Trinity County, CA Landscaping Rules: Grass Height Limits (2026)

Because all of Trinity County is unincorporated rural and timberland, there is no suburban-style 'mow your lawn to X inches' rule. The county instead regulates dry, flammable vegetation as a fire hazard. Trinity County Code Chapter 8.68 (the 'Vegetation Management Ordinance,' Ord. No. 1300, adopted 10-3-06) declares a public nuisance any 'accumulation of dry grasses or other flammable vegetation within one hundred feet of any occupied structure, as required by Public Resource Code Section 4291,' and within thirty feet of any aboveground flammable-liquid or combustible-gas vessel (§ 8.68.040). California PRC § 4291 separately requires 100 feet of defensible space around structures in State Responsibility Areas, and CAL FIRE guidance calls for annual grasses to be cut to a maximum of about four inches. The county code does not itself fix a numeric grass height; the operative standard is removing the dry-grass fire load rather than maintaining an ornamental turf height. Trinity County is a State Responsibility Area served largely by CAL FIRE, so the PRC § 4291 100-foot standard is the controlling clearance rule for most parcels.