Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Jasper Park Lodge became the first corporate community in the country to receive an official
The designation is the result of a co-ordinated and extended community effort. With a few hundred hours of volunteer work behind them over the last 18 months, the grounds of the on-site employee residences not only look a lot sharper but are also safer.
鈥淚t's great that you've done it,鈥� said FireSmart Alberta鈥檚 executive director Mike Flynn, during a ceremony held on Tuesday afternoon.
鈥淲e want to use this in our communications to show what a FireSmart property can look like. It's not as scary as some people think, and it does a whole lot of good.鈥�
The basic principle is to mitigate the risk of damage that a wildfire can cause to properties that lie in what Flynn calls the WUI, or wildland-urban interface, meaning essentially anywhere people find themselves living in the middle of wild nature.
The work itself sticks to common sense principles for any landowner. Low-level tree branches get cut off and grass stays trimmed within specific distances from structures. Woodpiles are also moved away from buildings. If a fire did start, it would have less fuel to feed off of.
While it sounds simple, it did result in truckloads of vegetation that was removed. Now, the task ahead is to maintain what has already been accomplished.
This achievement was coordinated with the guidance of Jasper鈥檚 former fire chief Greg Van Tighem, who previously was an employee of Jasper Park Lodge. He identified the hazards and helped with the application process. Flynn called him a 鈥渓ifetime champion鈥� of fire prevention.
Van Tighem said that it was very satisfying to get the lodge community to this point.
鈥淚t is ongoing. It鈥檚 a commitment in the future. I spent my whole career being responsible for this type of work, not just with wildfire, but even normal fire prevention. Anytime you can prevent anything like that from happening, it's a really good thing for everybody involved, obviously,鈥� he said.
鈥淚n the event of a huge wildfire event in our community, I mean, we would not have the resources to deal with it ourselves. It makes more sense to mitigate it, prevent it, and then you don't have to deal with those headaches.鈥�
Jasper Park Lodge joins the neighbouring Lake Edith community, which earned its FireSmart community certification in 2013. Jasper as a whole was one of the first communities in Canada to start working toward FireSmart initiatives.
