WILDFIRE MITIGATION
WILDFIRE MITIGATION
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​Since SIFCo began its mission to make our community safer by investing in Wildfire Mitigation (Wildland-Urban Interface management), a total of almost 6 million dollars has been invested and over 3000 acres of land have been treated in the Slocan Valley. We hope to expand and carry on this work in the years to come.
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In 2021 SIFCo worked with the three Villages and FESBC again to continue implementing our Slocan Valley Strategic Landscape Level WIldfire Protection Plan, the first of it's kind in BC.
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SIFCo manages CFA K2R with climate change adaptation and wildfire preparedness in mind, and has been involved in planning and carrying out fuel management treatments on and adjacent to the CFA since 2009.
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To date, we have completed over 3000 acres of fuel management treatments, representing an investment of approximately $6 million.
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OUR STRATEGIC WILDFIRE PROTECTION PLAN
VIEW OUR NORTH VALLEY
MITIGATION PLAN MAP
VIEW OUR SOUTH VALLEY
MITIGATION PLAN MAP
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Our goal is to complete a set of 12 landscape-scale fuel breaks located across main fire movement paths as outlined by our fire behaviour model.
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SIFCo used the FlamMap 5 fire simulator from the US Bureau of Land Management to model fire behaviour on the CFA landbase and adjacent areas.
The goals of the modeling research project were:
(a) to examine potential fire behaviour during typical hot, dry summers in the West Kootenay ecosystem, and
(b) to look for fire movement paths determined by terrain and fuel types within the landscape.
The modeling illustrated that the rate of spread and impact of fires under the typical summer Fire Danger Class 5 conditions were alarming and dangerous to public safety.
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This information has helped increase community awareness of the fire risk level.
Fire movement paths in the landscape were also revealed, generally associated with air movement up east/west valleys and fuel-rich ecosystems on south-facing slopes. This information has informed our strategic planning process.
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The Strategic Fuel Management Plan identifies locations where is it desirable and feasible to create a strategic fuel break, considering major fire path locations, vegetation and fuel types, terrain and slope, access (potential and existing), forestry staff local knowledge, and land ownership
Our Strategic Fuel Management Plan aligns with current thinking on forest management for ecosystem resiliency and climate change adaptation.
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The following concepts are considered in our strategic planning:
1. Climate change will result in dramatic shifts in species composition and vegetation density within our CFA over the next 60 years.
2. Species currently at the edge of their ecological/climate niche (e.g. red cedar in much of the southern CFA) will no longer establish themselves and grow. Mature individual trees may, however, survive for many years.
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​3. Drought tolerant and fire resistant species with low current presence on much of the landbase (e.g. ponderosa pine) will become the most ecologically suitable species on many low elevation sites, and should be introduced as quickly as possible.
4. Current forest density in the ICH subzones will not be supportable under coming moisture and temperature regimes.
As temperatures rise and summer moisture inputs decrease, wildfires will more likely be catastrophic events that degrade soil and water resources and negatively impact forest structure, composition and function.
Implementating our Strategic Landscape Level Wildfire Protection Plan is a key element in building ecosystem resiliency.
If you are interested in working with us, you can download an application form for our 2026 season by clicking here>
SIFCo USES 5 DIFFERENT WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE TREATMENT TYPES TO REACH OUR FUEL MANAGEMENT GOALS.
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The parameters listed below are consistent for all five of our WUI treatment types.
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All cut stems and other fuels are disposed of by chipping or by piling and burning. This removes all excess fuel from the forest floor so it does not pose a threat during hot dry summers. (Except in a type 5 treatment where Post-treatment cut fuel loads are light, and can be safely disposed of by lop and scatter.)
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Our burns always take place in accordance with the Wildfire Act and Regulations and our piles are located away from retained trees.
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Riparian reserves are established and not treated.
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For the purpose of structural diversity and habitat values, dispersed clumps of conifer under 17.5cm in diameter are retained.
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Disturbed areas due to machine traffic are always seeded within 18 months of disturbance.
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Discontinuous areas of fine fuels up 10 m x 10 m in size may be left untreated to retain biodiversity values.
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Desidous trees & Western yew are always retained as well as habitat trees which are marked and left undisturbed
SELECT A TREATMENT TYPE BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH INDIVIDUAL METHOD AND TO VIEW THEIR ASSOCIATED VIDEOS AND GALLERIES
TYPE 1 TREATMENT
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.
TYPE 1 TREE REMOVAL
Within this type of WUI treatment, overstory stems larger than 17.5cm in diameter are retained. All understory conifers smaller than 17.5cm in diameter are thinned to create a reduced density. ​For the purpose of structural diversity and habitat values, small clumps of conifer regeneration under 17.5cm in diameter are also retained. Fire resistant trees such as deciduous trees and western yew are retained.
TYPE 1 PRUNING
All leave trees are pruned to a height of 2.5m. This removes the ladder fuels which could raise a fire into the overstory.
Dead branches that still have needles and fine branches are pruned to remove excess volatile oils.
TYPE 1 FINE FUEL ABATEMENT
Our Fine Fuel Abatement aims to Reduce accumulations of fine surface fuels by raking and burning.
TYPE 2 TREATMENT
POST HARVEST FUEL MANAGEMENT
This Type 2 treatment method is used in areas that have been previously harvested 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.
TYPE 2 TREE REMOVAL
Within this type of WUI treatment Overstory stems larger than 17.5cm in diameter are retained.
All Understory conifers smaller than 17.5cm in diameter are thinned to create a density of 4m inter-tree spacing.
For the purpose of structural diversity and habitat values, small clumps of conifer regeneration under 17.5cm in diameter are retained.
Areas where no overstory harvest took place and areas which provide a visual screen from roads or trails are the first priority for ‘clump location.’
We ensure these ‘clumps’ do not create a fire pathway within the treated unit. We do this by considering terrain, wind patterns and adjacent vegetation and fuel types.
TYPE 3 TREATMENT
MACHINE BASED INTERFACE CLEAN UP
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.
TYPE 3 TREE REMOVAL
Within this type of WUI treatment Overstory stems larger than 17.5cm in diameter are retained.
most Understory conifers smaller than 17.5cm in diameter are thinned to create a density of 4m intertree spacing where possible.
For the purpose of structural diversity and habitat values, clumps of conifer regeneration under 17.5cm in diameter are retained.
Areas which provide a visual screen from roads or trails are the first priority for clump location. We ensure these ‘clumps’ do not create a fire pathway within the treated unit, considering terrain, wind patterns and adjacent vegetation types/fuel types.
The Creation of machine access trails requires that some overstory stems be felled. This is always minimized as much as possible.
TYPE 4 TREATMENT
FUEL MANAGEMENT FOR HABITAT RESTORATION & ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCY
The southern portion of the CFA contains a few isolated areas of dry ecosystems on steep south facing slopes.
These areas have locally unique plant communities that are more commonly associated with the dry Interior Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone.
Large ponderosa pine (Py) are common, and open pine forests with a fire adapted shrub/herb understory are the desired future condition.
These areas are not part of the timber harvesting landbase.
These sites are the western end of a belt of deer and elk winter/spring range that runs for 25 km to Nelson.
From a climate change adaptation perspective, these units contain outposts of the biota that should thrive in surrounding areas as the climate warms.
These areas are, however, currently being reduced and degraded by coniferous ingress. Further, if/when these areas burn under current fuel loads, the fire is highly likely to be intense, fast moving, and uncontrollable due to combinations of steep slopes, upslope winds, high fine fuel loads, and generally dry conditions.
A fire under current conditions will likely
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kill many of the locally rare and ecologically valuable species on the site, which are not well adapted to extreme fire events,
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kill many or all of the ecologically valuable leave trees, and
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transition from local to landscape scale.
The ecosystem and strategic fire management benefits of managing these areas with low intensity, frequent fires are significant.
Reintroduction of fire will also improve and maintain ungulate range and forage values.
Type 4 treatments in these areas are designed to facilitate the return of fire to the ecosystem. The treatment regime includes:
Machine piling and/or mulching of fuels and debris where terrain conditions are suitable.
Hand treatment as required to reduce fuel loads adjacent to the stems and above the rooting area of large leave trees to reduce fire intensity, and soil and bark heating.
Hand treatment to reduce the fuel loads in dense regeneration thickets to moderate fire intensity.
Creation of very low fuel load fire breaks along the boundary of the burn area.
Reintroduction of fire, as well as post fire surveys and documentation (under separate funding in collaboration with the Southeast Fire Center).
SIFCo is working closely with the BC Wildfire Service - Arrow Fire Zone in the planning and execution of the restoration program.
Safety, smoke management, reserve management and information sharing protocols will be the same as for treatment types 1 through 3.
TYPE 5 TREATMENT
WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE RE -TREATMENT
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.
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FLAMMAP
In order to help determine the positions of our Landscape level strategic fuel breaks we use a program known as Flammap.
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The FlamMap fire mapping and analysis system is a PC-based program that describes potential fire behavior for constant environmental conditions (weather and fuel moisture).
Potential fire behavior calculations include surface fire spread, crown fire initiation, and crown fire spread.
Dead fuel moisture is calculated using the Nelson model and FlamMap permits conditioning of dead fuels in each pixel based on slope, shading, elevation, aspect, and weather.​​
​To the left is our current SVSLLP map of the north section of our tenure within the Slocan Valley created by our Forestry supervisor Tom Bradley & Manager Stephan Martineau.
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When you look at the map you will notice areas where there are double read lines with an arrow head. These are the major fire movement corridors highlighted via FlamMap.
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Using these highlighted corridors, our knowledge of the area, and physical inspection of fuel levels we then decide where our fuel breaks will be placed and which type of treatment an area will undergo.
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To view our SVSLLP map of the South section of our tenure click here.