The fire protection strip: what you have to clear and with which machine

A good part of the Baix Empordà lives right up against the woods: the Gavarres, the Begur massif, Sant Sebastià hill, the pines of Calella and Llafranc. For urbanisations and isolated houses in woodland, fire prevention is not a piece of advice — it is a legal obligation with specific work to be done every year. Here is what has to be done, and with which machinery.

What the law says

Catalan Law 5/2003 requires urbanisations, settlements and buildings on woodland (or within 500 metres of it) to maintain:

• An outer protection strip at least 25 metres wide around the estate or the house, free of dry vegetation and with the tree cover thinned out.
• Undeveloped plots inside the estate kept clear of dry vegetation and rubbish.
• Green areas and access roads in the same condition.

The town council is responsible for enforcement and can carry out the work and bill you for it if it is not done. Every municipality (Palafrugell, Begur, Pals, Mont-ras or Calonge) has its own by-law and its own calendar: check yours, but the underlying work is the same everywhere.

How the strip should end up

Broadly speaking, the technical criteria are these:

• Understorey: scrub, brambles, canes and dry grass removed, or reduced to isolated patches.
• Trees: thinned so the crowns do not touch, and limbed up to a third of their height (up to a maximum of 5 metres), so a ground fire cannot climb into the canopy.
• Arisings: they cannot be left on the strip. They have to be taken away or, better still, chipped.

When to do it

In spring, before the vegetation dries out. Ideally the strip is finished by late May or early June. Remember that from 15 March to 15 October you cannot burn cuttings on woodland, and that on high-risk days (Pla Alfa, the Catalan wildfire-risk alert plan) even work with machinery in the woods is restricted — one more reason not to leave it until July.

The machine for each job

• Grass, low scrub and brambles: a brushcutter with a three-tooth blade or a saw blade, not nylon line. For a plot cleared once a year, a 40-45 cc machine with a double harness. If you would rather not buy one, we hire out 45 cc brushcutters with line or blade at €35 per day.
• Big or badly overgrown plots: a wheeled brushcutter gets through where a hand-held machine cannot, and flattens two-metre canes and brambles without wrecking your back.
• Limbing up pines and holm oaks: a light pruning chainsaw or a pole saw for the low branches up to 3-4 metres, without climbing the tree. Cut just outside the branch collar, leaving no stub and without wounding the trunk, as we explain in our pruning guide.
• The arisings: a wood chipper turns branches and brambles into wood chippings you can spread on the garden borders (never on the strip itself in thick layers) or take to the recycling centre at a tenth of the volume. For one plot, the 8.5 cm hire machine is plenty; for big pine prunings, the 15 cm FÖRST.

Shall we do it between neighbours?

On many estates the community pays for the outer strip and each owner looks after their own plot. If there are a few of you, hiring the big wood chipper for one weekend and sharing it is the cheapest way to clear everybody's arisings. Give us a ring and we will explain the hire terms for more than one day.

Got a plot to clear and no idea what you need? Come into the shop with a photo of the ground and we will tell you which machine does the job, whether it is worth buying or hiring, and how to leave it so next year is easier.