The City of Nelson is piloting a new remote-controlled technology to reduce wildfire fuels west of Gyro Park.
Rob Leland, the City’s Wildfire Resiliency Coordinator, says the Gyro Park area was identified as a crucial location for fuel mitigation, but its steep slopes have made it difficult to access.
“It’s a really steep slope with limited access, and it’s surrounded. We have a park up top that we can’t access with equipment, which really presents a challenge on getting the debris out of there. The labour costs of trying to treat this area would make it pretty infeasible, so we’re trying to find ways around those challenges. This year, we’ve elected to hire a contractor with this new piece of technology.”
The small-scale forestry machine is capable of accessing steep terrain, chipping woody materials in place, and transporting the chips out of the treatment area for off-site disposal. This allows for the removal of heavy fuel loads while minimizing environmental impacts.
Pre- and post-treatment data will be collected to determine effectiveness and the potential future application of this technology, with the results submitted to BC Wildfire Service.
Conventional pile-and-burn techniques were also deemed inappropriate for most of the area due to the potential for smoke affecting Kootenay Lake Hospital in close proximity.
The treatment area below Gyro Park was identified as a mitigation priority after it became the target of arson in July, which Leland says reinforced the urgency of treating fuel loads within core urban areas.
“We had already identified it for treatment and had slated it to be done this year. It was already mapped out. We had applied for funding. But certainly when that fire started here, being aware of the heavy fuel loads, it piqued all of our interest because of how it could have really gotten ripping if it got into these fuels.”
The efforts are part of a larger, grant-funded wildfire risk reduction project the City is conducting on eight parcels of municipally-owned land this fall.
It’s being funded through the Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) program, administered by Columbia Basin Trust.
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