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The smallest state's five feet
Rhode Island’s opened sheet does not print five feet. RIDEM-DFE (Nancy Stairs, 8 April 2020): replace evergreen shrubs with low-flammable plants in close proximity to your home. Thin and prune conifer trees for 30 to 100 feet. Firewood at least 30 feet from the house. Live Forest Fire program HTML returned Cloudflare 403 this session. Kalmia latifolia currently computes as avoid and includes RI. Pinus strobus currently computes as avoid and includes RI.
You are on a quarter-acre lot in Washington County treating 100 feet as someone else’s forest. The opened DFE band may already be your property line. Zone 0 is still not a planting list, and this sheet does not write it.
This is not a Rhode Island doorway.
Why it matters
Connecticut’s low-risk page is a different New England honesty. This page is small-lot geometry. A 30-to-100-foot conifer thinning is a ranch in Oklahoma and a neighbor’s hedge here. DFE’s close proximity evergreen swap is the plant sentence. It is not a species table.
This site’s Rhode Island plant evidence currently holds 417 USDA-distribution records (253 on-list, 46 avoid, 10 conflict, 108 candidate). That is occurrence. DFE did not rate those rows.
How it works
What the opened 35-things sheet actually says:
No cost
- FIREWISE assessment. House number visible.
- Firewood at least 30 feet from the home.
- Roof and gutters free of leaves and pine needles.
- Trim branches that overhang the house. Trim within 20 feet of the chimney.
- Lawns green and mowed.
- Clear deadwood and dense flammable vegetation from the home’s defensible space.
- Do not burn leaves.
Low cost / property
- Replace evergreen shrubs with low-flammable plants in close proximity to your home.
- Thin and prune conifer trees for 30 to 100 feet around your home.
More cost
- Deck enclosed; metal screen 1/8-inch.
- Class A roof. Non-flammable siding. Tempered dual-pane glass.
- Propane inside the defensible space but at least 10 feet from the house; gravel 10 feet around the tank.
The sheet brands Firewise USA and points to DFE’s homeowners page. It does not name mountain laurel, white pine, or a five-foot noncombustible zone.
This directory, Rhode Island flag:
- Kalmia latifolia avoid, consensus, RI. See the state flower is an ericaceous fuel for the Pennsylvania tour; the taxon still includes RI.
- Pinus strobus avoid, RI.
- Juniperus virginiana avoid, RI.
- Ilex opaca avoid, RI.
See how to read a plant page. Close proximity is not a cultivar exception.
The paths
| Claim | Opened source | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Five-foot Zone 0 | Not on the opened DFE sheet | IBHS / this site’s Zone 0 page |
| Replace evergreens close in | Low-cost item 4 | A named species table |
| Thin conifers 30–100 feet | Low-cost item 5 | A lot-size exemption |
| Firewood 30 feet | No-cost item 8 | Permission to stack against the siding on a small lot |
| 417 Rhode Island records | USDA distribution | A DFE Firewise list |
What people mix up
- Zone 0 with DFE’s close proximity sentence.
- 30-to-100-foot conifer thinning with a forest someone else owns.
- Connecticut’s low-risk framing with this sheet’s action list.
- Pennsylvania’s state-flower tour as DFE naming mountain laurel. It does not.
- Live DEM HTML (403 this session) as quoted.
How to check
- Open the Wayback PDF. Search for “5 feet” and “Zone 0.” Read close proximity and 30’ to 100’.
- Open the live Forest Fire page. If it loads, read it. This session it did not.
- Open Kalmia latifolia and Pinus strobus.
- Open Rhode Island plant evidence. Distribution is not a recommendation.
- Walk the lot. If 100 feet is across the street, the 30-to-100 band is still the instruction on the opened sheet.
- Do not plant in Zone 0.
Limits
This page quotes the opened Wayback id_ PDF of RIDEM-DFE’s 35-things sheet (metadata 8 April 2020, author Nancy Stairs). Live dem.ri.gov Forest Fire HTML and the live PDF URL returned Cloudflare 403 this session and are not quoted as a 2026 edition. The sheet does not print five feet or Zone 0; this page does not invent them. 417 is a count of stored USDA-distribution rows as of this writing, not a DFE statistic. Zone 0 is not a planting list.
Related records
- Kalmia latifolia
- Pinus strobus
- Rhode Island plant evidence
- Zone 0
- Connecticut fire risk is low
- Glossary: Zone 0
- Glossary: defensible space
Questions
Does Rhode Island print a five-foot Zone 0?
Not on the opened RIDEM-DFE sheet. Nancy Stairs (DEM), 8 April 2020, 35 things YOU can do: replace evergreen shrubs with low-flammable plants in close proximity to your home; thin and prune conifer trees for 30 to 100 feet around your home; move firewood at least 30 feet away; trim branches that overhang the house and within 20 feet of the chimney; clear deadwood and dense flammable vegetation from the home’s defensible space. Live Forest Fire program HTML returned HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) this session. IBHS and this site’s Zone 0 page are a different document.
What happens when the whole lot is 30 to 100 feet?
The opened sheet’s conifer thinning band is 30 to 100 feet. On a small Rhode Island lot that band can be the property line. Plant choice in close proximity is still item 4 under Low cost / Property: replace evergreen shrubs. This directory currently stores 417 USDA-distribution records for Rhode Island. Those rows are not a DFE planting table.
Does DFE name mountain laurel?
Not on the opened 35-things sheet. This directory’s Kalmia latifolia currently computes as avoid and includes RI. Pinus strobus currently computes as avoid and includes RI. Juniperus virginiana currently computes as avoid and includes RI.
Is this a Rhode Island doorway page?
No. The object is a small-lot reading of DFE’s 30-to-100-foot conifer band and the missing five-foot sentence. Place claims sit on whereThisDiffers. The Rhode Island plant evidence list is USDA distribution, not this article.