Defensible Space & Fuel Reduction in Cutten, CA

Most of our Cutten jobs are exactly that: a big conifer in a small yard. Redwood limb weight over roofs, firs that have died back and need to come down in pieces, hedges and ornamentals overdue for shaping, and stumps from long-gone trees still owning a corner of the lawn.

How defensible space & fuel reduction goes in Cutten

Defensible space in Cutten is not a bare-dirt ring. Healthy coast redwood and Douglas fir with the lower limbs lifted and the duff pulled back stay. What goes is the dead material, the ladder of brush and low limbs, and the fuels that burn hottest: eucalyptus, broom, blackberry, and bay laurel stacked near a structure.

Cutten sits just inland of the bay fog, wet enough to grow second-growth redwood at full speed and windy enough in winter to test every heavy limb. The Cutten hazard is redwood limb weight over roofs and Douglas firs that have died back and need to come down in pieces between two houses. Cutten is fifteen minutes from our McKinleyville base and on the daily route through Eureka.

When Cutten homeowners call for defensible space & fuel reduction

• Brush, duff, or firewood stacked against the house, the deck, or an outbuilding.
• Coast redwood or Douglas fir limbs within reach of the roof, or young conifers growing thick under bigger trees.
• Eucalyptus, bay laurel, or coast redwood seedlings growing thick against a structure.
• A slope below the house near the Elk River side that has not been thinned in years.

Cutten and Ridgewood put full-size redwoods and firs inside small residential fence lines, sharing the yard with garages, decks, and swing sets, so nearly everything is rigged over a structure. Redwood roots crowd every Cutten yard, and a stump here is usually right against a driveway, a fence post, or a neighbor's lawn.

Working in Cutten

Working over houses without incident is a rigging discipline, and it is the part of the trade our climbers train hardest. Neighbors watch us work in Cutten a lot. We are fine with that.

Around Cutten that means Ridgewood, Walnut Drive, Cutten Elementary, Sequoia Park, and the properties between. Full-size redwoods and firs on small residential lots, technical rigging over structures.