The Town of Canmore is undertaking FireSmart work on provincial land within the municipal limits.
Right now, crews are working on removing materials that could fuel a wildfire on Larch Island, around the Engine Bridge and Rundleview.
Fire Chief Todd Sikorsky said it is the first-time municipal work under the FireSmart program has been conducted on provincial lands.
“Throughout the last seven or eight years we have been trying to get our partners… in the town boundaries to take care and FireSmart their own lands,” Sikorsky said. “They did not have the resources to do that and offered for us to be the project lead.”
Project manager Stew Walkinshaw said a 2010 FireSmart plan identified hazardous areas within Town of Canmore corporate limits for work to remove fuels in order to protect the community from a wildfire.
“We are thinning smaller and sub-dominant trees and then we are taking out the dead and down and we are pruning the limbs up,” Walkinshaw said. “We are taking out the dead and dry fuel that is underneath the main canopy to reduce chances of fire spreading through the crown to the houses.”
The material is being piled and burned on site and firewood-sized material is made available for residents to use. By conducting the work on behalf of the province, Sikorsky said it provides better protection for the community.
“For us to be able to protect our community better we need to have all islands of land in our municipality prescribed in the same way,” he said.
