Alberta Forestry, Parks and Tourism, in its mandate to prevent and suppress wildfires within the province is required to reclaim disturbed forest land caused by wildfire suppression operations. These sites were essential for effective wildfire operations and include fireguards, creek crossings, pipeline crossings, and helipads. Wildfire reclamation is required to prevent or reduce the potential of soil erosion and ensure soil stabilization on or near the fire line. Reclamation of disturbances also promotes the recovery of the disturbed land base for wildlife habitat (i.e. caribou) and vegetative growth. Due to soil conditions, the reclamation work must be done when the ground conditions are in a frozen state. SWF-090, located at N56 40.254 W114 30.315, (SW-36-88-4-W5) is approximately 4.1 hectares in size with about 1.7 km of wildfire perimeter, 1.7 km fire guard remaining to be reclaimed and 3.3 km of the access was walked down requiring little to no attention. The "pull back" on the side of the fire guard represents the height of debris and pushed out trees, piled when the fire guard was initially built. It requires mechanical labour to return it to a natural state. The fireguard travels through mainly spruce stand types, from spruce muskeg to mature spruce stands. The fire guard will have the soil and woody debris as well as the pushed out trees pulled back onto the grubbed fire guard. The trees are to be broken up mechanically or manually slashed so to be made to lie flat to the ground. Leaning or damaged trees that cannot be reached mechanically without causing significant additional damage to the forest, will be manually felled and/or bucked to lie flat to the ground. Response Contact:
Walton, Charles
Wildfire Technologist
301 Birch Road NE
Slave Lake, Alberta T0G 2A0
Tel: 780-849-7448
Email: Charles.Walton@gov.ab.ca Reference Number:
AB-2023-00881
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