Eliminate certain trees around houses to slow the progression of forest fires: innovative solutions are making their way in Quebec after having proven themselves in Western Canada.
“We have to learn to live with this risk,” says Sylvie Gauthier, researcher emeritus at Natural Resources Canada and forest fire specialist.
In particular, experts recommend the elimination of all combustibles within a radius of 0 to 1.5 meters, as well as all softwoods within a radius of 10 meters around the house. Within a radius of 10 to 30 meters, conifers should be pruned and spaced so that there is at least five meters between each one, they recommend.
These few examples are among the many set out by Natural Resources Canada. They are inspired by the Intelli-Fire program (or FireSmart, in English), which was created in Alberta more than 30 years ago and which aims to equip communities to help them deal with the risk of fire. Well established in Western Canada, these measures are slowly beginning to take hold in Quebec.
Close to disaster
The Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU), for example, helped the village of Baie-Johan-Beetz, on the North Shore, to put in place such recommendations following a fire from which the community escaped. narrowly, in 2013. The fire had then progressed to the gates of the village, just 1.5 km from the houses, before being brought under control just in time by the SOPFEU teams.
“When we came back, after four days of evacuation, there were plenty of extinguished embers everywhere in the village. They had even left marks on the roofs, says Martin Côté, mayor of Baie-Johan-Beetz. We were really lucky. »
To prevent the village from coming close to a new disaster, SOPFEU carried out a study in 2018 to determine its most vulnerable areas to forest fires. It also proposed arrangements to be made to reduce this risk — pruning, deforestation or thinning of conifers within a certain perimeter.
Dealing with risk and the landscape
Based on these recommendations, the municipality took charge of softwoods located on public lands. But despite the still-fresh memory of the 2013 evacuation and the financial assistance from the Quebec government, convincing residents to do the same around their homes was no small feat.
“There are some who really wanted to apply [les recommandations] 100%, others who said: “Oh no, that tree, I want to keep it.” And still others said they weren’t interested, that they preferred to live with the risk, so we didn’t insist,” illustrates Martin Côté.
“Of course, when we make recommendations to the communities, they often have concerns about the impact it will have on the landscape,” explains Stéphane Caron, prevention and communications coordinator. of SOPFEU.
“In this case, you have to find a compromise between the risk of forest fire and the environment in which you live. We do not settle on the edge of a lake with a chalet to completely deforest and live as if we were on concrete. It’s a balance to be found,” he adds.
Prevention rather than cure
Since these improvements were made last year, the mayor of Baie-Johan-Beetz says he is very satisfied with the result. “In the middle of the village, in particular, there was a place that was very problematic. It’s much better now, the risk has been greatly reduced. I did that myself around my house, and I’m really happy about it,” he says enthusiastically.
But if they limit the risk, these measures do not cancel it. “You have to be aware that we live in an environment where there are forest fires, that preventive measures like these can help, but that we may still have to evacuate because of the smoke, for example, or because a fire gets out of control,” emphasizes researcher emeritus Sylvie Gauthier.
Nevertheless, SOPFEU relies on this type of preventive means to avoid, in the future, uncontrolled fires and numerous evacuations, such as what we are currently experiencing in Quebec. Since 2014, it has carried out risk analyzes and made recommendations for some twenty municipalities.
“We can no longer afford to just want to put out the fires or educate the population so that it does not cause any. You also have to teach them to live with risk and to put in place measures to protect themselves,” adds Stéphane Caron.
“The exceptional situation we are experiencing in Quebec at the moment will certainly lead to an awareness that the danger is very real, that we must act. It’s not something that we’re going to experience just once in our lifetime, it’s likely to happen again periodically, with climate change which will inevitably lead to temperature rises. »