Zone Zero – Enviro Updates

State approves ‘Zone Zero’ fire-safe landscaping rules

August 19, 2026

Noah Haggerty & Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES

After nearly six years of debate and backlash, California’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt new landscaping requirements within five feet of homes — an area dubbed “Zone Zero” — for millions of Californians living in fire-prone areas.

The rules ban all plants within a foot of the home and require the first five feet around homes to be free of combustible materials such as firewood, fallen leaves and branches, and mulch or wood chips. They also prohibit wooden sheds in the zone and wooden fences where attached to the house.

The new requirements apply only to Californians living in some of the worst fire hazard zones designated by Cal Fire — specifically, State Responsibility Areas and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in local responsibility areas, applying to an estimated 2 million homes. Local areas will have some flexibility to tailor the regulations to their communities.

After the formal rule-making process completes, most likely in September, Californians will have up to five years to comply. New constructions will have to adhere immediately.

Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable LivingCalifornia, wildfire hazard, wildland urban interface, Zone Zero

State forestry board new rules for California’s new ‘Zone Zero’ fire-safety proposal

April 23, 2026

Noah Haggerty, LOS ANGELES TIMES

CalFire Defensible Space webpage

After years of heated debates among fire officials, scientists and local advocates, California’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection released new proposed landscaping rules for fire-prone areas Friday that outline what residents can and can’t do within the first 5 feet of their homes.

Many of these proposed rules — designed to reduce the risk of a home burning down amid a wildfire — have wide support (or at least acceptance); however, the most contentious by far has been whether the state would allow healthy plants in the zone.

Many fire officials and safety advocates have essentially argued anything that can burn, will burn and have supported removing virtually anything capable of combustion from this zone within 5 feet of houses, dubbed “Zone Zero.” They point to the string of devastating urban wildfires in recent years as reason to move quickly.

Forests, Land UseCalifornia Board of Forestry, fire safety vegetation rules, Safety Zone, wildfires, Zone Zero

California again delays ‘zone zero’ wildfire protection rules for homes

December 10, 2025

Todd Woody, BLOOMBERG

A California state agency won’t meet Governor Gavin Newsom’s year-end deadline to finish long-delayed regulations to protect homes from wildfires, rules that experts say could have limited the destruction of the January Los Angeles firestorms.

At a meeting of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection on Monday, chair Terrence O’Brien said officials would wait until March 2026 to continue work on regulations to require ember-resistant zones, called Zone Zero, around some 2 million houses in high-risk wildfire areas. That means it could be mid-2029 or later before any mandate takes effect for existing homes.

O’Brien cited continued disagreement on how strictly to enforce the Zone Zero requirement to remove plants, wood fences and other combustible material within five feet of a home for the ongoing delays. A 2020 law enacted after a series of devastating wildfires originally mandated a January 2023 deadline to complete the regulations. “That continues to be the challenge we face,” he said at the meeting.

Land Usebuilding regulations, CalFire, California Board of Forestry, fire resilience, wildfire hazard, Zone Zero