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Fuel Management Prescriptions, Burn Planning, and Operations
British Columbian communities are almost always surrounded by – or living within – forests and forest ecosystems.
This means that communities must plan, strategize and implement some level of forest activity within their jurisdictions. We help consult on many of the commonly needed forest management services requested by our clients.
what we do
Fuel Management
An important part of reducing wildfire risk to BC's communities is managing wildfire fuels in the interface area around the communities. Those areas usually have previously been identified as areas of interest (AOI) for wildfire risk reduction in CWRPs or WUI WRR plans.
By reducing the amount of wildfire fuels and separating fuel strata / reducing interconnectedness of fuel layers we are able to reduce the risk of a potential ignition spreading into an uncontrollable wildfire. We reduce the risk of a fire starting on the forest floor by removing fine surface fuels and in addition we prevent low intensity fires from spreading into the crown by separating surface fuels from the tree crowns. Fuel reduction can include removal of surface fuels, ladder fuels or crown fuels and usually entails debris removal, chipping on site, piling and burning or prescribed burning.
We work with regional and municipal governments and First Nations communities to develop holistic Fuel Management Prescriptions (FMPs) and community burn plans. FMPs contain integrated strategies for vegetation management, fuel reduction, wildfire mitigation, evacuation safety and ecosystem restoration. Burn Plans provide the operational framework for executing prescribed burns.
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Fuel Management Prescriptions
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Translate higher level planning into tangible action plans
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Prescribe treatments that reduce fuel loads and wildfire risk
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Take into account site, terrain, values, forest stand and regulatory environment to design operationally feasible and ecologically sound treatments that have measurable impact on wildfire behaviour
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Based on current best practices and science
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Burn Plans
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Provides an operational plan for executing a prescribed (or cultural) burn
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Describes goals and objectives of as prescribed burn
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Describes resources needed to ignite and control the burn
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Designs access, ignition and control of the burn
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Describes conditions that need to be met for the burn to happen (burn window)
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Describes what work needs to be done to ensure the fire is out (mop up) and monitoring following the fire
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Operations
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Operational supervision of forestry contractors
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Ensures prescribed treatment specifications are met
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Ensures safety and regulatory requirements are met
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Ensures budgets are met
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Can include management of larger projects that include many stakeholders, like traffic control, provincial ministry and municipal staff, community reps, first nations and contractors
how we help
Our Services
what our partners are saying
"Frontera continuously demonstrates leadership and commitment to community wildfire resilience building in Whistler and beyond. They are dedicated and knowledgable in all areas related to landscape level fuel thinning but above all are personable and care about communities."
Luisa Burhenne
Climate and Environment Manager
Resort Municipality of Whistler
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Fuel Management Prescriptions
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Operational Fuel Treatments
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Community Burn Plans
