Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Forest Service testing and regional guides place Rocky Mountain juniper on the high-flammability or avoid side.
Every source that gives it a verdict warns against it. The Forest Service and state Firewise programs rate Rocky Mountain juniper “Not Firewise,” the lowest result on their four-level scale. Ohio State’s extension service places it at the top of its five-band flammability scale, while Virginia Cooperative Extension gives it H, the high rating on its three-point scale. The University of Wyoming also names it as an example of a fire-prone plant.
The warning is backed by laboratory testing, not just expert judgment. The Forest Service named Rocky Mountain juniper as having high relative flammability. In calorimeter tests, live leaves that had not been predried reached a peak heat-release rate of 186 kilowatts per square meter, while dry samples had an effective heat of combustion of 20.2 megajoules per kilogram. The FLAMITS database preserves the 186 measurement without turning it into a separate verdict, because it does not apply one threshold across different tests, plant parts, and devices.
Rocky Mountain juniper is a low-water tree that can reach about 50 feet. Its usefulness in dry landscapes does not offset the consistent fire warning: expert guides and measured combustion results point in the same direction, so it is a poor choice near a home or other structure.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
University of Wyoming Extension published these Firewise examples for its Wyoming rural-living audience and points readers to Firewise Wyoming. FireApproved publishes ten exact source owners while holding broad plant groups. State publication scope is not suitability across every basin.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AZ, CO, DC, DE, ID, KS, MD, MT, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, UT, WA, WV, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, CO, ID, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3a; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 4 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Juniperus scopulorum · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
The Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System synthesizes how this exact taxon responds
to wildland fire and occurs in fire-shaped ecosystems. This literature context does not rate a
maintained landscape plant, does not change the computed classification above, and is not a
substitute for building-adjacent placement guidance.
USDA Forest Service FEIS · review JUNSCO
Juniperus scopulorum, Rocky Mountain juniper
Geography and ecosystem. FEIS places Rocky Mountain juniper across dry foothills, canyons, grasslands, and pinyon-juniper woodlands of western and Great Plains states. (General Distribution)
Immediate fire effect. Ground fire and low-intensity surface fire readily kill smaller trees, while some larger trees survive when bark is thicker and crowns are open. (Immediate Fire Effects)
Fuels and condition. Volatile oils, especially in lower branches, increase flammability and can help surface fire reach the crown. (Fire Adaptations)
Postfire response. Top-killed trees do not resprout; postfire re-establishment occurs by seed, including seed moved by animals. (Plant Response to Fire)
Source taxon: Juniperus scopulorum · exact scientific name ·
review written 2002-08 · page updated 2025-07-25 ·
source record
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its avoid rating)
Firewise Landscaping: keep 30 ft from the home (Zone 3) [OSU B921 source-category siting] (with its avoid rating)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
3 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study White2002: White, R. H., Weise, D. R., Mackes, K., & Dibble, A. C. (2002). Cone calorimeter testing of vegetation--an update. Ninth International Conference on Electrical and Electronic Products. Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Shared row context: Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; device calorimeter; site White2002-2; sampling ND.
Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper, Western red cedar). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/juniperus-scopulorum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.
