Ken Alexander South Green Lake
A fuel mitigation project from the east end of Green Lake South Road to Buffalo Ranch is currently in the 2023 plan for operational treatments, according to a local Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations spokesperson.
The contract for archaeology work will go out this spring as the work needs to be done after the snow melts.
A draft fuel management prescription has been developed for the area, and it will be finalized after the First Nations archaeology reports and other referrals are completed, the ministry spokesperson said.
The planned treatment is an approximately 200-metre-wide linear fuel break along the back of the private properties and it will come up to the borders of those properties.
The treatment is not a commercial logging operation like that done behind the South Green Lake Fire Hall because there is not enough merchantable volume in there to remove, the ministry said.
The ministry is not targeting trees of merchantable size or value. It’s just a surface fuel reduction.
Prior to Norbord shutting its doors, there was some talk about providing more harvesting area to make it economically viable for the company. However, the spokesperson said the ministry has reduced the size of the original Norbord blocks to a wildfire interface fuel break.
The proposed mechanical and hand treatments include retaining all live conifer trees greater than a 12.5 centimetre (cm.) diameter at breast height (DBH), and all deciduous trees unless they’re considered dangerous.
The removal of 95 per cent of conifers less than 12.5 cm DBH, pruning of retained conifers and then raking, piling and burning of surface fuels where operationally feasible (as was done on the earlier fuel break) is also proposed.
The treatment is expected to be completed by the summer/fall of 2023.
There will also be FireSmart clean-up of dead and down debris along access 7A and the empty property across Green Lake South Road at the same access in the summer of 2022.
The debris from this project is intended to be made available for community firewood.
This area was pointed out by the two South Green Lake Local FireSmart Representatives (LFRs) and the Bravo Neighbourhood Champion during a neighbourhood assessment of the Bravo FireSmart Neighbourhood last summer.
The LFRs are looking at getting a second neighbourhood in the South Green Lake community certified in 2022.
The local FireSmart crew is looking for volunteer FireSmart Neighbourhood Champions on the east and west ends of South Green Lake community.
If you are interested, contact Ken at top_drawer@shaw.ca or call 250-456-7496.
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