It was a full house at the newly renovated Peachland Legion for PWPA\’s July member meeting. With appies and beverages PWPA members had a chance to get caught up with neighbours and other members while learning more about the wildfire situation with local experts.
The \”hot\” topic of discussion was the current industrial logging practices and their relationship to wildfires. Unfortunately our guest speaker – a forester and wildlands fire fighter got called into action and was not able to attend. But we were fortunate to have Don Gayton, MSc, from Summerland, who specializes in grassland and dry forest ecology; fire ecology; ecological restoration, available to provide us with local knowledge regarding the south and central Okanagan ecosystems and the impact of logging on the wildfire regime here.
We were also grateful that one of the attendees was Spencer Montgomery, from Wildfire Protection Service Ltd. in Kelowna, in who spoke about all the ways that residents can fireproof their homes and properties against wildfires. These are the first line of defence and homes that have been Fire-smart protected are most likely to survive wildfires.
PWPA director Alex Morrison also spoke about recent research that describes how intact forests on the west coast are responsible for making rain on the prairies, and how clear-cuts are making wildfires for frequent, more destructive and more unpredictable because of the loss of forest moisture.
We\’re rescheduling the presentation by our wildfire expert so watch out for info in a future eblast, on our Facebook page, website, and Instagram.
