Environmental delays postpone Selous Creek wildfire project

A project to reduce the risk of wildfire near Nelson is taking longer than expected.

The Selous Creek wildfire reduction project has experienced a delay due to weather conditions and is now scheduled to have the manual hand treatment phase completed in the spring. 

“Unfortunately it began to snow at the beginning of November,” says RDCK wildfire mitigation supervisor Angela French. “So the area the equipment was in was unable to create the fireguard, so we needed to treat that by hand and because of the snow it covered up the debris.”

French says ideally for work to be completed they would need for weather to clear up and be more operational friendly. 

“Obviously the snow is the biggest hang up, especially at higher elevations,” she says. “There won’t be any burning associated with the hand treatment itself, it will just be creating that three meter fireguard.”

She says with the amount of work completed, and with how much there is left to do, there are no plans to push the date back further but that could change.

“We are dependent on the weather,” French says. “We know this project has been going on for quite some time already, and we have been happy to complete most of the implemented work. We are hoping for snow-free conditions early on in the spring so we can complete it.”

This project began in 2017 with funding support from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC and is partnering with Kalesnikoff Lumber, BC Wildfire Service, City of Nelson, Selkirk College and other consultants. 

The fuel management project is aimed at reducing wildfire risk in the Selous Creek near the City of Nelson by modifying the fuel which covers approximately 80 hectares of land.