Plans released for fireguard to protect Canmore, surrounding areas
CBC
In collaboration with several communities in the Bow Valley, the mountain town of Canmore, Alta., is taking the lead on a project to construct a fireguard in the Bow Valley.
Canmore released a plan this week for what it's calling the Bow Valley Community Fireguard, which would run from the east park gates to Dead Man's Flats.
The Town says the plan was created with help from wildfire behaviour experts, disaster planners, forestry specialists and biologists.
The goal is to slow the spread of future wildfires and protect lives, property and critical infrastructure in the Bow Valley, according to a press release.
The fireguard's construction is not a sure thing just yet, as it still needs funding.
The project leader is Caitlin Miller, Canmore's director of emergency management and manager of protective services.
She says an application for fireguard funding will soon be submitted to the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta's (FRIAA), which is a non-profit group accountable to the Ministry of Forestry and Parks.
The FRIAA is managing a community fireguard funding program, partly funded by the Government of Alberta.
"The applications are due mid-September. So we're looking forward to submitting an application and hopefully being successful to start the construction this fall," said Miller.
The bulk of the work would be removing trees to create a thinned-out forest zone in multiple areas of the Bow Valley.
"If you've removed the trees and opened up this band of more open cover, then it's going to be more conducive to aerial suppression with air tankers or helicopters," said fire behaviour specialist Jen Beverly, an associate professor in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta.
She says fewer trees means less fuel for wildfires, which can reduce fire intensity and make them easier to manage.
"It could also assist with constructing firelines with heavy equipment, bulldozers and ground crews."
The plan calls for mechanically harvesting trees over the next three to five years.
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