Anglemont Wildfire Risk Reduction Project Update

Piles ready to be burned at the beginning of the forest service road above Estate Place in Anglemont.

By Jo Anne Malpass

“After last summers fires, I understand people’s concerns about the hand piles that were created during the ongoing Wildfire Risk Reduction (WRR) treatment above Anglemont,” Brent Lipinski, RFT, Land and Resource Specialist for the Ministry of Forests, Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District, told the Kicker.

“Every winter, we encourage our WRR contractors to burn as many piles as they legally can however there are many challenges from snow accumulations to finding laborers to our biggest hurdle which is the Open Burning Smoke Control Regulations. Piles can only be burned on days with good venting and in the Shuswap, we only had a couple such days over the entire winter until the month of March.”

At the end of March, the contractor had a dozen staff on site burning as many piles as they safely could adjacent to residents’ homes. The Anglemont Fire Department was on site with crew, ready to act if any of the piles should start to grow larger than intended. BC Wildfire Service staff from the Rap Attack crews were expected to support the contractor by burning piles as well.

“As this project is not yet close to completion, we can not expect all the piles to be burned before the Open Burning Ban comes into effect in the coming days, but the crews will work on burning piles again when safe to do so this fall and next spring as well,” explained Lipinski.

CSRD Protective Services Tom Hansen said Neskonlith’s forestry crew, Sk'atsin Resources, holds the contract for the Anglemont WRR works and crews have been burning every day they legally can, to reduce the fuel loads. The Ministry of Environment has strict guidelines to protect the air quality for vulnerable people with respiratory issues.

Residents should focus their efforts on reducing their own wildfire risk, said Hansen. “The priority for each resident should be to FireSmart their home and immediate surroundings out to 10 meters to remove combustible materials that will ignite if embers fall all around them from a large wildfire.”

Learn more about FireSmart at https://www.csrd.bc.ca/261/FireSmart-in-the-CSRD

Piles being burned at the end of Hudson, in the Anglemont Wildfire Risk Reduction project area. (Kicker staff photos)