Defensible Space Chipping Program
Empowering Shasta County To Reduce Wildfire Risks
Creating defensible space around your home helps safeguard your property from wildfire damage. The Shasta County Fire Safe Council offers a free chipping program to help residents safely dispose of brush and vegetation.
By participating in the program, you’re clearing your property and contributing to a safer Shasta County.
Are you a contractor interested in working with us on defensible space/fuel break and vegetation reduction projects?
How Does It Work?
Do you have low hanging or fallen branches, overgrown brush, or other vegetation that needs chipping?
Follow these simple steps to get started:
- Apply for the Program: Sign up to join the program. Once enrolled, you’ll be added to the schedule for your area.
- Prepare Your Piles: Stack your branches and brush according to the guidelines below. Proper preparation ensures safety and efficiency.
- Get Notified: You’ll receive a text or email when your chipping day is scheduled. Be sure to check your junk or spam folder!
- We Chip It: On the scheduled day, our crew will arrive to chip your piles. You don’t even need to be home.
Program Guidelines
To make sure your piles are chipped, please follow these important guidelines. If piles do not meet these requirements, our operators will leave the excess material unchipped.
Pile & Branch Size Requirements
- Maximum Pile Size: 8 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 10 feet deep.
- Maximum Branch Diameter: 8 inches.
- Minimum Branch Length: 3 feet.
- Minimum Pile Size: 2 feet wide, 2 feet high, and 3 feet deep.
- Maximum Number of Piles: 2 per property.
These guidelines exist to ensure safety, protect equipment, and comply with grant requirements. Failure to follow them may disqualify your piles from being chipped.
How To Stack Your Piles
- Neat Stacking: Align all cut ends in the same direction, facing the street or driveway where the chipper will operate.
- Loose Piles: Avoid compacting the material; loose piles are safer and easier to chip.
- Hand-Stacked Only: Piles must be stacked by hand. Machine-stacked piles (e.g., with a tractor) cannot be serviced.
- Accessible Location: Place piles where a truck can easily reach them.
- Level Ground: If on a slope, place piles on the uphill side of the road.
- Avoid Drainages: Do not place piles in ditches or culverts.
- Respect Contractor Time: Ensure your piles are ready and meet all requirements to help our team stay on schedule.
Materials We Cannot Chip
- Hazardous Plants: Oleander, poison oak, scotch broom, vines, or blackberries.
- Fibrous/Decaying Wood: Palm fronds, roots, or rotting wood.
- Small Debris: Pinecones, pine needles, leaves, yard clippings.
- Contaminants: Rocks, mud, metal, or any building materials.
- Oversized Materials: Branches larger than 8 inches in diameter or piles over 4 feet high.
- Short Pieces: Branches less than 3 feet long pose a safety risk to operators.
- Improperly Stacked Piles: Piles built over standing vegetation or compacted with machinery.
Program Benefits
The Shasta County Fire Safe Council’s chipping program is more than just a convenient way to clear vegetation — it’s a step toward a safer, more fire-resilient community.
- A Safer Alternative to Burning: Avoid the risks of escaped pile burns while improving air quality.
- A Cost-Effective Solution: Save on hauling expenses and keep green waste out of landfills.
- Proactive Wildfire Prevention: Incentivizes clearing hazardous vegetation and maintaining defensible space around your home.
Firewise Communities: Don’t forget — time spent preparing your piles can count as volunteer hours for your community!
For more information, contact Doug Young:
Email: doug.young@shastafiresafe.org
Phone: 530-360-0120
P.O. Box 338, Palo Cedro, CA 96073
The Shasta County Curbside Chipping program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment– particularly in disadvantaged communities. The Cap-and-Trade program also creates a financial incentive for industries to invest in clean technologies and develop innovative ways to reduce pollution. California Climate Investments projects include affordable housing, renewable energy, public transportation, zero-emission vehicles, environmental restoration, more sustainable agriculture, recycling, and much more. At least 35 percent of these investments are located within and benefiting residents of disadvantaged communities, low-income communities, and low-income households across California. For more information, visit the California Climate Investments website at: www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov.
