WHEREAS certain Crown forest lands located in regional district electoral areas and adjacent to municipal boundaries present a significant risk to communities from catastrophic wildfire events which may inundate communities with volatile ember showers; AND WHEREAS management of these forest lands, including forest fuel loading, is ultimately the responsibility of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and that said Ministry has fully funded fuel abatement measures in the past but no longer does so: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations be called upon to reinstate its former policy of providing full funding for fuel abatement on Crown forest lands located in regional district electoral areas and adjacent to municipal boundaries.
Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations To address wildfire risks on Crown lands, the Ministry has recently initiated landscape fire management planning. The objective of landscape fire management planning is to mitigate the threat of wildfire by creating landscape-level fuel breaks to reduce risks to critical values. The Wildfire Management Branch will be collaborating with regional stewardship staff, industry, First Nations and communities to identify the highest wildfire risks in their area and prioritize actions, prevent future threats and evolve landscape to a more fire resilient state. The Ministry will complete modeling of wildlife risk for all areas across British Columbia within two years. These models will be used to help set priorities for action and support future operational planning that will mitigate negative impacts from large scale intense wildfire activity. The Provincial Fuel Management Working Group is currently reviewing the 2011-12 Strategic Wildfire Prevention Initiative and will consider initiative adjustments, including reviewing funding ratios. If approved, initiative adjustments would be implemented in the 2013 program.