Sunland is the western half of Sunland-Tujunga, a foothill community at the far northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley below the San Gabriel Mountains. The housing is older and more varied than the Valley floor: early-1900s cottages, postwar ranch homes on irregular hillside lots, and larger lots toward the Big Tujunga Wash, some of them set up for horses. Roofs are mostly composition shingle, and a lot of the older homes still have wood fascia and exposed rafter tails.
This is wildland edge. The Angeles National Forest starts just above the neighborhood, Big Tujunga Canyon opens right onto it, and Santa Ana winds come down the canyon with enough force to strip the pines, oaks and eucalyptus and fill a clean gutter with dry needles and dust in one event. Most of the hillside is mapped as a very high fire hazard zone, and the 2009 Station Fire burned the mountains directly above Sunland. A gutter full of dry needles in October is ember fuel at the roof edge, which is why we treat the late-summer clean as a safety job. In winter, runoff off the mountains is heavy and fast, and a clogged downspout on a sloped lot sends water down the hill and against the foundation.
For Sunland we recommend three visits a year for homes near oaks or pines, late spring, late summer and late fall, and two for a standard lot.
