Dear Cortes Islanders

The SRD and Klahoose First Nation recently each submitted a grant application to the UBCM Community Resiliency Investment grant which would provide approximately $100,000 to undertake wildfire risk reduction activities on Cortes Island. We will find out if / how many of our items (see below) will be successfully funded in January 2021. Wish us luck.

Strathcona Regional District

•Provide Incident Command System and Fire Entrapment Avoidance and Safety training to the members of the Cortes Island Fire Department;

•Provide curbside wood debris chipping for Cortes Island (the same service that was offered in Spring of 2020);

•Develop FireSmart Neighbourhood Plans;

•Assessing structural protection capacity as required for wildfire response (ie: assessment of community water delivery ability and structural protection inventory);

•Obtain fuel management prescriptions for 11 hectares of high-risk Crown Land in Carrington Bay and 11 hectares of high-risk Crown Land in Squirrel Cove managed by the Cortes Forestry General Partnership; and

•Obtain a fuel management prescription for 11 hectares of moderate-risk SRD owned forest in Hank’s Beach Park with the intention of allocating a small portion of the park to provide FireSmart education.

Klahoose First Nation CRI Grant Application

•Obtaining a fuel management prescription for 8 hectares of high-risk Nation owned forest;

•Obtaining a fuel management prescription for 7 hectares of moderate-Rrsk Nation owned forest; and

•Assessing structural protection capacity as required for wildfire response (ie: assessment of community water delivery ability and structural protection inventory).

I would like to thank the Cortes Island Firefighter’s Association and Cortes Forestry General Partnership for their letters of support for this application.

For more information, the full staff report is available at the link below.

https://agenda.strathconard.ca/SRDAttachments/SRDBoard/Open/BRD/07-Oct-20/20200925-Community-Resiliency-Investment-COMBINED.pdf