When dry, hot and windy conditions occur, the risk of fire can increase. As drought can be a contributing factor to wildfires in our community, the City takes appropriate measures to reduce the risk of fire in public parks, green spaces and forested areas and ravines.

Forested Areas and Ravines

A healthy forest is a more fire-resistant forest.

The City works year-round to monitor and manage forested areas and ravines. This includes the promotion of healthy ecosystems, hazard tree assessment and management, monitoring of invasive species and appropriate pruning. Throughout the outdoor fire season, fire services performs local fire weather monitoring. This includes factoring temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and soil moisture to determine when a fire advisory, restriction or fire ban is to be implemented. More information about fire weather indexing can be found within the Natural Resources Canada webpage

What Residents Can Do

• Do not put yard waste such as grass clippings or leaves into forested areas.  Take them to the compost depot or put them in your green compost bin.
• Do not place flammable materials such as firewood, lumber, propane tanks, gas containers etc. against a fence that is next to a forested area.
• Have a garden hose located at the side of your house with a nozzle attached in case it’s required.
• Make sure any fire pit or any other fire containing device in your back yard follows the installation guidelines as written in the City’s Fire Bylaws.
• Rake up poplar fuzz in your yard, especially from May through July, as the fuzz can ignite if it catches a spark.
• Dampen poplar fuzz that collects in walkways with greywater as required.
• Use greywater (i.e. bath, dishwater) and rainwater to keep the green space around your home watered. Please abide by any water bans or restrictions as they are announced.
• Do not extinguish cigarette butts in planters. Most planters contain peat moss, which can smoulder, then ignite and cause small fires.

Best Management and Facts

• Most of our forests are dominated by aspen and balsam poplar trees, which have much higher resistance to fire than coniferous trees like spruce.
• This is due to their higher moisture content in leaves and stems, high ‘crowns’ and smooth bark which prevents fire from climbing up to the top of the tree.
• One exception, in early spring before their leaves emerge, deciduous trees like poplar have their lowest levels of moisture which can make them more flammable for a short period of time.
• Natural areas with higher numbers of less fire-resistant spruce, like the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park, receive more monitoring for fire risk.
• When dead or dying trees need to be taken down, trees are laid down at ground level, which allows the trees to absorb more moisture from the ground. This has the added benefit of speeding up decomposition, returning needed nutrients to the soil.
• Forests with good tree canopy cover will shade the understory and help to moderate temperature fluctuations and retain moisture.
• Ravines and forested areas are monitored for debris piling up, and deadfall and brush will be spread or removed if it builds up to a point where the fire risk is elevated.
• Residential fence line pruning is done to give a buffer to reduce the fire risk to neighbouring properties.
• City departments conduct exercises to review areas and access points.
• In recent years, there has not been a fire started in a ravine or wooded area that has caused significant property damage. Note, most fires are started by human activity.

Resources  

For any questions related to management of wooded areas, ravines and public green spaces, please contact Public Operations. 

For questions related to fire safety, contact Fire Services at 780-418-6069 

In Case of Emergency 

Contact the Fire Department immediately by calling 911 if you see any signs of fire or smoke. Be prepared to give an accurate description of the fire's location to aid in a quick response.

If you witness any suspicious behaviour, contact the RCMP immediately at 911 or their complaint line at 780-458-7700. 

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