> Edit: Even if you do have 100 feet to maintain, go on a two week vacation and see how many leaves gather. You don't need a 100-foot break to protect your hou

> Edit: Even if you do have 100 feet to maintain, go on a two week vacation and see how many leaves gather. You don't need a 100-foot break to protect your house from burning leaves. The 100-foot break is to protect your house from the incinerating radiation of torching trees. You can technically even have trees within the 100-foot break. The goal is to prevent a situation where individually burning trees accelerate combustion in a feedback loop. If they're burning more slowly they're radiating less energy and thus you don't need as much space to the house.