Operational Fuel Treatment
Operational Fuel Treatment refers to a proactive fire hazard mitigation strategy involving the reduction of forest fuels in strategic locations. Recent research indicates Fuel Treatment is cost effective in comparison with suppression techniques. As well, the technique recognizes some of the failings of our long-term fire suppression strategies and is conducted in an ecologically informed fashion.
For nearly one hundred years it has been the mandate of a government agency to protect life, property, and timber values from wildfire in BC. The strategy has become overwhelmingly effective – the BC Forest Service’s Wildfire Management Branch now keeps over 90% of all wildfire starts under one hectare in area. A success by some measures, wildfire suppression is also costly, unpredictable and results in alarming levels of fuel build-up throughout the forests of the province.
Fuel treatment is an effective, pro-active, cost-reducing strategy to mitigate wildfire hazard. It is effective because it recognizes that the prioritization of wildfire suppression around communities, while important, has caused particularly high hazard in sensitive areas. That it is a pro-active, not reactive strategy, removes the unpredictability and urgent nature of emergency response, and significantly reduces overall cost.
Fuel Treatment and the FireSmart program (click link for description) work together to make communities and homes safer. The research comprised in 2003’s Filman Report was prompted by the loss of homes and personal property in separate fires near Kelowna and Barrier, BC. The report indicates a need to focus much more resources on hazard mitigation around communities and suggests doing so by using ground crews to reduce surface fuels in advance of the fire season.
A well-known strategy even before Filman’s report, Fuel Treatment has evolved to become a trusted technique for communities, municipalities, regional districts and private land-owners. Generally the operational work is conducted following prescriptions written by a Registered Professional Forester. The prescription, among other factors, considers the natural state of a site and attempts to reduce fuel loading without ecologically altering the viability of the site for its natural vegetation, water courses, ungulate ranges, bird habitat and more.
A Product for BC Communities
Fuel Treatment programs consider the following in their pursuit of natural and safe forested areas:
1 Maintenance or Improvement of Site Ecology
2 Wildfire Hazard Mitigation
3 Efficient use of Public Funds
