Workbook
California's Board of Forestry filed its own cost estimates with the Department of Finance in a scanned document that search engines cannot read. We opened it and typed the tables out. This is what they say.
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Every article you have read on Zone 0 says the work “runs into the thousands” and
stops there. That is because the real figures live in the Economic and Fiscal Impact Statement
— form STD 399 — which the Board publishes as a scanned image with no text layer,
under a .pdf extension despite not being a PDF. Nothing indexes it.
Board staff collected actual quotes for the four categories of work Zone 0 triggers. These are per-service figures: what the job costs if you need it. Here they are, in full, for free.
| Service | Lowest | Highest | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardening — materials only | $0 | $600 | $284.17 |
| Gardening + labour | $240 | $2,220 | $1,234.17 |
| Tree maintenance — materials | $0 | $600 | $354.17 |
| Tree maintenance + labour | $75 | $3,100 | $354.17 |
| Fences and gates — materials | $75 | $1,116 | $130.50 |
| Fences and gates + labour | $355 | $2,831 | $976.05 |
| Sheds — materials | $109 | $769 | $379.88 |
| Sheds + labour | $409 | $2,769 | $983.33 |
Source: Defensible Space Zone 0, Supplement to STD 399, section B1, signed 21 August 2026. Tree maintenance is printed with the same average with and without labour; the workbook reproduces that as filed and explains why you should use the range instead.
Against those, the Board puts the initial cost to an individual property owner at $960.54, with $0 in annual ongoing cost once Zone 0 is established, and the statewide total at $1.74 billion against a claimed $55.18 billion in avoided losses.
The numbers are the hook. They are not the useful part. What a homeowner actually needs to know is which of those services their property triggers, when each one is due, and what a fair quote looks like. That is the workbook.
The SRA and LRA tests are different, and getting it wrong wastes everything after it. Includes how to check, and the fact that a neighbour’s new ADU cannot put you out of compliance.
All of Zone 0 in plain English, in the rule’s own numbering, so you can look any line up. Plus the two definitions — noncombustible, non-woody — that settle most arguments with a contractor.
The three compliance phases mapped to specific requirements, with a note on a discrepancy between the two versions of the rule text that nobody else has flagged.
Every cost table from the STD 399 and its supplement, transcribed, with the survey’s weaknesses set out honestly.
A printable perimeter survey and a costing worksheet, plus four questions that separate a contractor who has read the rule from one who has not.
New structures get no phase-in at all. The Board costed the difference at $2,636 per building — here is what makes it up.
How the grant landscape actually works, and the two rights under the Safer from Wildfires regulation that most homeowners never use.
A log for dates, costs and photographs. The dates are the part that turns a folder of pictures into evidence.
Every source named, with what each one supports, and where to watch for the effective date.
The rule is not law yet. The Board adopted it on 19 August 2026 by an 8–0 vote. It still has to clear the Office of Administrative Law and be filed with the Secretary of State before an effective date exists, and every deadline counts forward from that date. As of our last check we could not confirm the package on OAL’s pending queue, and we say so on the site and inside the workbook rather than inventing a date.
Which is exactly why your purchase includes free updates. When the effective date is filed you get a revised edition with real dates written into the deadline table, the rule-text discrepancy resolved against the filed version, and any change the Board made on the way through. You are buying the tracking, not just the document.
This is general information about a published regulation. It is not legal advice, not an inspection, and not a guarantee of compliance, insurance outcome or grant eligibility. Only your local fire authority can determine whether a specific property complies.
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One-time payment. Instant download. Free updates until the rule takes effect.
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If it is not useful, reply to your PayPal receipt within 30 days and we refund it. No form, no reason needed. A compliance guide that argues with you about a $29 refund has misunderstood what it is selling.
Possibly. The two tests are different. In the State Responsibility Area, Zone 0 applies to every building regardless of its severity classification. In the Local Responsibility Area it applies only in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. Section 1 walks you through checking, and it is the first thing the workbook does.
No. CAL FIRE’s public material is general defensible space guidance. This is written from the adopted rule text, the Notice of Proposed Emergency Action, the STD 399 and its supplement, and the Board’s August 2026 decision memo. Section 9 names every source and says which claims rest on which document, so you can check our work.
Yes, with a caveat. The requirement list, the phasing table and the cost data are exactly what you need to scope a job or advise a seller. It is written for a homeowner, so it does not include a scope-of-work template or the AB 38 transaction detail. Those are separate.
PayPal returns you to a download page immediately after payment. The same page lets you join the update list, which is how the revised edition reaches you. If anything goes wrong, email hello@cadefensiblespace.com with your PayPal receipt and we will send it directly.