The City of Kamloops has updated its Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), a well-planned, sustainable prevention and preparedness program that combines public preparedness education around the wildfire risk with appropriate mitigation efforts. The plan outlines the following goals:
- to identify and quantify the forestland wildfire threats that directly impact on the developed land within the City of Kamloops
- to identify and map all possible fuel management treatment areas within approximately 200 meters of developed areas, that would assist in reducing the wildfire threats in the area
- to establish fuel management guidelines for the City of Kamloops to allow quantifiable assessments of past fuel management activities to ensure fuel treatments meet a consistent standard over time and identify maintenance priorities
- to prioritize new fuel management activities and a maintenance schedule for past treatment units
- to identify opportunities to improve wildfire suppression access to the crown land surrounding the community
- to ensure all fuel management activities recognize the important recreational and visual values of the forested land in and around the City of Kamloops
- to increase awareness of the unique wildfire threats in the City of Kamloops area
The City aggressively pursues wildfire threat reduction treatments on B.C Crown and Municipal Crown lands within the City boundaries. These varied treatments include salvage harvesting, basic pine removal activity with heavy equipment, hand crew treatments involving danger tree removal, spacing and pruning, and surface fuel reduction activities.
The objective of wildfire threat reduction efforts should not be to stop all fires, as this is not realistic or achievable. The objectives should be:
- to use forest fuel management techniques to alter wildfire behaviour on the forested land adjacent to developments to greatly reduce the potential for house and structure losses
- to create safe access for wildland fire crews to more efficiently and effectively control wildfires
- to construct and maintain houses that are designed to withstand a wildfire
Learn more about how you can reduce the wildfire risk to your home and property here.