Getting smart about fire
The resort municipality of Whistler, BC’s favorite playground, is getting smart about wildfires. I actually had no idea because Whistler sits far away from the inland dry forests. It’s these forests that are burning as I type this. But it’s very smart to get ready for wildfires because global warming is happening right now. Wildfire threat to Whistler is real.
Yesterday morning I took my teenage daughter on an easy bike ride out of Whistler village. We biked on the popular and flat, Valley trail. The trail follows the river and on a sunny day like ours, it makes for a nice easy bike ride.
As we biked along, I noticed a worker pruning trees just off the trail using a pole saw. So I stopped to ask him some questions and he even posed for a picture!
His task was to prune the trees up to 2-3m, whatever he could reach with his pole saw. The branches were neatly stacked by the trail ready for the chipper. I think the plan is to work until October; I presume it gets too cold in Whistler late in the fall.
Forest fuel
According to one of the supervisors, this kind of work has never been done in Whistler. Removing the biggest dead trees from the forest floor limits the fuel available for any future fires; and the 2-3m clearance should make it harder for fires to spread. Thinning the trees might also help.
After posing for a picture, the worker offered me a pamphlet. It shows you what adjustments you can make to your home. For example, your roof should fire resistant or retardant, chimneys should have spark arrestors, and the door should have a good seal and be fire rated-air flow draws embers inside the house and starts a fire.
The most important zone is the first 10m away from your home so this is where any tree pruning or removal should happen. Whistler organizes chipper days so don’t worry about generating huge amounts of green waste.
Embers!
According to Daniel Mathews (Trees in trouble, 2020, p.234), “the number one way houses catch wildfire is from flaming embers landing on them“. Remember, embers can fly up to 2km ahead of the fire and Mathews describes some wildfires as “blizzards of embers“. If you leave your gutters clogged with pine needles, you might have a problem.
We all have to be fire smart as the climate shifts with global warming. There are things you can do to your home to make it fire proof. Start with the Whistler FireSmart manual and read Trees in trouble by Daniel Mathews.
