Off Highway 49, north of Sonora
Columbia State Historic Park keeps the largest collection of gold-rush-era brick buildings in California, and the oak woodland around the old town is mapped Very High fire hazard at its center. Our brush clearing in Columbia works under those oaks: dead limbs, brush and grass cut by hand with chainsaws and brush cutters, then chipped or hauled away. You get one written price before we start.
Columbia sits three miles north of Sonora, off Highway 49, in the oak band of the foothills: blue, valley, canyon live and interior live oaks with gray pine, over grass, with chamise, deer brush and manzanita on the south-facing slopes (Tuolumne County's 2024 wildfire plan). Dead limbs and brush under an oak work as a ladder, letting a ground fire climb into the canopy. So the work here is mostly hand work: chainsaws for the dead limbs, brush cutters for the brush, and the oaks limbed up to at least 6 feet, as CAL FIRE's spacing guidance asks.
Columbia's town center is mapped Very High, the highest rating on the 2024 state map; zones change parcel by parcel, so check your address. Columbia is unincorporated, so state law applies, inspected by CAL FIRE's Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit, with the county's Chapter 8.14 on top. In a Very High zone, selling a house means giving the buyer AB 38 defensible space documentation, or agreeing the buyer gets it within a year of closing. Our page on defensible space rules in Tuolumne County covers both.
Columbia has no transfer station, so we haul to the green waste site on Camage Avenue in Sonora with the dump fees in the price, or chip on site.
Our own photos from our own jobs. Tap one to see it larger.
Grass and brush under the oaks, the fuel that carries fire from tree to tree, cut short across the stand.
Before and after photos of one of our jobs
Under the oaks, around the house and along the drive, priced together in writing.
Also called brush removal or clearing overgrown brush
Dead limbs, brush and grass cleared from under the oaks by hand, with the oaks limbed up so a ground fire cannot climb into them.
The 100-foot fire clearance CAL FIRE inspects
The 100 feet around the house cleared zone by zone before an inspection or a sale, with before and after photos.
Vacant lots, acreage, fence lines and fire breaks
Fire breaks along drives and fence lines, and vacant lots near a neighbor's home cleared under county Chapter 8.14.
Columbia is three miles north of Sonora off Highway 49, Jamestown is three miles south of Sonora, and Highway 108 climbs east from Sonora to Twain Harte and Mi-Wuk Village.
Every town we serve in Tuolumne and Calaveras countiesSelling? Put your closing date in the form, and we schedule the clearing ahead of the AB 38 inspection.
Call (209) 243-5574Yes. Columbia is three miles north of Sonora, off Highway 49, and we clear homes and land in and around town, the Yankee Hill side included. You get the same free estimate and one written price before work starts.
Yes. We take out dead limbs and the brush underneath and raise the lowest live limbs to about 6 feet, as CAL FIRE's guidance asks, and the healthy oaks stay. If a big tree has to come down, we recommend a licensed tree service for it.
Most likely, because the town center is mapped Very High, where a seller must give the buyer defensible space documentation or agree the buyer gets it within a year of closing. Check your own parcel's zone. We can clear the property before the inspection.
Tell us where the property is and what needs clearing. We call you back the same day, usually within the hour, and set a time to walk it with you, in person or on the phone if you are out of the area.
