Quesnel City Council has now approved a Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Erin Robinson, Regional Manager of the Fraser Basin Council, went over some of the details at last night’s meeting, including the area of intent…
“This plan covers several distinctive communities that fall within that red line…Lhtako Dene First Nation, the City of Quesnel proper, Bouchie Lake, 10 Mile, Kersley, Barlow Creek and West Fraser, totaling over 88 thousand hectares, of which though 50 thousand are private land.”
34 different areas were identified as having forests that would burn aggressively and potentially damage houses covering one thousand hectares.
Bruce Morrow is a Forest Consultant…
“A thousand hectares of high hazard forests, basically right out people’s backyards, that’s our first highest priority. The other 1700 hectares we identified is something we looked at as more of a landscape level plan so when we get fires, what can we do with fires south of town, west of town, what can we do to keep those fires out of town and stop them from getting to our communities.”
Several recommendations were also made.
The plan will now go to UBCM and BC Wildfire Service for review.
This process normally takes 60 days but Council is asking that it be expedited to just 30 so it can meet a funding deadline of February 23rd for fuel management prescription applications.