The Cariboo Regional District (CRD) has announced that wildfire resiliency plans are in development for the south and central portions of the district.
In a news release that came out on April 25, the CRD stated that they were working with Forsite Consulting Ltd, which, according to their website, delivers "cost-effective forest management services" to develop community wildfire resilliency plans for Electoral Areas D (Commodore Heights/Fox Mountain/McLesse Lake/Pine Valley/Wildwood), E (South Lakeside/Dog Creek), F (150 Mile/Miocene/Horsefly/Likely), G (Lac La Hache/108 Mile), H (Canim Lake/Forest Grove) and L (Lone Butte/Interlakes).
Irene Israel, the manager of emergency program services with the CRD, states that the community wildfire resiliency plans help the regional district identify and understand wildfire risk in each community.
"They also give us recommendations, which are community-specific actions to reduce that risk," Israel said.
Israel says that the CRD plans to involve all of their electoral areas, including the north and west of the regional district, in a grand plan, but they had to start somewhere.
"We've started in the south and central, so that's why we included all of the electoral areas in the south and central Cariboo. Next year we'll be covering north and west," Israel explained.
It should also be noted that around $192,000 was received by the regional district from the UBCM Community Resiliency Investment Program, which is, according to the Union of BC Municipalities website, "intended to reduce the risk of wildfires and mitigate their impacts on BC communities" - and which will be covering 100 per cent of the grants to prepare the plans. The CRD plans to apply for the same grant funding next year to cover the six remaining electoral areas.
Israel said that the open houses for the community wildfire resiliency plans will occur during the summer.
"We plan on having one open house for each of the electoral areas, and as soon as the dates have been decided, we'll make sure that it's available publicly. We'll make sure that it's on our website and on our social media pages," said Israel.
The plans are set to be completed by the fall of 2025.
"It is going to be a bigger process in the sense that these plans will be developed by then, and it will have these recommendations in the plan - we will then act on each of these recommendations in the following years," Israel stated, adding that the plans will be maintained and updated every five years from 2025 onwards.
