B.C.’s wildfire season may have been off to a wet start but Rossland’s FireSmart Program is reminding residents that as little as a week of hot weather can quickly push the wildfire danger to extreme levels.
To assist residents with their FireSmart preparations, the City of Rossland is offering a free FireSmart debris disposal service. Residents can bring their hazardous vegetation to the Rossland Arena parking lot and deposit it in the specially designated dumpster bins.
“This is a continuation of Rossland’s Wildfire Hazard Cleanup Day held in early May when a number of residents and neighbourhood groups worked to reduce the wildfire hazard on their properties by removing cedar hedges and juniper bushes, pruning off lower branches of conifer trees, cutting down long grass and cleaning up debris in their yards,” said Don Mortimer, Rossland FireSmart Coordinator.
Rossland’s free curbside pickup program moved over 90 dump truck loads of wildfire hazardous debris to Rossland’s FireSmart debris disposal composting site on the edge of Centennial Park.
“We can compost all of the wildfire hazardous vegetation from our FireSmart resident program right here in town, minimal trucking, no landfill fees, no burning. In the last three years we’ve added over 600 dump truck loads to the site,” he said.
Mortimer is optimistic that the summer disposal program will encourage residents to get their FireSmart cleanup work underway.
“FireSmart hazard reduction work is simple and inexpensive,” added Mortimer. “The bins at the arena solve the ‘What do I do with the vegetation I’ve removed to get FireSmart?’ issue. So there really is no excuse for not spending a few hours in your yard to get the work done.”
For more information check out the City of Rossland’s FireSmart website at rossland.ca/firesmart-program, firesmartbc.ca, or firesmartcanada.ca.