Prescribed burn association holds first independent burn this spring, looking for members

It’s been two years since the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association was formed and this spring its members had their first independent burn.

“We were super excited,” said president Laura Reeves with a big smile.

The small two-acre burn was used as a way to get people comfortable with not only the procedures involved in a prescribed burn, but with fire itself.

“They’ve been trained, but they’ve never put a fire down before. So, it’s small enough that we could kind of overcome some people’s fear of fire, make it safe, and it worked out really well.”

The association has 35 members with about 15 fully trained on how to do a controlled burn.

Last Saturday, the organization held a training session for eight members in Vita where a mock burn was performed as trainees learned how to set-up a perimeter and equipment, make a plan, and execute a burn.

There are four levels of training consisting of 19 hours of online course work and two workshops along with field training.

Reeves said on most properties there will be a “soft line” perimeter, which is a mowed area, rather than a “hard line” which is pavement, a road, or gravel. Both lines are there to act as a barrier to a wildfire from spreading.

Although the members are prepared for a burn, Reeves said there can be surprises such as a fire skipping a perimeter or radios not working. In those cases, everything is suspended and re-evaluated before action is taken.

Members come from the RM of Stuartburn and other Manitoba communities as the SPBA is the only organization of its kind in the province. One of those members is Tammy Skogan from Fraserwood, which is just west of Gimli in the RM of Armstrong, who travelled about three hours to attend the training session.

“The Interlake is a tinderbox,” said Skogan. “It’s unmanaged fire suppression and it’s fairly unpopulated. So, we have marshes and spruce forests, which do burn quite quickly and badly. And we have a low availability of our fire support because we have a huge municipality with a low population.”

Skogan, a contractor and carpenter by trade, is looking to start a prescribed burn association in her municipality and she said interest in doing so is growing in her community.

“I do think that there’s going to be a lot of interest…I don’t think I’ll have any problem bringing together a bunch of members,” she said, noting her leadership skills and knowledge make her a good burn leader.

Reeves said leadership roles are hard to fill, so having Skogan train for the job and establishing an association is encouraging for the Armstrong area.

Although it is known as a wet municipality, just like the Interlake, the RM of Stuartburn has had major wildfires as wetlands propagate exponentially causing a build-up of underbrush and cattails.

“When they dry out, that is a hot fuel. So, the wetland areas can be the worst…and in wet years, you don’t have as many fires, but when it’s dry, boy, look out, right?” said Reeves.

The RM had back-to-back wildfires in 2011 and 2012 involving water bombers that led to evacuations, the closure of schools, and the loss of homes.

To prevent future wildfires, Reeves would like residents to get involved with the organization to do prescribed burns on agricultural fields, residential areas, or in woodlands.

“Anyone who wants a fire on their land, we’re willing to scout that out. We’re not a fee for service, we don’t want to be that, we want to be neighbours helping neighbours, so I help you burn your land, you help me burn my land,” said Reeves.

She noted one of the challenges of being able to burn on people’s land is having enough personnel and she encourages people to come and be a part of the association. Reeves said the reason the organization was only able to do its first burn this year was mostly due to organizational factors and the number of members.

“We finally had enough capacity that we could finally put a fire down, which is super exciting.”

To do a simple half-acre burn, Reeves estimated a crew of six would be sufficient or a crew of four for a lawn.

In establishing itself, the SPBA received grants and donations: Intact Financial Corporation donated $116,500; Nature Manitoba donated $3,000 for tools; Seahawk Service and Acres Emergency Vehicles donated water tanks; and the RM allowed the association to get liability insurance through the municipality.

“When you look at all of the devastation that bushfires and fires have done around our province in the last two years, this is absolutely necessary,” said Stuartburn Reeve Michelle Gawronsky.

Year to date, there have been 36 wildfires in eastern Manitoba. Last year, the RM of Piney wildfire burned about 9,000 acres of Crown forest leading to evacuations in four towns.

Reeves co-founded the SPBA with Bert Baumgartner after being encouraged to do so from the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange. She was also concerned about the encroachment of the forest line into the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve where she worked for 18 years and was trained to burn.

Moving forward, the association would like to do annual burns in the spring and fall. It has partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and has already burned alongside it on the conservancy’s land twice last fall.

“There’s also potential,” said Reeves. “Now, you’ve got a landowner with land next to Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, let’s burn both of them together. We can partner up that way as well.”