Creating defensible space around your home helps safeguard your property from wildfire damage. The Indian Hills Fire Protection District offers a free chipping program to help residents safely dispose of brush and vegetation.  Do you have low hanging or fallen branches, overgrown brush, or other vegetation that needs chipping?

Follow these simple steps to get started:

1.  Apply for the Program: Sign up to join the program. Once enrolled, you’ll be added to the schedule.
2.  Prepare Your Piles: Stack your branches and brush according to the guidelines below. Proper preparation ensures safety and efficiency.
3.  Get Notified: You’ll receive a text or email when your chipping day is scheduled. Be sure to check your junk or spam folder!
4.  We Chip It: On the scheduled day, our crew will arrive to chip your piles. You don’t even need to be home.

Program Guidelines

To make sure your piles are chipped, please follow these important guidelines.

If piles do not meet these requirements, operators will leave the material unchipped.

Pile & Branch Size Requirements

• Maximum Pile Size: 4 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 8 feet deep
• Maximum Branch Diameter: 8 inches
• Minimum Branch Length: 3 feet

These guidelines exist to ensure safety, protect equipment, and comply with grant requirements.

 Failure to follow them may disqualify your piles from being chipped.

How To Stack Your Piles

• Neat Stacking: Align all cut ends in the same direction, facing the street or driveway where the chipper will operate.
• Loose Piles: Avoid compacting the material; loose piles are safer and easier to chip.
• Hand-Stacked Only: Piles must be stacked by hand. Machine-stacked piles (e.g., with a tractor) cannot be serviced.
• Accessible Location: Place piles where a truck can easily reach them.
• Level Ground: If on a slope, place piles on the uphill side of the road.
• Avoid Drainages: Do not place piles in ditches or culverts.
• Respect Contractor Time: Ensure your piles are ready and meet all requirements to help our team stay on schedule.

  Materials We Cannot Chip

• Hazardous Plants: Poison oak,  vines or blackberries.
• Fibrous/Decaying Wood: Roots or rotting wood.
• Small Debris: Pinecones, pine needles, leaves, yard clippings.
• Contaminants: Rocks, mud, metal, or any building materials.
• Oversized Materials: Branches larger than 8 inches in diameter or piles over 4 feet high.
• Short Pieces: Branches less than 3 feet long pose a safety risk to operators.
• Improperly Stacked Piles: Piles built over standing vegetation or compacted with machinery.

Program Benefits

The Indian Hills Fire Protection District chipping program is more than just a convenient way to clear vegetation — it is a step toward a safer, more fire-resilient community.

• A Safer Alternative to Burning: Avoid the risks of escaped pile burns while improving air quality.
• A Cost-Effective Solution: Save on hauling expenses and keep green waste out of landfills.
• Proactive Wildfire Prevention: Incentivizes clearing hazardous vegetation and maintaining defensible space around your home.

Through the 2025 roadside chipping program, over 300 cords of material were successfully removed from the district! 

Changing wildfire risks begins with YOU!  We greatly appreciate your participation as a resident to make your property more fire-resilient, further reducing wildfire risks within the Indian Hills Fire Protection District.