WFN completes wildfire mitigation work across IR 9 and 10

For Immediate Release

April 8, 2022 - WESTBANK: Westbank First Nation (WFN) has completed wildfire mitigation work on over 66 hectares of land across IR 9 and 10. From November 2021 to April 2022, nine parcels of land were identified and combed through by wildfire forestry crews who removed dead and hazardous trees, ladder fuels, and brush vegetation, to slow future wildfires that could move through the area. WFN contracted Ntityix Development Corporation (NDC), who worked with Tronson Logging Ltd. to facilitate the mitigation work.

“With the increase in wildfire intensity we have seen over the past few years, this mitigation work has come at an optimal time,” says WFN Chief Christopher Derickson. “There is an interconnectedness between the land and our people. We are responsible for both. We are always thinking about the future of our children, and how we can sustain our world seven generations into the future.”

In the past, cultural burning practices on the land played a large role in alleviating the spread of wildfires. Hand treatment mitigation work is still practiced today. Removing ladder fuels and widening the spacing between trees by thinning, pruning, piling and burning, creates a better defence against the increased intensity of recent wildfires.

“In most of the treatment units our primary focus was to maintain the health and the fire resiliency of the forest by removing diseased trees, surface and ladder fuels, as well as the lower branches of the remaining trees”, says Dave Gill, NRLP’s General Manager of Forestry. “This prevents a fire’s ability to easily move from tree to tree and to stay on the ground.”

WFN was successful in obtaining $280,000 in grant funding trough the Community Resiliency Investment Firesmart Community Program to complete this round of wildfire mitigation work.

For more information, please contact the WFN Communications Department T 250 769 4999 | Email

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