Wildfire can actually bring renewal to your Eastern Foothills property IF you can keep it from turning your trees into charred ruins, which is not as difficult as you might imagine.

Contrary to popular belief, pine and fir are both quite resistant to wildfire, the older the more so, if you set them up to prevent crowning during an event, which primarily involves the removal of certain combustibles from beneath, as well as pruning and thinning.

We specialize in handling the most difficult and hazardous phase of that undertaking easily and reasonably, which is the removal of lower conifer branches to a height that will prevent ground source tree ignition during a wildfire - up to 30 feet.

You may not be able to stop an advancing grass fire, but a grass fire in the absence of intermediate fuels doesn't burn hot enough to cause the ignition of properly pruned and healthy conifer trees. Deadwood standing or otherwise, greasewood and sage are the most volatile of wildland intermediate fuels.

Topography, residual soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric stability all play a role in wildfire behavior, and so also should guide your effort to minimize its primary long term adverse effect on your property.

Free Consultations for Chelan, Washington and surrounding area landowners.
Contact Wildfire Mitigation Services @ 509-682-6229 or 509-679-6840
or send e-mail to:   axman@skylightcompany>>>dot<<<com

Why 30 feet?

While there may be no such thing as 100% "fire safe", there is what we like to call "impact minimization" and the choices about how best to achieve it on your property are yours of course, but we're happy to make recommendations and our general motto will always be : "higher is better".

30 feet isn't carved in stone; it's just the maximum we're set up to climb efficiently. We can certainly go higher but it gets a bit more costly with arguably negligible gain, however there are some circumstances which may justify it, an example being a very large tree on a steep slope with more intermediate fuels in proximity than can be easily removed.

Assuming a normal snowpack on any given year, a north facing slope will retain more soil moisture into the summer months and hence generally have more and healthier trees on them.  They are however not exempt from drought conditions and the longer such conditions persist, the more subject they become to the potential for a firestorm due to higher tree density.  Firestorms are driven by wind and so the potential for wind must be a consideration in wildfire mitigation planning.

On moderately unstable days such as when you notice clouds that resemble giant cotton balls, a wildfire flame front can easily generate it's own wind even though things are otherwise relatively calm everywhere around it.  It is for this reason that one of the first things we look for is how to create a crown break between you and your neighbors, particularly if they have not undertaken any mitigation efforts of their own.

On really unstable days such as when thunderstorms are developing rapidly and lightning bolts are flying about by early afternoon, a wildfire flame front can spontaneously erupt into a particularly vicious beast and can even take the form of a tornado of fire, another reason "higher is better".  It will be on just such days that the ignition source commonly known as "dry lightning" is a strong possibility.

Conversely, when the atmosphere is very stable, certain topographical features can become collection pockets of combustible gases in smoke which can ignite and burn explosively, that scenario being one of the primary reasons I say there is no such thing as "100% wildfire safe".  There simply are no shortages of circumstance, which warrant heeding an evacuation notice if fire is bearing down on you.

However, the removal of volatile fuels and low hanging branches can dramatically alter the impact of even the most extreme wildfire event on your property.  Properly mitigated landscapes will even benefit in a variety of ways, not the least of which will be live trees as opposed to charred ruins.  Consultations on this subject cost absolutely nothing for Chelan area landowners.  Give us a call anytime...

What It Costs...

We charge a flat rate of $1.25 per foot all the way up to 30 feet at any site in Chelan or Okanogan County with reasonable access regardless of tree size or degree of difficulty.

All climbing is accomplished using rock climbing equipment and there are no spurs or ladders involved which means no tree damage and no foolishness. We're just as happy to come out for one tree as five hundred, always alcohol & drug free, and ready to work.  Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.     Axman Junior

Wildfire Mitigation services all of North Central Washington including Wenatchee, Cashmere, Leavenworth, Entiat,
Chelan, Manson, Pateros, Winthrop, Twisp, Omak, Okanogan, Brewster, Bridgeport, and places in between.