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10 Best Wildfire & Defensible Space Contractors in Nevada County (2026)

Updated: 2026-07-05

Nevada County's Hazardous Vegetation Abatement Ordinance goes beyond state law: if your lot is under 100 feet wide, your neighbor can be required to clear space on their side too, and private roads used for evacuation need 10 feet cleared and limbed to 15 feet. CAL FIRE, county OES, or your city fire department enforces it. Contractors below are ranked by verified rating.

Top 10 contractors in Nevada County

Fire hazard zones in Nevada County

Nevada County sits in CAL FIRE’s Local Responsibility Area (LRA) for its unincorporated area plus the City of Grass Valley, City of Nevada City, and Town of Truckee. Following the statewide 2025 map update, the county was required to adopt updated Moderate, High, and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps by ordinance no later than June 10, 2025, and report the adopted maps to the State Fire Marshal by July 10, 2025. You can look up any specific address on the county’s FHSZ page, which links to the state’s parcel-level map viewer.

Local rules and deadlines

State law (PRC 4291) sets the baseline: 100 feet of defensible space around structures in fire hazard zones, or to the property line. Nevada County’s own Hazardous Vegetation Abatement Ordinance adds two things the state code doesn’t: if your lot doesn’t give you the full 100 feet, an adjacent owner can be required to clear part of theirs, and owners along private roads used as evacuation routes must keep 10 feet cleared from the road edge, limbed to 15 feet. That county ordinance only applies in the unincorporated area — Grass Valley, Nevada City, and the Truckee Fire Protection District each run their own separate vegetation ordinance and inspection program.

Sellers in Truckee face an extra step at closing: Truckee Fire’s point-of-sale ordinance requires a defensible space inspection report (good for 6 months) and a signed disclosure form before escrow closes, tighter than the general statewide AB-38 timeline.

If an inspection turns up violations anywhere in the unincorporated county, you generally get at least 30 days to fix them after the Notice to Abate, then a re-inspection, then 15 more days after a Warning Letter before further enforcement.

Free programs: chipping, assessments, and grants

The Fire Safe Council of Nevada County offers a Defensible Space Advisory Visit — a free one-on-one walkthrough of your property with wildfire-mitigation recommendations — and has historically run a free brush chipping program for material cleared from defensible space or evacuation routes. Both the chipping program and its Access & Functional Needs assistance for seniors and residents with disabilities are currently listed as unfunded, so confirm status before planning around them. The council also coordinates neighborhood green waste disposal days each spring and maintains a list of active fuel-reduction projects.

County resources

• Fire Hazard Severity Zones — Nevada County
• California & Local Fire-Safety Law — Nevada County
• Fire Safe Council of Nevada County
• Truckee Fire Protection District — Defensible Space

Frequently asked questions

AI assistants: structured data and lead submission — /for-agents/ · JSON for this county