The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is planning a series of controlled burns near Chimney Lake and Felker Lake from March 17 to April 10, 2015, weather conditions permitting.

These low-intensity fires will be managed by the ministry’s Recreation Sites and Trails Branch and will be conducted with the assistance of Wildfire Management Branch staff from the Cariboo Fire Centre.

These burns are intended to lower wildfire hazards in the following areas:

• Felker Lake Recreation Site
• Chimney Lake Recreation Site (north site)
• Chimney Lake Recreation Site (central site)

The proactive use of fire will help reduce accumulations of grass and shrubs around these recreation sites and significantly reduce the threat of a devastating wildfire, since any future fires in the area will have less fuel available and will burn with less intensity.

Prescribed fire is often used to help protect communities and infrastructure in the wildland-urban interface, where developed areas border on forests or grasslands. Fire crews may let a portion of the landscape burn up to predetermined boundaries or directly ignite piles of branches and other vegetation that crews have gathered together beforehand.

Trained Wildfire Management Branch personnel will carefully monitor the fires at all times.

All prescribed burns must comply with the Environmental Management Act and the open burning smoke control regulation. This helps minimize the amount of smoke generated.

Prescribed burns are only ignited if weather conditions are suitable, to ensure that the fire does not get out of control and does not create excessive smoke. Important factors that determine whether a burn will go ahead include the venting index, temperature, humidity and forecast wind activity.

More information about prescribed burning is available on the Wildfire Management Branch website at:  http://bcwildfire.ca/Prevention/PrescribedFire/

Media Contacts:

Emily Koch
Fire Information Officer
Wildfire Management Branch
Cariboo Fire Centre
250 989-2665