This year it is painfully obvious that understory plants, eg. ashe juniper, have been major contributors to wildfires in the west and southwest. How many news broadcasts have you heard or seen where homes are destroyed as a result of wildfires getting out of control. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma have been extremely hard hit. The natural oils that are part of the makeup of ashe juniper (aka, mountain cedar) makes it a very flammable plant and firemen call it a Firebomb!. The ashe juniper’s prevalence in suburban and undeveloped land adds to the danger to ranchers and homeowners. Read further in this section to get more information to protect your property.

A great resource for better understanding what you can do to stay ahead of fire hazards in the landscape is provided by this site: Firewise.org Firewise will give you fire management advice for all geographies and landscapes. An excellent site.