Wildfire protection funds sought

Jan 14, 2021 | 1:55 PM

It has been 18 years since the Okanagan Mountain Park fire put valley residents on notice that forest fires are a very real threat.

While the past two summers have been relatively quiet, that isn’t likely to remain the situation, so the planning continue to mitigate fire risk.

The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) is expected to apply for nearly $200,000 from the Union of B.C. Municipalities 2021 Firesmart Community Funding Grant.

RDNO is eligible for up to $150,000 while each electoral area can access up to $50,000, the entire ask for the area is $190,800.

The grant funding would be focused in the following areas;

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Education with residents and the communities in wildland urban interface areas (WUI) in wildfire preparedness and “fire smarting” (protecting) their properties.
Development of a fire smart strategic framework that will be utilized to better serve the electoral areas in coordinating and presenting fire smart principals, education, community fire smart workshops and preparedness sessions. The COVID-19 pandemic has required substantial rethinking of strategies in informing and assisting the residents throughout the North Okanagan electoral areas. It would include marketing and outreach plans, identification of stakeholders, goals and strategies, action items and measurements of success.
Development of a new approach to providing the knowledge through social media, webinars, video production and presentation. The use of the RDNO website and Facebook account will provide links to multimedia presentations using multiple platforms.
Further cross training with the local firefighters and regional employees so they have a better understanding and consideration of essential safety aspects of wildfire, now the science of interface fires is better understood.
Assist residents by enabling our local fire smart representatives, through funding, to complete wildfire hazard assessments to both private and government infrastructure, establishing the prescriptions for hazard fuel mitigation strategies.

“The recent history of emergencies throughout British Columbia has brought home the need for preparedness and mitigation of potential threats to our region from wildfire and floods. The commissioning and publication of the Chapman/Abbott report (2018) made 108 recommendations to start to remedy the shortfalls apparent during 2017 and the years prior to,” Alastair Crick, RDNO Manager of Protective Services stated.

by Kevin Rothwell

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