Yellowknife doesn't have a long-term plan for its firebreaks — yet

The City of Yellowknife said it intends to develop a long-term plan for the multi-million dollar firebreaks that were hastily built this summer — but those discussions are still in the early stages now.

"We're still kind of reeling from recovery," explained Chris Greencorn, the city's manager of public works and the city's operations chief during the wildfire emergency. "We don't have a solid long-term plan yet, we're still putting our hands around it." 

As wildfires threatened to bear down on the city in August, an army of local contractors and heavy-equipment operators came together under the territorial emergency declaration to protect Yellowknife by setting up sprinklers and knocking down vegetation along strips of land.

The sprinklers have been removed now, but the scars from the firebreaks remain — noticeable along Deh Cho Boulevard, next to Jackfish Lake, and behind the Niven neighbourhood. There are 10 firebreaks around the city, depending on how you look at them, said Greencorn. 

The long-term plan, he said, will be about balance: allowing for some kind of natural revegetation, but also making sure the breaks can be used to protect the city from fire again. There might also be ways to repurpose them for recreational use, like cross country skiing or hiking trails, said Greencorn. 

Recreational opportunity

Recreational opportunity was exactly what Per Lunder, a founding member of Ingraham Trail Outdoor Ramblers, saw when he first laid eyes on the brush cleared near the intersection of the Ingraham Trail and Highway 3. 

As a former B.C. resident and self-described "mountain bike guy," Lunder said it "looked like a place that would be right for technical bike trails, like a bike park." The other breaks also present opportunities worth looking into, he said. 

"It's like building a ski resort but someone has taken all the trees down for you, if it's possible," he said, saying it would be "negligent" not to investigate the recreational opportunities the firebreaks present. 

A rough idea

Greencorn said "it makes fiscal and prudent sense to maintain [the firebreaks] at some level," acknowledging how expensive they were to build and how important they were as part of the city's wildfire defence.

He also said the city has "some time" to figure out a plan, and he expects it'll come up during the city's budget deliberations in the new year. 

Greencorn doesn't see the city buying a huge amount of equipment to maintain the breaks every summer, but said crews might be sent in to clear a section each year. He also said the city wouldn't let full tree-growth happen again, but allowing some type of low-lying drought resistant vegetation to grow would be desirable. 

"A lot of communities would be very grateful for these types of firebreaks so in the long scheme of things, I do believe there is going to be some sort of long-term maintenance strategy. But what that looks like right now, it's very difficult for me to comment on," said Greencorn. 

"Frankly, we might be looking at another fire season and year, we might need them to just be what they are."

But where did all those trees go?

Fort Simpson, N.W.T., is considering how it can build protective firebreaks and how it can use that timber productively. But in Yellowknife, there wasn't time to think about that — the breaks were built while the city's 20,000 residents fled from encroaching fires. 

A spokesperson for the City of Yellowknife told CBC News back in September that wood from the firebreaks was not harvested in a "commercial manner" — meaning it was mixed in with dirt and rocks, and had limited uses. 

Greencorn said some of it is being stored on city land, some if it went to the dump and a large volume is being stored at Con Mine. In some cases — like the break near Grace Lake Boulevard — the material is still there, swept into piles under a thin blanket of snow. 

Greencorn said the plan was to remove it still this year. 

"Some of that will be chipped on site, and part of the reclamation plan is to spread it out over the floor of the firebreaks … the organics will break it down and that'll help with the revegetation process. 

Greencorn said the city is discouraging people from harvesting chopped timber along the firebreaks because of safety concerns.