Reimagining defensible space in Santa Barbara County, California

This project created science-informed recommendations on wildfire-centric plant maintenance, species selection, and placement. In collaboration with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (SBBG), the team conducted interviews to develop a list of native species for combustion testing. In addition, the team carried out combustion trials with plants from SBBG to understand the hydration-flammability response of various species when well-watered and drought-stressed. The results will be communicated with the public through signs and workshops at SBBG and published through UCANR to reach community stakeholders. This team hopes to scale up this work to the County level to inform policy decisions on plant selection and defensible space. Learn more from the team’s story map here.