Jim Hilton
Forest Ink
After seeing some recent logging along highway 20 near the Esler subdivision west of Williams Lake, I tried to find the latest information on the Williams Lake fire protection plan. There are a number of sources for the information and |I would like to suggest one that I found the most current and informative was the Fraser Basin Council Roundtable (FBCR) summary of the Feb. 3, 2023 meeting of the Williams Lake and Area Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
The original CWPP report published in 2019 involved over 15 organizations and included 27 recommendations along with detailed maps.
A number of roundtables and 10 meetings up to January 2023 are described in the FBCR website. I was not able to find the recent disturbance that I was looking for on the map but this is not a criticism of the very detailed information because as the saying goes the day after a map is printed it will likely be out-of-date.
Most of the information sources describe how the CWPP resulted from unprecedented threat in the face of wildfires forcing the city’s evacuation for almost two weeks from July 14 to July 27, 2017. The CWPP was created in cooperation with the Cariboo Regional District, Williams Lake First Nation and Xat’sull First Nation along with collaboration between multiple stakeholders including the B.C. government, several interest groups, BC Wildfire Service, the Fraser Basin Council, forestry consultants, the Williams Lake Community Forest, BC Timber Sales, woodlot licensees and forest industry representatives. Fuel treatments included thinning and pruning trees, gathering and removing surface fuels, and then periodic maintenance.
Removing surface fuels may, in some situations, include the use of prescribed fire under a burn plan prepared and carried out by a qualified burn boss. Two examples are the burns done in Boitanio park and the Stampede park. I am in the process of contacting a number of organizations listed in the meeting summaries to see if anyone is willing to provide information on where are at in meeting some of the recommendations and in particular what percentage of the proposed treatments have been completed.
My experience in the past is this information is difficult to get from government sources but perhaps some of the industry or private organizations may be willing to provide a reasonable estimate of our status. After reviewing the maps it looks like we are doing fairly well, at least better than the 10 per cent as mentioned in a recent report from a city to the south of us. Hopefully the government sources are working on a report describing the status of the many wildfire plans across the province. Equally important in the future will be sharing of information on what is being done in the many plans in other provinces as to how communities are dealing with the ongoing maintenance of the wildfire treatment areas as well as the effectiveness of treatments during a fire.
I would like to compliment and encourage organizations like the Fraser Basin Council to keep providing the information they have published to date.
Jim Hilton is a retired forester who lives in the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
