Town of Smithers to apply for grant to reduce wildfire risk

Smithers Town Council has approved an application for the FireSmart Community Funding and Support.

This funding, if approved, will be from the Community Resiliency Investment for $150,000 to reduce the risk of wildfires and to mitigate the impacts.

According to a staff report, the areas of interest were an area 25 metres of the Perimeter Trail located in the Riverside, Chicken Creek area.

Fire Chief Keith Stecko explained to Council what the funding will be used for.

“The intent of the current UBCM grant that we’re currently managing and the new one that we’re applying for will clean up the forest floor, dealing with a lot of that dead fire load and essentially creating a fire snort brake around our community,” he said.

Stecko added the community wildfire protection plan identified throughout the perimeter trail fire load.

He also said this project will use some of the existing structures that are already there.

“No trees are being touched, this is specifically about a lot of the fire load that exists trying to mitigate that so that we can make the Town of Smithers a more resilient community,” Stecko said.

Last year, the Town received $149,000 for the project.