Image Credit: Wildfire Rehabilitation

By Adam Berls

wildfire rehabilitation

Wildfire suppression rehabilitation: A year round effort and each fire has it’s own individual plan

Aug 23, 2024 | 1:29 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — Wildfire suppression operations can cause an impact to the land through the use of heavy equipment and crews. However, wildfire suppression rehabilitation can start as soon as damage from fire suppression activities happen.

Kyle Miller, with the BC Wildfire Service, says that “rehabilitation begins during the wildfire event.” During wildfire suppression, there are “best management practices” that wildfire crews introduce when building fire guards to minimize negative impacts.

Fire guards are a critical tool in suppression efforts, but Miller says that fire guards can have negative impacts on the land including “disrupting natural drainage patterns such as going through stream crossings and impacting streams.” Miller mentioned that since 2017, the BC Wildfire Service has constructed “over 20,000 kilometers of fire guards and access trails in the province.” To put that into context, the distance from Prince George to St. John’s NFLD, is 6,439.5 kilometers.

Other impacts include:

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• The destabilization of soil caused by the removal of vegetation and exposure of mineral soil that is susceptible to erosion
• The creation of fire hazards due to large quantities of timber and vegetation being pushed aside into berms, decks, or piles
• Damaging infrastructure such as fences or roads and trails that have been modified to provide access and egress to the wildfire
• Increasing the risk of invasive species establishing on site due to exposed soils
• Increasing the risk of erosion or sedimentation of water bodies due to the loss in vegetation and the exposure of soils

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) helps funds projects across the province to help with rehabilitation including re-planting damaged forests, and enhanced wildlife habitat. Steve Kozuki, Executive Director of the FESBC, says that after a wildfire takes place, the society can help fund projects to “clear off the land and reforest it and accelerate the recovery of ecological and wildlife values, and [help] grow a future forest which will sequester carbon from the atmosphere as those trees are growing.”

The FESBC has been involved in a number of projects in Northern B.C from “fuel management prescriptions to reduce wildfire risk to protect critical emergency communications infrastructure located on Pilot Mountain” to a project focused on the development of a “restoration plan and treatment prescriptions for areas impacted by a wildfire near Vanderhoof.”

The BC Wildfire Service employs rehabilitation practitioners, who are responsible for developing and implementing wildfire suppression rehabilitation plans.” Those practitioners have six objectives:

1. Restoring natural drainage patterns
2. Stabilizing soils
3. Minimizing surface erosion
4. Minimizing fire hazards
5. Promoting revegetation while preventing invasive species from inhabiting affected areas
6. Repairing damaged infrastructure

BC Wildfire Services crews also “track rehabilitation activities by the kilometers of fireguards, modified roads, trails, and hand guards constructed during wildfire season and the amount of fire suppression activities can range from 100 to 5,000 km of disturbances annually.” Rehabilitation projects require a year-round effort but tasks often change with the seasons.

The BC Wildfire Services and their partners, have many different ways to rehabilitate damage caused by fire suppression activities including:

• Removing introduced materials from stream crossings, restore stream profiles as required, stabilize stream banks, and promote the revegetation of the riparian area
• Pulling back or recontouring sites with displaced or exposed soils that are no longer stable
• Constructing water management structures or treating soils in a manner that reduces potential for erosion
• Salvaging or disposing of timber and vegetation that has been felled, knocked down, or pushed aside and may pose a fire hazard
• Preparing the soils and seeding where required to promote natural vegetation to establish on exposed soils while reducing the risk of invasive species establishment
• Repairing infrastructure damaged by heavy equipment such as fences

When it comes to rehabilitation, each fire gets its own individual look and treatment plan, so different rehabilitation techniques may be used for each fire. No one fire is unique.

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X: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com