SRD staff is preparinig an open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island.
This is in response to Coastal Fire Centre’s decision to allow campfires, on June 20: ‘due to cooler conditions and rainfall, which has reduced the fire danger rating in these areas.’ However appropriate this may have been in other areas under the Centre’s control, it was not on Cortes Island. As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!”
Although the campfire ban was lifted on Sept. 3 for most of the BC Coastal Fire Centre region, which Cortes Island belongs to, it’s important to continue using extreme caution, said the fire centre’s staff.
Welcome to the first of a special series of Folk U Radio done in partnership with Cortes Currents that takes the Folk University model of slow learning, local knowledge sharing, and neighbours sharing with neighbours and combines it with Cortes Currents commitment to covering the news most relevant to our communities at this time.
As smoke fills the air and people told to close the windows after being told to open them to air out viral loads during the pandemic, the question forefront on many minds is “Are we prepared for what’s coming?”
