Tag Archives: Wildfire Fuel Mitigation

Cortes Forestry General Partnership Public Meeting Covers Wildfire Prevention and the Five-Year Plan

The Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP) held a public meeting on Thursday, May 30, 2024. CFGP is an equal partnership between the Klahoose First Nation and the Cortes Community Forest Co-operative and manages operations in the Community Forest, comprised of much of the island’s Crown forests. 

The main theme of the meeting was wildfire prevention. Fire Chief Eli McKenty offered an opening presentation on ways the Community Forest and Cortes Island Fire Department are collaborating to reduce fire risks. 

Continue reading Cortes Forestry General Partnership Public Meeting Covers Wildfire Prevention and the Five-Year Plan

Here’s how Sunshine Coast Community Forest is reducing its wildfire risk

Editor’s note: A model for addressing wildfire risk, seems similar to what the SRD is doing on Cortes.

By Jordan Copp, Coast Reporter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With more than 400 active wildfires currently burning in B.C., the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) is implementing a new resiliency plan in the event of a major fire in its tenure area. 

Sunshine Coast Community Forest has established a Wildfire Resiliency Plan in partnership with Frontera Forest Solutions, SCCF announced last month.

Continue reading Here’s how Sunshine Coast Community Forest is reducing its wildfire risk

Mark Lombard: Community Forest 5-Year Plan

The Cortes Community Forestry Co-operative held its annual AGM on May 7th at Mansons Hall. The Co-operative is an equal partner with Klahoose First Nation in the Cortes Forestry General Partnership, locally known as the “Community Forest.” Mark Lombard is the General Manager for the Partnership.

At the Forestry Co-op AGM, Mark reminded attendees that a public meeting would be held soon (May 11 at the Klahoose Multipurpose Hall). At this meeting he would present a review of the Partnership’s activities to date, and their plans for the next few years. This event would mark the launch of a public input period for the “Five Year Plan” for the Community Forest project.

At this point in the planning process, the five year plan is wide open for comment and feedback. And if there’s an area that someone thinks would be a sensible area to operate in — in the next five years — that hasn’t been considered, please bring that forward.

If there are any other features or concerns or ideas… basically what I’m trying to say is, it’s wide open to public feedback, so we’d like to hear from people, and everything’s on the table at this point.

— Mark Lombard

Currents interviewed Mark on May 19th, to offer our readers/listeners an overview of the material he covered in his May 11 presentation. [The audio version of this interview is quite different from the image-heavy text version, so we recommend that interested readers check out both media.]

Continue reading Mark Lombard: Community Forest 5-Year Plan

Fuel mitigation around the Cortes Recycling Centre

 “When you talk about fuel, most people think about fuel for a vehicle or fuel for something like that, but fuel for a forest fire  is wood on the ground or standing wood? The idea  is to reduce the fuel load to reduce the severity of a fire. As it approaches that location, the fire will slow down and most likely drop to the ground because we’ve opened up the canopy. The danger trees have been removed and the debris on the ground’s been removed. So it would be a lot easier for firefighters to make a stand,” explained Tor Ellingsen of Reef Point Falling.

He was talking about the recently completed Cortes Island Recycling Centre Wildfire Mitigation Project.

Continue reading Fuel mitigation around the Cortes Recycling Centre

Focusing on wildfire fuel mitigation

The Cortes Forestry General Partnership is currently focusing on wildfire fuel mitigation strategies. 

While none have been large, there were recent fires on West RedondaReadQuadra and Sonora Islands.

“It’s highly possible that we can have a fire here,” said General Manager Mark Lombard.  

Continue reading Focusing on wildfire fuel mitigation