Updated Cortes Island Wildfire Protection Plan
Cortes Currents
English - April 06, 2021 13:17 - 5 minutes - 13.3 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - Cortes Island's updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan will be completed mid-April.
The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) will also be holding two virtual sessions with wildfire expert Bruce Blackwell on Tuesday April 13 and Wednesday April 14 from 7-8pm (both sessions will be the same). These sessions will be devoted to the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, the island's wildfire risk, and on ways that you can incorporate FireSmart principles on your properties and neighbourhoods. There will also be a question and answer period.
So I asked SRD Protective Services Coordinator Shaun Koopman, Is there anything new?
“Ahhh, I wouldn’t say so - but I spend every sing day in this area.
If a Cortes Islander reviewed the ten year old plan and hasn’t engaged in any wildfire planning, things might look a little different, but I am going to wait for the engagement session because I don’t want to take away from the consultant,” he responded.
One of the key elements will be looking at the old wildfire map:
- What changes have there been?
- What are the most hazardous areas on both private and public land?
- What are the areas most in need of treatment?
What does treatment consist of?
The first step in a treatment consists of drawing up a ‘prescription.’ This identifies specific trees that must be taken out and potential fuel areas for a wildfire. It is also the document that will be presented to the SRD Board, when applying for funding.
Several areas on Cortes Island have already been identified for treatment:
- 11 hectares of Crown land in Carrington Bay
- 10 hectares in Squirrel Cove
- 4 hectares adjacent to the Cortes Island Recycling Centre
= a 10 hectare FireSmart education area in the Regional Park at Hank’s Beach
The SRD also wants to reduce the risk of wildfire to community buildings.
- Replacing some of the siding with non-flammable material,
- making sure there is a six centimetre non flammable buffer between the ground and the start oif the building.
- replacing some of the gutters
- replacing wooden stairs with metal stairs