SIFCo

Our Type 1 WUI treatment method involves our hand crews going into a forested area which has been identified as a fire corridor and removing either dead or ‘non - merchantable’ accumulated fuels, in order to achieve our fuel management reduction goals. You can visit https://www.sifco.ca/ for more details.

Our Type Two Treatment is one of our five treatment types that we use to implement our 'Slocan Valley Landscape Level Wildfire Protection Plan'. This treatment method is used to reduce fuel loads and initiate climate change adaptation using a merchantable understory removal / overstory retention approach. The harvest pass creates an open forest of established large trees of fire resistant species, per the SIFCo WUI stocking standards. The Type 2 post harvest treatment completes the creation of a fuel managed area by removing sub-merchantable understory stems, ladder fuels, and fine fuels. Our Type 2 treatment uses an excavator to pile concentrations of fine and medium fuels for disposal. Following the machine piling phase, the hand treatment crew go through the unit to address remaining fuel loads. To learn more please visit www.sifco.ca

This treatment method is similar to our Type 2 – Post-Harvest Fuel Management – treatment however it is carried out in interface areas where combinations of insect attack, root disease, blowdown and past high-grading have depleted the merchantable timber to the point where no viable harvest volume remains. The Type 3 treatment reduces the extreme fuel loads on these sites, while retaining an open overstory of established large trees of fire-resistant species. The SIFCo WUI stocking standards will generally be met by natural regeneration. Our Type 3 treatment uses an excavator to pile fine and medium fuels for disposal, or to mulch fuels in lace using a mulching head. Our machine access routes create open strips in the treated area, but machine access is constrained to limit impacts on stocking density and soil disturbance. If financially feasible, the hand treatment crew go through the unit to address remaining fuel loads following the machine piling/mulching phase. Our Type 3 treatment meets fuel management and climate change adaptation goals.

On May 3rd 2018 SIFCo alongside the BC Wildfire Service, carried out a prescribed burn within the Slocan Valley. The site is a south facing slope and is a fire dependent ecosystem. Due to fire suppression, fire has not travelled through the area in decades creating high levels of fuel. In preparation for this burn, the Winlaw Creek area underwent an $80,000 treatment last spring by reducing accumulated fuels in strategic areas. A day before the burn, the BC Wildfire service crew created a 'Black Line' around the site using drip torches to ensure that once aerial ignition began, the fire could not travel further than the prescribed area. Once this was complete, Aerial ignition was carried out using an ignition spheres system. All safety measures were met to ensure that the burn was a success and did not pose a threat to the local community (Winlaw). Venting during the day was ideal, and although Winlaw experienced some smoke in the late evening and early morning following the burn, it was minor compared to summer smoke due to wildfires. Given the hot summers we have been experiencing over the past decade, and the site's proximity to town, the prescribed burn was necessary, a great success, and a huge step towards protecting our community from the potentially devastating effects of wildfires.

WUI fuel management reduces potential fire intensity and rate of spread by reducing the fuel load in the lower forest canopy. The rate at which post-treatment coniferous regeneration increases fuel loads is moderated by shade from retained overstory, retention of deciduous shrub vegetation, and seeding disturbed areas with ground cover mixtures. Some restocking by conifers is, however, inevitable in a forest ecosystem. Maintenance re-treatment is required to retain the efficacy of the initial fuel management work. Experience shows that a re-treatment 7 to 10 years after the initial WUI fuel management when coniferous regeneration is small and easily cut with brush saws is time effective. Post-treatment cut fuel loads are light, and can be safely disposed of by lop and scatter. Re-treatment on a shorter time frame is not required. Re-treatment on a longer time frame allows regeneration to grow to large size, resulting in rapidly increasing per hectare fuel management costs. The Type 5 treatment meets fuel management goals and retains the value of previous fuel management investments.