Wildfire mitigation work underway

Residents along Eastside road south of Harbour Heights Road may have some traffic delays over the next month, as cutting, thinning and chipping takes place over about eight kilometers to reduce the wildfire threat in the wildland urban interface (WUI).

“Wildland fuel management is a critical practice in the WUI to help protect people, homes, infrastructure and the environment,” Fire Chief David Lind said. “After many years of human influence and fire suppression activity, the growth and establishment of wildland fuels across North America – not just the North Okanagan – has drastically changed. Across the country, many forests have become overgrown and are in an unhealthy state.”

“When I first started my career, the biggest fire threat was the people in the homes, things like smoking, cooking and electrical,” Lind said “Those things are still a concern but increasingly especially in British Columbia wildfires have become a bigger threat.”

The work is being done only on city owned right of way, but homeowners can also do their part by taking care of potential issues on their own properties, like bark mulch, pine needles and coniferous trees planted too close to homes.

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For more information on how to use FireSmart activities to protect your property, visit www.firesmartbc.ca.

Vernon Fire Rescue will also be providing more information about upcoming fuel management projects across the city and how residents can get involved in FireSmart community initiatives.

In 2019 similar mitigation work was done within a 10 hectare park in the Foothills neighborhood, with funding from the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM).

This current work is funded by a $150,000 UBCM grant, an application for $120,000 for fuel management on Eastside Road and Tronson Road and $30,000 for public eduction in 2021 has been applied for, from the same grant source.

Wildland urban interface work in the Eastside Road area involves collaborative efforts between the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, the Okanagan Indian Band, BC Parks, BC Timber Sales Okanagan-Columbia, and the City of Vernon, to achieve the necessary landscape level treatments.