Darnell Tolliver
Owner and crew lead
Leads the first walk on most jobs and draws the map. Plans the crew's order of work, from the wall outward.
Santa Rosa and Sonoma County
Start at the wall. Work out to the hill.
We clear, thin and replant the ground around homes in Sonoma County's fire country, one ring at a time. Each ring is marked on a map of your lot before we start.
- Written scope with photos of each zone
- Site walk before any number
- English and Spanish
The three zones
Three rings around the house
Fire agencies describe the land around a home in rings. We work the same way, from the wall outward, and mark each ring on a map of your lot.
Zone 0 · 0 to 5 feetAgainst the house
This is where embers land and sit. Wood mulch, dry leaves and shrubs under windows give them something to hold.
Gravel, pavers or bare ground at the walls
No wood mulch, no shrubs under windows
Needles and leaves cleared from roof edges and gutters
Zone 1 · 5 to 30 feetLow, spaced and watered
Plants stay, but in islands with room between them and well away from the eaves.
Low plants grouped in islands, with gaps
Dead stems and dry grass cut out
Tree limbs pruned up off the ground
Zone 2 · 30 to 100 feetThinned, not cleared
Out at the edge of the lot the job is to break up fuel so a fire can't run through it in one piece.
Dead brush and fallen limbs removed
Trees and shrubs thinned so fire can't climb
Chipped on site or hauled to a green-waste site
These are the common distances. Your fire district and county set the rules for your lot, and we read them with you at the site walk.
Ladder fuels
Fire climbs what's connected. We break the chain.
Dry grass catches a shrub, the shrub catches a low limb, and the limb carries it into the crown. We separate the three.
Lower limbs pruned up by a climber on a rope, never from a ladder with a saw
Shrubs moved or removed from under the trees
Brush cut and chipped, then spread thin where your fire district allows, or hauled away
The short list
What we won't do
Wildfire work attracts big promises. Ours are small and we keep them.
Promise a fireproof house
No planting or clearing does that. We tell you what we changed and what's still there.
Run power tools on red flag days
On a red flag warning, or a hot, dry, windy afternoon, mowers and saws stay on the truck. We move the visit.
Strip your lot bare
Thinning keeps the trees that shade the ground and hold the hillside. We don't clear-cut to tick a box.
Cut a protected tree without checking
Cities and the county protect some native oaks and trees beside creeks. We check first and tell you what needs a permit.
Speak for your insurer
We can't say what your insurer will do. Ask what it needs to see, and we'll write the scope and photos to match.
Leave a brush pile at the fence
A pile is fuel. Brush is chipped and spread where your district allows, or it leaves with us.
How pricing works
What moves the price on a defensible-space job
Every lot is different, so we don't print a total here. These are the parts of the number, in the order people ask.
What decides the price
Mostly area, slope and how thick the brush is. Trees, access for the chipper and where the debris goes come next.
What the estimate includes, and what it doesn't
A map of the lot, a line for each zone, labor, chipping or haul-away and cleanup. Permit fees and tree removals needing a permit are listed apart.
What happens at the site walk
We walk each ring with you, measure, photograph and ask what you want to keep.
When you get the number
In writing after the walk, with a price for each zone. We don't quote from a photo or over the phone.
The full list is on the pricing page.
Who comes to the walk
Three people you'll meet, and the crew behind them
Ten people work here. Odalys, who schedules visits and writes the estimates, speaks Spanish; so do some on the crew.
Thea Lindqvist
Planting and zone design
Plans the plants for zones 0 and 1: low, spaced and watered, from the lists the county and fire district publish.
Winston Ransom
Climber and pruning lead
Leads the limbing. Limbs above reach come down on a rope and harness, never from a ladder with a saw.
From homeowners
What people wrote after the work
“Darnell walked every ring with me and marked the map in pencil. I knew what would go before anyone started a saw, and the chips were gone by the end of the week.”
Greta S.Fountaingrove
“They took the wood mulch from along my deck and laid gravel to the sill. Thea told me which of my old shrubs could stay if I moved them out from under the eaves.”
Everett K.Bennett Valley
“My insurer asked for photos of the work. The scope came with dated pictures of each zone and I sent them. They never said it would change my policy, and I don't know that it did.”
Tamsin R.Larkfield
Sample reviews.
Service area
Sonoma County, and over the ridge into Napa
Hillside and rural lots from Cloverdale to Kenwood and the Russian River, and the Napa side of the Mayacamas.
Sonoma County
- Fountaingrove
- Bennett Valley
- Rincon Valley
- Skyhawk
- Larkfield-Wikiup
- Healdsburg
- Geyserville
- Cloverdale
- Guerneville
- Forestville
- Occidental
- Glen Ellen
- Kenwood
- Oakmont
Napa County
- Napa
- Calistoga
- St. Helena
We don't take jobs in Marin, Mendocino or Lake counties, or on commercial timberland or vineyards.
ZIP codes: 95401, 95403, 95404, 95405, 95409, 95448, 95425, 95441, 95446, 95436, 95433, 95442, 95452, 95476, 94558, 94515, 94574
Questions
Questions we hear before the first visit
Will this lower my insurance bill?
We can't say. Insurers decide for themselves, and some ask for proof of defensible-space work while others don't. Ask yours what it wants to see before we start, and we'll write the scope and photos to match. We don't promise a discount or coverage.
What does it cost?
It depends on the lot: area, slope, brush, trees and where the debris goes. The page on how pricing works lists each part. The number comes in writing after the site walk.
Are you licensed and insured?
Our California contractor license is in the footer of every page, with a link to the state board's lookup. We send a certificate of insurance with the written scope if you ask.
Does my city or county have its own rules?
Yes. The county, each city and each fire district set their own requirements, and some lots are inspected. We read your district's list at the walk and write the scope to meet it. We can't give you an inspection result.
Do you speak Spanish?
Yes. Odalys, who schedules visits and writes the estimates, speaks Spanish, and so do some on the crew, though not everyone. Every page here has a Spanish version, and we can write your estimate in Spanish.
Book a site walk
Tell us where the house is and which side faces the hill. We write back to set a time for the walk.
Phone(707) 555-0101
Hours
- Monday – FridayToday
- 7 a.m. – 4 p.m.
- SaturdayToday
- By appointment
- SundayToday
- Closed