Fire prevention by making compost

Today is a hot day here and its a day to keep our fingers crossed that no fire will break out

Here are some impressions of our Johnson Su composting workshop in early summer. As wildfire prevention we cut a lot of shrubs, dry tree branches and other dry materials in the finca at the end of the spring, and as we don't want to be turning compost during the summer months, and leaving it as mulch can be a fire hazard as well, we make a Johnson Su composting workshop at the beginning of summer. As it is a bit of an effort to make it in one day the help of the participants is a big benefit. They learn by doing it how this sort of compost works and we explain why it is so important to have mycelium in our soils and how we can obtain it with the Johnson Su method. [img][/img]

Do you process down the tree branches and brush before adding them to the pile or add them whole?

I'm curious the turn around time for compost from a Johnson Su system.

So the gathering of twigs and branch to make compost is the only technique used to prevent wild fire?

I expected that this would be done by added the compost to areas that would be prone to wild fire as a fire resistant mulch.

Building up the soil health with compost will also increase soil's water retention which in turn acts as a natural firebreak.

Timothy Norton wrote:Do you process down the tree branches and brush before adding them to the pile or add them whole?

I'm curious the turn around time for compost from a Johnson Su system.

Yes we chip the branches so that they don't take so long to decompose.
We use the compost in the autumn of the following year. We usually use it to make compost tea as this way it goes much further.

Anne Miller wrote:So the gathering of twigs and branch to make compost is the only technique used to prevent wild fire?

I expected that this would be done by added the compost to areas that would be prone to wild fire as a fire resistant mulch.

Building up the soil health with compost will also increase soil's water retention which in turn acts as a natural firebreak.

No we use other techniques as well. The Johnson Su is a convenient way of using up the pruning material before the fire season starts.
It's just to make the pruned material non-inflammable straight away (and of course we use the compost later.
And as you say improving the soil and thereby preventing the plants from drying out is great fire prevention.