Creston Community Forest

Southeast Fire Centre

The Creston Community Forest has completed a 10.6 hectare prescribed fire project with an allocation of $12,430 and generating 28 total person days of employment.

Goat Mountain Prescribed Fire – Story by Daniel Gratton, Creston CF Manager

On March 26^th and 27^th  2021, the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) carried out a prescribed burn on two blocks located in the Creston Community Forest’s management area.

Both blocks are in the Wildland Urban Interface directly north of town and were cable harvested in the winter/spring 2020 leaving 40-50% of the basal area.  Combined, the blocks measure 10.6 hectares in size and are part of a wildfire risk reduction initiative that the Creston Community Forest started on Goat Mountain in the fall of 2019.

The BCWS and the Creston Community Forest initially began collaborating in the summer 2020 to determine the feasibility of the project and the preparation required, prior to the burn taking place.  The construction of fireguards around the perimeter of both cutblocks occurred in the fall of 2020 and was funded by the Forest Enhancement Society of BC.  This work was completed by a local contractor.

The BCWS assessed the site once the blocks became snow free in mid March 2021.  Given that this was one of the first prescribed burns in the Creston Valley and that the burn was proposed for the spring, the BCWS saw this as a perfect training opportunity for their wildfire crews.

Mop up, the clean up after the prescribed fire, was carried out by the same crew who completed the fireguard in the late fall 2020.  This time, funding was provided by the Wildfire Risk Reduction program a partnership between the BCCFA and the BCWS .  Given the success of the prescribed burn, the BCWS and the Creston Community Forest will look at working together on future projects.

The collaboration between the Community Forest and  the BCWS was a success.  Manager Daniel Gratton noted the professional and  knowledgeable status of the BCWS crew: “Mike Morrow, Asa Maclarin and Billy Stevens are all extremely helpful. The BCWS did the outreach to the general public which was a huge help. This included the BCWS FaceBook posts, notifications in the local newspaper and on the radio.  We also posted on our webpage. There were very few complaints about the smoke from the prescribed burn due to the ideal conditions  on both days we burned.”

There are also two projects under consideration:

• Big Bear Prescription Development
• Russell Creek Operational Treatment

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the

Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development