Last year, the Protection Branch Fire Crews worked in City parks and at the Otway Nordic Ski Centre. The crews will start work in the Pidherny area along Pidherny Road.

Since the Community Wildfire Protection Plan was adopted, the areas ranked high or very high for forest fire hazard on City or Crown land have been the subject of detailed fire fuel treatment prescriptions. These prescriptions outline the forestry related work required to reduce the fire fuel hazards. Crown land areas will be treated under the City’s Community Forest License.

The methodology used to reduce the fire hazard in the prescription areas is:

1. remove dead and wind-throw susceptible trees with high failure hazard rating,

2. forest fire fuel reduction work consisting of pruning and thinning of remaining tree species and vegetation in areas of high fire hazard, to reduce the forest fire hazard. This is the labor intensive work that will benefit from this joint program.

Fire crews will work to remove excess fuels from forest stands that are highly susceptible to interface fire. This includes understory flammable vegetation considered to contribute significantly to dangerous crown fires. These smaller trees and dense understory brush act as ladder fuels by providing a continuous source of fuel from the ground level to tree tops.