Queens Bay Wildfire Risk Reduction Planning and Prescription

Building on the FESBC funded Collaborative Planning Pilot project in 2017, the RDCK developed a community wildfire protection prescription for the community of Queens Bay. The two treatment units developed have been identified in the RDCK Electoral Area E CWPP update as priority areas. The treatment areas are immediately north and south of the isolated community of Queens Bay on the west shore of Kootenay Lake. The community of Queens Bay has demonstrated a proactive approach to wildfire mitigation. The community was the first in the RDCK to achieve Community FireSmart Recognition in 2015 and has maintained its status since then. Almost all of the domestic and irrigation water for this community comes from gravity feed systems, many of the sources for which are within the proposed Treatment Units. The community wildfire protection prescription for the Queens Bay Treatment Units have been developed in collaboration between Cooper Creek Cedar / Porcupine Lumber, who hold the forest license for the area, the community of Queens Bay and the RDCK with the objective of reducing surface fuel loading, potential crown fire intensities and harvesting with projected climate change influences in mind.