Homeowners urged to get rid of junipers

Junk the Junipers is a Nevada Wildfire Awareness Month event designed to get people to rid their yards of this highly flammable plant.

The Nevada Division of Forestry is hosting Junk the Junipers on May 16 from 8am-1pm at the division’s office, 885 Eastlake Blvd. in Washoe Valley. A second event will be hosted by the Bureau of Land Management and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District on May 23 at the Silver Lake Fire Station, 11525 Red Rock Road, Reno. Residents are encouraged to bring their junipers, pines, rabbitbrush, sagebrush and other woody vegetation to be chipped for free.

Vegetation chipped at the event will be used as mulch in various locations. Materials that will not be accepted for chipping are: construction lumber, hazardous materials, lawn clippings, sod, dirt-infested vegetation and tree stumps or limbs greater than 8 inches in diameter.

For more information, contact Sonya Sistare at sistares@unce.unr.edu or 775.336.0271.