Plans for Forest Fire Fuel Treatment Projects Being Set

Tuesday, March 02, 2010 08:21 AM

Prince George, B.C.- More than $2million dollars was spent in the City of Prince George last year on wildfire fuel treatments and hazard tree removals in the area. Most of that amount ($1,746,081) was from new external grant dollars, and the balance was nearly evenly split between the City’s budget, and a grant from the Community Forest Agreement (CFA) account.

The funding paid for the removal of about 7,500 cubic meters of dead pine and significant amounts ofbroken tops, damaged trees and slash were either chipped on site or removed from the site.

Now it’s time to prepare for the work to be conducted in 2010.

City staff will focus its 2010 work on fire fuel treatments on about 13 hectares of municipal properties and about 135 hectares of CFA parcels. The total estimated volume from the CFA operations is expected to be about 20,000 cubic meters for 2010. That will go over the Allowable Annual Cut of 12 thousand cubic meters, but is allowed under the license agreement.

The municipal sites include:

Ridgeview area,
Bellamy Road,
Parkridge Creek (College Heights),
A small area along Foothills Blvd., and
a small area in Valleyview.

Currently identified CFA sites include,

north of Pidherny near Chief Lake Road,
Fraser Flats (off Old Summit Lake Road),
Vanway (near Blue Spruce portion of Cranbrook Hill Greenway),
Blackburn and
a large area on Cranbrook Hill west of Forests for the World (along the western boundary of the city).

The anticipated budget required to complete the 148 hectares of fuel treatments is $2,450,000 for 2010.

Of this budget, the City has approved grants totalling $1,151,896 from Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Wildfire Protection Operational Fuel Treatment Program, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Wildfire and Hazard Tree Funding Program and the Job Opportunities Program.

City Staff are continuing to apply for additional grant funding to secure the remaining $1.3 million needed for 2010.

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Plans for Forest Fire Fuel Treatment Projects Being Set

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