Yuba County, CA Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

Eastern Yuba County (Dobbins, Camptonville, Brownsville, Oregon House and surrounding foothills) lies in the State Responsibility Area where CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit provides wildland fire protection. California Public Resources Code section 4291 requires every person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous, forest-, brush-, or grass-covered SRA - or land within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone in a Local Responsibility Area - to maintain defensible space of 100 feet (or to the property line) around the structure. CAL FIRE's defensible space guidance breaks the 100 feet into zones: Zone 0, the ember-resistant zone (the first 5 feet around the structure), should have all vegetation and combustible materials removed; Zone 1 (5-30 feet) must be kept 'lean, clean and green' with dead plants, leaves, and pine needles removed and tree branches spaced; and Zone 2 (30-100 feet) is a reduced-fuel zone where grass should be mowed to a maximum height of about 4 inches and brush and trees thinned for horizontal and vertical spacing. CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit conducts defensible space inspections. Independently, dry weeds, overgrown vegetation, and accumulations of combustible material on a parcel can be declared a public nuisance under the Yuba County property maintenance ordinance (Title VII, Health and Sanitation, Chapter 7.36), which the county can abate. Yuba County also has adopted Fire Safe Regulations (Title XI, Chapter 11.52) addressing road, water-supply, and vegetation standards in fire-hazard areas.