Work has started on the landscape around Baldy Mountain Resort to create a fuel break to decrease the opportunity for wildfire behaviour.
The estimated six to eight week project is concentrated on a 350 to 400-metre-wide horseshoe shaped band surrounding Baldy Mountain Resort, the community and the resort’s future sub-divisions. Work is being done to increase spacing between tree crowns and decreasing surface fuel loading on the forest floor so if/when a fire enters the fuel break, it is lower in intensity allowing firefighters to have a better chance at battling it successfully. The project is not a clear cutting of the stands, but rather a thinning of trees in a patch format i.e. leaving islands of trees.
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“We at Baldy Mountain Resort are happy that work is commencing to protect the Baldy community and the resort which supports our local area,” said Andy Foster, general manager of the resort in a news release. “Collectively, our team in collaboration with our project partners, have done a lot of work to get to this point and we are looking forward to seeing the prescribed area in the future after a few years of settling down and regrowth. We have also realized there may be opportunity for recreational use of the area where the work is being done, which is exciting for the resort.”
Baldy Mountain Resort, alongside Osoyoos Indian Band, the Mountain Resorts Branch, Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC), and wildfire management specialists at Davies Wildfire Management are working on the project.
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According to the news release from Baldy Mountain Resort, it was in the 1930s when a fire last moved through the area. The subsequent stand that has grown back is dense and is now prone to a large scale, catastrophic wildfire. A landscape level fuel break would serve to reduce the severity of a wildfire. Baldy Mountain Resort applied for a FESBC grant a few years prior, which was accepted and has led to the decision to move ahead to develop the fire break.
“FESBC is delighted to participate with Baldy Mountain Resort in reducing wildfire risk to their citizens, homes, and infrastructure such as emergency escape routes, water availability, and communication,” said FESBC operations manager Dave Conly. “FESBC applauds Mount Baldy for recognizing the risk of wildfire and taking action to reduce that risk.”
Mount Baldy Resort attained its funding in the first year of FESBC making grants available.
“Although other resorts have done similar work, we at Baldy are aiming to set a benchmark for how to successfully complete the prescription while leaving the best possible, atheistically pleasing environment,” said Foster. “Ultimately, the fuel break will help protect the community of 100-plus cabins as well as Baldy Mountain Resort for years to come, which is the overall goal.”
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