Chipper Days

In our continuing commitment to emergency preparedness, the Town of Corte Madera is sponsoring wood chipper days in particularly high-risk fire neighborhoods Town-wide on a descending priority basis. This is one of the many ongoing efforts to build community awareness, reduce fuel loads, enhance ingress/egress for first responders, identify and designate evacuation routes, offer resident education on first aid, general emergency preparation guidance, and build community resilience.

This program is being instituted to encourage residents to create defensible space by trimming their trees, clearing dry brush, reducing canopies that provide ladders for fires, removing encroachments into roadways, and removing non-native and invasive species such as French broom, Scotch broom, and acacia---all are extremely volatile and pose a very serious fire risk.

Under this program, residents are responsible for the labor & costs associated with brush removal, cutting & stacking of flammable materials and, staging them in locations deemed suitable by the Town. The Town in turn will utilize contract labor to chip the materials on designated and pre-approved chipper days and dispose of them accordingly.

Corte Madera Chipper Days is a true public-private partnership that provides for more timely and impactful use of resources. It removes a significant impediment to the creation and maintenance of defensible space. It brings the Town closer to its’ residents as the challenges are met together. 

We hope that it will become the model for other communities, as well as on public lands, and unincorporated areas. By working together we can make a huge impact for a relatively modest investment.

Scheduled Wood Chipper Days will be publicized on the Town website and via social media.