Hillside Ambience Changes Because of Spruce Bark Beetle Attack

The next time you drive up Rabbit Creek Road, look at all those dead spruce trees. The whole side of the Hillside is changing. It’s brown. If it burns, it could be a doozey, say Anchorage fire officials. Otherwise, they will just get blown over. Either way, there’s going to be an impact on property values.

There was a fellow two summers ago who was looking for a lot on Hillside to build his custom home. One in particular interested him because of the terrain, its proximity to paved roads, and privacy. It also had lots of nice, big healthy trees. He didn’t buy it, however, because most of the trees were spruce. They weren’t sick. Yet. But he believed a spruce bark beetle infestation was inevitable. “There will hardly be any trees on this lot in five years,” he predicted.

Does the quantity and type of trees on a lot affect it value? “That’s an interesting question”, acknowledges Rich Richter, an M.A.I. appraiser who specializes in land evaluation. “The text book answer is to compare sales of properties with few trees with sales of properties with many trees and calculate the impact on value. Of course, you may not actually be able to find clear comparables. My gut feeling, however, is that trees affect value in a rural setting.”

Richter distinguishes settings like Hillside with subdivision neighborhoods where all the trees will probably be removed for homes. In a rural setting trees will affect marketability, how long it takes a property to sell, as well as the value.

In the wake of the Miller’s Reach fire, property owners are asking if their property tax assessments will come in lower if their land burned. Not right away, the assessor’s office reportedly is saying. But as sales occur it may be possible to apply the rule of comparables Richter describes. Compare the sales of burned-out lots with sales of lots that were spared and attribute the price difference to fire damage.

The anecdotal evidence in Anchorage is that a lot with a mixture of healthy trees has higher value and is more marketable. Even spruce trees can be protected from the beetles if they have not yet been attacked. Several companies that spray trees get lots of customers from people who have attractive spruce near their houses.

Having trees and brush close to your house is a big no-no, say fire safety officials. Capt. Richard Leary was on duty at the Rabbit Creek fire station when I stopped by to ask about all those dead spruce in the area and what sort of fire hazard they pose to residents. His answers were surprising. Just having returned from Miller’s Reach, Capt. Leary said “I’d rather have dead spruce than live ones. The dead ones just go up in a flash; the live ones have all that pitch in them, fuel that really burns long and hot.”

Protecting your rural home and property value from a wildfire involves clearing the yard of fuels. According to the booklets you can get from any fire station, it’s best to leave at least thirty feet of open space that is mostly lawn and landscaping that does not burn easily. Trim the bottom limbs off the trees so they don’t ignite if a ground fire roars through. Move the firewood piles. Get rid of newspapers and trash. Weed-whack the long dried-out grasses. “One yard we saw at Big Lake never policed up after the dogs,” said Capt. Leary. “In the fire it was ugly!”

There’s no fire hydrants on Hillside. Planning to defend your property from fire means thinking about where the water is going to come from. How hard is it to find and get to your home? Can the fire truck find you in a hurry? Are the streets marked? How wide are they? Is there a place to turn around? Can they get to water easily? Is there a cistern, pond or stream nearby?

Capt. Leary: “One guy (at Big Lake) had two sprinklers on his roof going all the time. It saved the house. Eventually the plastic one melted. Makes me think the only thing to have in an emergency is a metal sprinkler.” He described how a ground fire can race along, under the trees, consuming brush and looking for combustibles on the ground, the shed, the detached garage, the house. It leaves the trees alone sometimes, if the terrain is flat, the lower limbs are higher off the ground, and there’s no small trees growing underneath the larger ones to make a “ladder fire.”

On a slope, however, you need to expand the defensive perimeter, the fire advisories say. Fire runs up a slope. The side down from your house needs to have a barrier of as much as 100 feet.

Protecting your property and its value is nothing compared with your life and safety and that of your family and your neighbors. Visit with your neighbors about how you would handle an emergency. Review your preparations. Do you know all the area’s children and pets, the horses and other livestock, and the elderly and infirm? Now that the weather is nice, take a minute to get to know the neighbors.