Fire | Water | Earth | Air
Kanaka is not immune to a potential forest fire disaster so we participate in active forest fire prevention activities. We can defend our people, buildings, and animals from a ground fire but not a crown fire.
June 30th 2020 - Fire above Upper Kanaka
FUEL MANAGEMENT
Fire season now occurs between the months of April through to October. During winter months, when wildfire risks are at the lowest, Kanaka carries out a Fuel Management Program where the summer wildfire risk is reduced by removing surface fuels, removing ladder fuels, and opening up the overstory forest canopy. We like to say "cut, prune and burn". In the summer - we replace burn with chipping!
A map of the treated areas is coming soon.
FIRESMART COMMUNITY
Kanaka is recognized as a FireSmart Community because of ongoing active steps by all residents to reduce their own vulnerability to wildfire (and housefire) which minimizes the risk of damage and increases the chance of surviving a wildfire - without the intervention of a fire department.
We've created defensible spaces that prevents Crown spreading and ground fires from advancing and endangering homes and lives and further have reduced the probability of wind-driven embers falling from a far igniting a fire on or near Kanaka's homes.
July 27th 2020 - Firesmart Community
TRAINING
Kanaka has previously offered and will continue to offer fire safety training such as S100, S185 certificates, and chainsaw operator certificates. This improves the overall knowledge and preparedness of our residents and also certifies residents as potential firefighters for the region should the need arise.
WATER STORAGE
Water flows year-round in our creeks but are not huge flows. With the increasing likelihood of drought, major wind events, and specifically a growing wildfire risk, capturing rain and snowmelt and the storing for summer use is becoming more important. Water is essential for all life, so the benefits of water storage do not cease at having an available resource to put out a fire - drinking water and crop irrigation is needed too.
With the current and forecasted change in weather patterns clearly laid out in our Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, water storage is an agreed-upon critical path forward for sustaining Kanaka's population. We are now in the final design phase for three new "raw waterlines and reservoirs" which can offer a large volume amount of water to put out the ground and house fires but also be treated for drinking or used for greenhouses, animals and field crops.