Cowichan Tribes begins work to reduce wildfire risk on Maple Mountain
Cowichan Tribes is embarking on wildfire mitigation work on Maple Mountain in North Cowichan aimed at protecting critical infrastructure.
The municipality has contracted Tribes’ forestry arm, Khowutzun Forest Services, to conduct FireSmart work, including thinning, pruning and debris removal within 4.6 hectares on Maple Mountain.
The project is meant to protect a Rogers Communications tower, which provides “critical communications infrastructure” for emergency service providers and North Cowichan, says Shaun Mason, municipal manager of parks and forestry.
“KFS has been doing an excellent job following the prescriptions and carrying out the treatments….” Mason says.
Wood removed during the project will either be chipped and removed from the site and/or offered to the Quw'utsun Nation communities as firewood. “If there is more firewood than they can take, I will explore other options at that time, which may include free public firewood or donating it to other organizations,” Mason said.
The Maple Mountain project follows “fuel reduction treatments” wrapping up on Mount Tzouhalem.
Tribes will receive about $166,000 for FireSmart work on both Maple Mountain and Mount Tzouhalem, through a grant from the FireSmart Community Funding and Supports program.
KFS crews also removed at their own expense about 140 pickup truck loads of firewood from Mount Tzouhalem for use in their community.
Tribes will also receive about $44,000 for other forestry projects in the forest reserve in 2024, including removal of protectors no longer needed to deter deer from browsing seedlings, road maintenance vegetation clearing, and invasive species removal and planting.
In 2019, North Cowichan imposed a moratorium on further logging in the forest reserve pending consultations with the public and First Nations.
In 2023, the public showed 76-per-cent support for conservation management of the 5,000-hectare forest reserve.
Read more on talks with First Nations: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/1ddbc651-184e-44bb-a82c-c465182e48d7
Maple Mountain and Mount Tzouhalem fall within the coastal Douglas-fir forest, the smallest and most at-risk forest type in the province.
(sixmountains.ca photos: FireSmart work site on Maple Mountain. Khowutzun Forest Services worker saws up logs on Mount Tzouhalem. )
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