Trees in the fire-safe landscape

摘要

On a hot, breezy, fall afternoon, a gardener leaves a weed cutter lying in the dry grass of a hillside neighborhood. He is only gone minutes when he looks back to see a wildfire, ignited from the hot engine's manifold, racing up the hill to houses perched above. As fire engines converge on the scene, the distant sound of chainsaws can be heard. Alarmed residents across the canyon hastily cut away branches and brush in a desperate attempt to clear decades of accumulated fuel. In one garden, a panickedhomeowner hacks at the spreading limbs of an old live oak. The massive branches crash to the ground. But the fire is moving too fast. The sheriff urges the owner to flee, leaving the oak limbs scattered across the grass. Days later, when the owner returns, the house is gone as are the fallen limbs, but the disfigured tree remains. He assumes the tree fed the fire and has it cut down. The oak was 176 years old.