The forest before vegetation management work is done. Photo supplied by the City of Grande Prairie.

By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Trail closures for fire prevention work to start Tuesday in South Bear Creek area

Oct 15, 2024 | 6:00 AM

Trail closures in the South Bear Creek area start this week as the city starts some wildfire prevention work.

Part of Outer Waxwing Trail will be closed as of today (Tuesday, October 15) as fire prevention work continues to the north of the Aquatera Water Treatment plant, a project that started last year.

Some trails in the Country Club West area will close as of October 20 as similar work continues there.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says a grant from a provincial group will help pay for this.

“The City of Grande Prairie was awarded $200,000, a grant from the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta.”

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“Really what that is to action a vegetation management plan, so there are two areas in the community where we will do some mitigation to help in fire-smarting the area.”

A similar grant from the same organization paid for the start of some of this preventative work in the same areas last year.

“There was initially some work done there and this is just slightly shifted and continual vegetation management.”

“This fire-smarting initiative is something we can all recognize as extremely important. It wasn’t that long ago that we were faced with a fire last year, if you recall, (and) having that FireSmart initiative helps us in the management of any vegetation that continues to be really fast burning fuel for fires.”

Clayton explains some of what the work that is being done

“Cleaning the underbrush and really cleaning up the lands underneath the trees so that the forest, if there is a fire there, it helps slow it down, so it becomes more manageable.”

More on this can be found on the city’s website.

The forest after vegetation management work. Photo supplied by the City of Grande Prairie.