Many individuals, organizations, and companies contributed to Castlegar’s updated community wildfire plan. But for one city councillor, there was a glaring omission: the Canadian Pacific Railway (now styled as Canadian Pacific Kansas City).
“They enter our community from both sides,” Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff said. “I’m just wondering why they weren’t part of the conversation. Because they have right-of-way, they operate in forested area, they have a due diligence to clean up their area.”
Heaton-Sherstobitoff said while the railway brushes its right-of-way every few years, debris and ties are left behind, which she said could potentially cause a wildfire.
City staff said they did invite the CPR to participate in the plan, but didn’t hear back. Vista Radio has also asked the railway for comment, but so far received no reply.
Heaton-Sherstobitoff asked that the railway be advised of the updated plan.
“We can certainly follow up with a notification that the plan has been completed and has recommendations that may have impacts on their operations,” said Meeri Durand, the city’s acting director of community safety and development. “But unfortunately, because they are another agency, it’s totally up to their capacity whether they can participate or not.”
The new wildfire plan replaces a previous one completed in 2020. Communities are required to update such plans every five years. Implementation will be up to the city’s new climate co-ordinator, who started this week.
John Cathro and Mark Elder of Cathro Consulting presented the plan to city council this week. They had 33 recommendations, which fall under a variety of categories including education, vegetation management, and emergency planning.
Overall, they identified nearly 900 hectares in and around the city that could use treatment to reduce fuel load. That included 42 hectares of municipally-owned land and 50 hectares of Crown land within city limits.
In the report, the consultants said 13 per cent of the area they describe as eligible wildland-urban interface is at high or extreme wildfire risk. However, half of the overall area consists of private land where threat assessments couldn’t be carried out.
“Conditions on private land often present even greater hazards than adjacent Crown and municipal land because they are typically closer to … residences and private infrastructure,” they wrote. “[H]omes, landscaping, vehicles, and other combustible materials contribute significantly to fire spread, not just forest fuels.”
They said Castlegar falls within the highest wildfire risk rating in BC due to dense vegetation, steep terrain, fire history, and proximity to vulnerable infrastructure.
“When you’re in a small community surrounded by forest and hearing stories during a bad fire year, it definitely feels like the community is very vulnerable and at risk,” Cathro said, pointing to the Merry Creek fire of 2021.
He stopped short of ranking Castlegar’s vulnerability, but he said the way the city and its fire department are preparing to address that risk is exactly what should be happening.
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