The Salmon Arm Fire Department is hosting a public information session to discuss the fuel mitigation project being done in Little Mountain Park, and field questions and concerns from the community.
The work, which began in early 2022, is part of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) to address wildfire fuel management, and is being conducted by Sk’atsin Silvatech Ventures after being contracted by the Salmon Arm and the Neskonlith Indian Band. City director of engineering and public works Rob Niewenhuizen explained that the forestry company developed a work plan referred to as a treatment prescription that is “intentionally a minimal treatment given the fact that we’ll be working in a city park.”
With the Salmon Arm Fire Department overseeing the project, fire prevention officer Carmen Guidos confirmed that assessment, refuting past claims that the park is being “extensively logged.”
“It’s not extensive logging by any stretch. It’s cleaning up the forest floor, some thinning and pruning,” Guidos said, but added that some trees will inevitably have to be cut. “It’s a very important park for our community, so we’re doing what we can to preserve it.”
To date, the work area has encompassed about half of the Little Mountain Park area, which Salmon Arm council designated as approximately 10 hectares in the Oct. 25, 2021 motion for the project. Niewenhuizen said the next phase will cover the remainder of that area. Following the completion of that project, mitigation work will start in Park Hill, with the CWPP then expected to by updated in mid-2024.
To learn more about the Little Mountain work, the public is invited to attend the information meeting in room 100 at city hall on Thursday, Dec. 7 from 3-7 p.m.
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