Wildland Recreation & Eco Naturalist (WREN) Consulting

In light of the Wildfire Season that British Columbians have seen and experienced this Summer of 2009, Communities throughout BC need to embrace an effort to help themselves become more proactive in how to protect their homes and communities from the threat of a Wildfire.

“Partners in Protection is a multi-disciplinary partnership committed to raising awareness, providing information and developing forums with a view to encouraging proactive, community-based initiative”. Partners in Protection have developed a manual titled “FireSmart: Protecting Your Community from Wildfire”, this manual and program provides the public with the necessary tools in planning and in mitigating the risk of fire in interface areas.

In October 2009,  at the Partners in Protection conference and AGM in Jasper, Alberta, 'Professional’ Wildfire and Structural Firefighters had an opportunity to share valuable knowledge and information about fires within the Wildland Urban Interface. Partners in Protection are trying to initiate a National Program around the "FireSmart" Program. With Federal and Provincial ‘buy-in’ to the FireSmart Program, a successful National FireSmart Program can be developed that would benefit communities throughout Canada. 

In Kaslo, a "FireSmart Neighbourhoods" pilot project will target local 'neighbourhoods' to provide assistance on mitigating the risk of fire around their homes and interface areas. It is important to get the public to personally implement a ‘FireSmart' program within their 'Neighborhoods', as this would ensure that the public has ‘bought into’ managing the fuels around their homes as well as protecting their communities from wildfire.

The FireSmart Program is modeled after the very successful “FireWise Communities” Program within the United States. If you would like to learn more about the FireSmart/FireWise Programs and obtain a FireSmart Manual, please visit the Partners in Protection Website at http://www.partnersinprotection.ab.ca/ or the US FireWise Communities Website at http://www.firewise.org/ .