Prince George has Deal With Ministry of Forests to Reduce Fire Hazards

By 250 News

Fire fighting crew members  Samuel Crosbie at left, and Sean Larabie at right, remove some of the brush from Moore's Meadow that could fuel a fire  (photo opinion250staff)

The City of Prince George and the Ministry of Forests and Range, Protection Branch are working together to reduce “fire fuels” in the City. This program provides a major financial benefit for the City as the City gets the necessary work done at no cost.  The benefit for the Ministry is that it keeps its fire fighting crews active, fit and within reach of an airport if they need to be deployed at a moments notice.

Already underway, Initial Attack Crews and Unit Crews from the Prince George Fire Centre will work to remove excess fuels from forest stands that are highly susceptible to interface fire. This includes understory (younger trees and plants) and flammable vegetation considered to contribute significantly to dangerous crown fires. These smaller trees and dense understory brush act as “ladder fuels” that let flames climb from the ground to tree top levels.

Areas that have been ranked high or very  high for forest fire hazard  on City or Crown lands, have been the subject of detailed fire fuel treatment prescriptions  for reducing the possibility of  an “interface” fire.

There are three aspects to the prescriptions:

1. complete the dead pine removal as per the regular pine ‘beetle’ tree removal program;
2. remove wind-throw susceptible trees with high failure hazard rating; and
3. 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.

The labour-intensive work is a major benefit of this joint program. The labour costs  associated with a project like this would normally be in the  range of $5-$10 thousand dollars a day, and since the Ministry is paying the crews anyway, it likes to see them involved in projects if they are not on the fire lines battling a blaze.

While the work is done in such a way as to keep as many healthy and non-hazardous trees as possible, some trees of species other than pine, and which are healthy, will be removed. 

Environment Manager Mark Fercho says that kind of removal will only be done where absolutely necessary to protect homes and neighbourhoods “Removal of other tree species is only considered in areas of very high forest fire hazard, to reduce the fire hazard to a lower level, not to completely remove the hazard.”

Fercho says they are trying to achieve a delicate balance, removing much of the fire hazard, yet maintaining green space and the recreational value of the parks.

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