Residents in Bragg Creek are arguing an initiative to protect homes and businesses from potential wildfires will simply open the door for more logging in the area.
The Greater Bragg Creek Wildfire Mitigation Strategy is aimed at increasing wild fire awareness and removing fuel sources for flames around a home in an effort to reduce the potential for fires in the area. However, some area residents are critical of parts of the strategy.
“What we’re trying to do is educate people to work on FireSmarting their own properties,” said Carol Leriger, chairperson of the Bragg Creek FireSmart Community Zone Planning Committee.A draft version of the plan has been completed, which makes a number of recommendations for residents and business owners to reduce the potential for
wildfires. Many recommendations focus on reducing hazards around buildings, such as: removing flammable vegetation within 10 meters of buildings; removing branches from trees up to two meters above the ground; removing dead and fallen trees from the forest floor; and regular maintenance to remove needles, leaves and other combustible materials around buildings.
The report also recommends setting standards for fire-safe materials for all new developments and standards for roads to ensure access for residents and emergency personnel in the event of a fire.
Leriger said the County of Rocky View will have a role in drafting new bylaws for Bragg Creek such as which construction materials will be allowed in the hamlet.
She said she would also like to see another access road built into the West Bragg Creek area..
“There’s only that one road out of West Bragg Creek and the same with Wintergreen… if there is a fire coming in it could be a real disaster,” said Leriger.
The document notes preliminary planning is underway for the creation of containment areas in the forest reserve west and south of Bragg Creek.
The areas are intended to serve as “fuelbreaks” to reduce the intensity of potential wildfires and to help prevent them from spreading.
Ralph Carter, Bragg Creek Environmental Coalition member, supports initiatives to protect homes ifrom wildfires and agrees with the need to manage forest areas.
However, he said he is concerned interest in preventing wildfires is being used as an excuse for expanding logging efforts in the Kananaskis area.
Carter called plans for the fuelbreak areas red herrings.
“On the face of it, it sounds entirely reasonable, we know forests burn and we know it’s very likely a burning forest will arise somewhere in the Kananaskis and spread into Rocky View, so it seems that forest management could help,” said Carter, a forest ecologist at the University of Calgary.
According to Carter, plans for fire breaks target areas with mature trees, not areas where younger trees were planted after logging operations since.
“They’re pretending that removing an old forest and replacing it with a young one somehow protects us from fire,” he said.
Carter suggested creating a permanent firebreak that would follow a road or some other feature that would be at least as wide as the tallest trees in the area and big enough to prevent fires spreading through radiant transfer of heat.
Leriger said the plan has nothing to do with logging.
She said the harvesting plans simply are being adapted to provide protection to Bragg Creek against the spread of wildfires
Leriger said a variety of groups were involved in drawing up plans for the Kananaskis area, including Spray Lakes Sawmills, grazing operators and recreational groups.
She said it’s not possible to build a firebreak to surround the community.
“We’re not able to build a firebreak or ring around the community itself because we’d have to buy the land from private landowners,” she said.
Rocky View Councillor Rick Butler said the FireSmart committee will respond to concerns raised and continue to work to improve protection for Bragg Creek from fires.
However, he said areas in the Kananaskis are part of a separate provincial process ultimately outside the County’s jurisdiction.
“Firesmart may play a role in it, but it’s a provincial process,” he said.
The draft plan is available at www.rockyview.ca.
