Sierra Madre Post Office

Lush, Leafy, Low-Water, Fire-Defensive Wildlife Habitat

Retired fire fighters Bob Spears and Jim Walsworth spearheaded the renovation of the Sierra Madre Post Office gardens, an effort funded by the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. They envisioned removing the highly combustible junipers and arson grasses in favor of a demonstration of fire defensive landscaping.

January 2025 Notice: While fires and recovery are in progress, we encourage Angelenos
to stay in their home communities and visit our fire defensive demonstration gardens
via their dedicated websites. We’d love for you to visit in person once danger has passed,
and nearby residents are further into recovery processes.
Thank you for your love and consideration.

Once surrounded by high-mass and highly flammable junipers, the post office garden now features an ember resistant Zone 0, a stormwater sinking bioswale, and drought-resistant indigenous foliage.

FormLA Landscaping’s Isara Ongwiseth desgined the garden. Spears and Walsworth installed much of the garden’s infrastructure, including the expansive bioswale and subsurface, low-flow, drip irrigation and weather based controllers. The garden’s native foliage was installed by the Sierra Madre community, led and instructed by FormLA team members.


The extraordinary rains of 2023 quickly grew the foliage. The garden is now fragrant, evergreen, ever-blooming, and ever-berrying wildlife habitat! In 2024, Bob Spears and a team of Eagle Scouts expanded the Zone 0 in the adjacent, vacant lot. The structure is now surrounded by the full five-foot ember resistant zone recommended for high fire severity areas.

Douglas Iris and Alumroot enjoy the riparian space near the bioswale.
The ember resistant Zone 0 protects and serves as a walkway.
Blue Eyed Grass greets visitors at the Balwin entrance.
Sunny Monkey Flowers greet visitors on Mariposa.
Isara Ongwiseth, US Representative Judy Chu ,
Bob Spears, Jim Walsworth,
Mayor Robert Parkhurst, and Georgia Case.

In April of 2023, Spears, Walsworth and Case were honored with congressional recognition for this effort by U.S. Representative Judy Chu, who joined for the garden’s dedication. Learn more about the project timeline, stakeholders, fundraising, material acquisition, and volunteer engagement from Bob Spears in our Client Insights.

In October of 2025, Spears inspired the expansion of the ember resistant zone (Zone 0) around the Post Office. Noah Posin, an Eagle Scout with Pasadena Scout Troop 5, guided the work, which also included removing the arson grasses filling the vacant lot between the post office and its residential neighbors.

Plant Palette

While no plant is fire proof, there are plants that hold hydration well in high, dry heat and do not travel to wild spaces. When well placed, spaced and maintained, they can be fire defensive. See our Pinterest page for the Sierra Madre Post Office palette and several others.