Grants totalling over $2 million help recognize Whitecourt as a leader in FireSmart practices

During Monday evening’s regular meeting of council, Whitecourt Fire Chief Brian Wynn along with Mike Milner, Wildfire Prevention Officer for the Whitecourt Wildfire Management Area, provided a breakdown of what has been accomplished locally though the FireSmart program since 2010. Much of the work that took place within the last decade was completed in 2014 and beyond after Chief Wynn took over the top duties in 2013.

The first grant received was $50,000 from FireSmart Canada to carry out five hectares of vegetation management on the west side of Dahl Drive. The second grant received that same year came from the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA) for $153,000 which enabled the completion of another 27.07 hectares in the same area. Chief Wynn said starting the work in that highly visible area was done on purpose.

“If you don’t have the public on board as soon as you start doing work you will get shut down. You need to educate people and get them on your side. We wanted to do this right beside Dahl Drive, the busiest area in town, to introduce FireSmart to the community.” The work that was completed ended up being inspected by FRIAA which helped showcase Whitecourt’s ability to utilize grants properly and enable them to get more grants in the future.

The inspection proved successful as the very next year another $158,000 was received from FRIAA to treat another 27 hectares of the Dahl Drive forest area. FireSmart Canada also provided a grant of $100,000 from the Community Series Grant. Each year, a community is selected to tour and learn from as part of the Community Series Program. It was this program that Chief Wynn attended in Slave Lake in 2013 which kickstarted his passion for FireSmart.

It was shortly after the massive wildfire caused destruction in the community and he saw how similar Whitecourt and Slake Lake are. From there, Chief Wynn began attending trade fairs and open houses to bring public education to the forefront. In 2016, the year of the Fort McMurray wildfire, the department took advantage of the scenario to reach as many people as possible during the Whitecourt Trade Fair by having booth visitors download the Wildfire app and Alberta Emergency Alert app.

That year was also the first time they were able to bring in a summer crew thanks to a FireSmart Canada grant. Work was completed along Centennial Park and along the powerline behind Ravine Drive. “We actually had the residents help us put together the plan for behind the residences. We had their input.” From there, AltaLink partnered to make the powerline area maintainable and lower the fire hazard behind the homes.

In 2017, Whitecourt hosted the FireSmart Community Series to a sold-out crowd, and Chief Wynn ended up being elected as a member on the FireSmart Canada board. He was then elected vice-president and still holds that position. Along with Milner, Chief Wynn has been making quick work of vegetation management. “We’ve pretty much completed all the vegetation management that was identified within the town boundary and we are now working on maintaining that treatment. We need to work closer with other areas in the Town of Whitecourt like developments and parks and recreation. We also need to work with some of our other partners in things like cross-training for wildfire response in case of fire threatening the town,” explained Milner.

Another big change was the review of the Mitigation Strategy which was increased from the town boundary to a 10-kilometre perimeter from the town. One area that hadn’t been thought of previously was the islands on the river. “If they caught fire, the embers would come into town and they are very close to Millar Western’s log pile. If that lights up, then we are in big trouble. So, it’s about trying to eliminate that risk to Millar Western and the town,” explained Chief Wynn.

Milner said they will be looking closely at the islands this summer. Though they could potentially burn the thick brush, the fuel load might be too much of a risk to light. “The other option is to have a mitigation plan in place to deal with that hazard when and if a fire is coming if we can’t do something pre-emptively.”

In total, since 2014, Whitecourt has received $2,265,500 in FireSmart funding between FireSmart Canada and FRIAA. That funding has resulted in vegetation management being completed on 474 hectares and a further 120 hectares was retreated. Through all the work, Whitecourt has become a recognized and respected leader in FireSmart, not only in the province but also in Canada. In fact, the Fort McMurray FireSmart crew visited Whitecourt to see the projects underway here.

Going forward, Chief Wynn hopes to get more residents onboard with home assessments which are a free service being offered to homeowners. Mayor Chichak said she had one done and that the experience was very enlightening. “It’s amazing in terms of the information and the detailed report you get back and good suggestions, too. Even if you think your yard is totally safe, it’s not. There were a lot of great suggestions for me including things that I didn’t even think about that were in my yard that were hazards.”

For this summer, Chief Wynn said one of the goals is to do wildland urban interface training. “We want to do an actual exercise of deploying sprinklers. We want to make some stands for the sprinklers and actually put them out and turn them on and work with the residents.” He said continuing to work collaboratively with Milner and others will make Whitecourt stronger and safer.

“We look forward to having all town departments lead FireSmart best practices. We want to include parks, developments, utilities, recreation, and facilities. We want to lead by example. We want to work with residents, buildings, and landscapers to start a FireSmart working group that includes companies like Millar Western, West Fraser, the pipeline companies, ATCO, and Pembina. We are already working with some of them and they are doing some mowing and mulching for us. That way when someone is doing something, hopefully, they are thinking about doing it to the FireSmart standards,” Chief Wynn concluded.