City of Prince George revamping wildfire plan

Dec 8, 2017 | 3:17 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — The unprecedented wildfire season this past summer has many municipalities looking at their Community Wildfire Protection Plans.

The province mandated those plans following the Kelowna fires of 2003 and the Fillman Report that followed.

But many of those plans, like the City of Prince George’s, have lapsed. The city held meetings as early as this week to look at revamping the plan.

“It’s mostly about our susceptability to wildfire risk,” explains Josh Kelly, the Suspervisor of Energy, Environment and Sustainability. “A lot of it has to do with mapping, where the high risk is in what they term out “area of interest.”

But, the city is doing something a bit different this time. It is partnering with the Regional District of Fraser Fort George in putting together the plan.

“With a lot of these plans, it’s good to collaborate. They are populations that are directly adjacent to the city that are certainly affected,” says Kelly. “In addtion to that, in 2009, [the City] did a landscape behaviour modelling report and it showed that some of the risks to the City of Prince George come from outside the city.”

The city applied to the Province, via the Union of BC Municipalities, for funding to help offset that plan. Kelly says, with the funding now in hand, the city will begin the work in the new year.