It has taken the residents of some 125 homes on Anarchist Mountain only nine months to be recognized as a FireSmart community by FireSmart Canada. Last Saturday afternoon they came together to witness the awarding of a sign by Thomas Blank Coordinator of Forest Fuel Management for First Nations Emergency Services working out of Kamloops.
Blank had come to the Osoyoos Mountain Estates Welcome Centre on Peregrine Road and Hwy 3 along with Peter Hisch who is B.C.’s Superintendent of Fuel Management working out of Cranbrook. Hisch works for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Wildfire Management Branch. They can be found online at www.bcwildfire.ca. The two are responsible for the entire province so a lot of work goes on via phone and email.
Blank presented the award on behalf of FireSmart Canada to the Anarchist Mountain FireSmart Board that was formed last April.
MLA Linda Larson was on hand as well. “This is amazing what you have done,” said Larson. “I am not going to claim to have anything to do with it at all, but I am going to steal it and encourage other areas of the province to do what you have done. You are a model community for what should be happening throughout the province.”
“The work we’ve done in the community is what we are trying to take across the province,” Blank said during the ceremony. “You are one of the top ten communities that has made the list so far.”
According to Anarchist Mountain Community Association President Mark McKenney theirs’ is the first non-First Nation community in BC to be recognized as a FireSmart Community by FireSmart Canada.
Since the FireSmart Board was formed they have held seminars for residents and conducted property assessments to document the efforts of residents. This was done within the guidelines of FireSmart Canada.
“What you folks have done here is exactly how it is supposed to work,” said Blank. “I can’t thank you enough for all the effort and energy that you have put into this.”
Blank said the program sets a target of $2 per capita as what it should cost for a community to achieve certification. It is estimated that the Anarchist Mountain program cost less than $500. There is no provincial funding for FireSmart to private homeowners.
He said forest fuel management starts at your backdoor and moves out to the forest. “What we are looking for in order to save a structure is about five to ten metres from you home outwards. It truly gives your home a chance to survive a wildfire.”
Hisch called the Anarchist Mountain program a poster-child for how it is supposed to work. “Community driven, neighbourhood driven, people working together to get this done for the private land and home owners.”
Hisch recently held the first of six FireSmart representative workshops that will be held around the province. The workshops are meant to train the trainer with local government representatives, regional district emergency service coordinators and structural fire department personnel learning so that local residents have someone they can go to in their community. The first workshop in Creston was attended by two residents from Anarchist Mountain and they will be conducting half-day seminars to pass on their knowledge. Kamloops will be the closest remaining workshop to be held, though the date has yet to be announced.
“The biggest missing piece from my perspective in B.C. is the FireSmart on private land,” said Hisch. “I am hopeful we can continue the fuels program provincially because it is the ounce of prevention. You aren’t going to prevent fire starts but you are going to mitigate the devastating impacts of wildfire we have by conducting the treatments.”
Four residents came together as the local FireSmart Board. Chuck Harrison served as president at first, and he is now the secretary with Denis Thomson as the president.
Another founding member is Richard Douziech who said, “Awareness of what we can do as a community and as individuals to make our homes and our community as protected as possible. Communities have a responsibility to protect themselves. Thinking ahead and you prepare your property with a little bit of common sense.” Also on the FireSmart Board are Walter Zinowki and Darren Hutchenson.
The program was funded by the Anarchist Mountain Community Society and 100 per cent of the residents participated.
Also attending the ceremony was Mark Pendergraft rural director of Area A of the regional district.
Osoyoos Mountain Estates was very supportive of the program. They donated a lot to be used for residents to drop off the brush and slash they clear from their property and the developer has adopted the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code.
“This has brought the community together in ways I could never have imagined,” said Hutcheson who owns Quintech Fire Services whose equipment can be seen just above the Canyonview Bridge.
“We can easily duplicate this anywhere. If people in the Boundary want to do this we are willing to help them. It is easy to do.”
Those interested can contact Hisch at peter.hisch@gov.bc.ca or Blank at tblank@fness.bc.ca