Prescribed fire

A prescribed fire is planned for the Hutton Creek drainage area in the Peace River Forest Area.

The goals of the prescribed fire are to:

• Enhance wildlife habitat by increasing and rejuvenating early successional forest cover (grasses, shrubs, herbaceous plants)
• Reintroduce natural restoration benefits of wildfire to the area
• Reduce wildfire risk

Daily operations will always consider atmospheric and smoke venting conditions. Every effort is made to minimize smoke impacts.

Fire is a natural process on the landscape. Prescribed burns can promote ecological health by creating nutrient and sunlight rich habitats for diverse plant species. In turn, this provides habitat for a wider range of insect and animal species, creating healthy, thriving ecosystems.

By removing dense and accumulated vegetation, prescribed burns also lower the intensity and severity of potential wildfires in the area. This reduces the risk of wildfire damage to surrounding communities, infrastructure, and recreational landscapes.

The Hutton Creek Prescribed Fire is located near the Hutton Creek and Cadotte River drainage areas, approximately 15 km east of the town of Deadwood, Alberta.

The project size is approximately 970 hectares, split into two sub-areas of 590 hectares and 380 hectares.

The area immediately surrounding the prescribed fire will be closed to the public while operations are underway. Closures will be kept to a minimum. This will impact crown land recreation within the perimeter and adjacent to prescribed fire operations. Roads and highways are expected to remain open. There may be short-term speed reductions.

Before any main unit ignition will take place, a suitable guard will be established. The guard establishment involves some cutting of vegetation as well as burning the tops of trees along the boundary and approximately 20 to 30 metres into the prescribed fire unit.

Main unit ignition requires warmer and drier conditions. It is expected that the main unit operations would be underway in late April or early May. If appropriate conditions present earlier, fire managers will take advantage of the opportunity and may begin main unit ignition. These operations would utilize a combination of ground and aerial ignition and will involve more personnel, equipment and aircraft.

During the wildfire season, Alberta Wildfire may be conducting one or more prescribed fires approximately 12.5 km southwest of Sandy Lake. The exact location of the prescribed fire area is directly north of Kilometre 123 on the C-Road.

The prescribed fires will vary in size from 3 to 5 hectares and burning will take place when forecasted weather and on-the-ground conditions allow for a safe, controlled burn.

Smoke may be visible at times but will be localized and short lived. Public roads and highways are expected to remain open. However, traffic may be controlled. Watch for prescribed fire in progress and smoke signage near the area.

Learn more about the Pelican Mountain Research Site.

Pelican Mountain prescribed fire: Slave Lake Forest Area

During operations, the area immediately adjacent to the prescribed fire will be closed to public access. Public roads and highways are expected to remain open however traffic may be controlled. Watch for prescribed fire in progress and smoke signage near the area.

Multiple prescribed fires are planned for this area and will occur over the next number of years. The purpose of these prescribed fires is to examine fire behaviour in various FireSmart treatments.

Special thanks to our research partners:

• FireSmart Canada
• FireSmart Alberta
• Bigstone Cree Nation
• Municipal District of Opportunity #17
• Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science
• FPInnovations
• McMaster University
• University of Toronto
• University of Alberta
• University of British Columbia
• University of Lethbridge
• Alberta Pacific Forest Industries
• Canadian Forest Service
• Canada Wildfire
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• U.S. Forest Service
• Alberta Environment and Parks
• National Institute of Standards and Technology

Leah Lovequist, Wildfire Information Officer
Slave Lake Forest Area

Phone: 780-849-0945
Email: [email protected]