from fire.
Sources:
• Urban Tree Farm Nursery, “Fire Resistant Trees”, 2019
• Vintage Tree Care, “The Best Fire-Resistant Trees to Plant to Create a Defensible Space”, Tree Care, Dec 9,
2021
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