Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Our Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is helping us prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires, particularly in areas where our community meets the forest (the 'wildland urban interface').

The plan — supported by a wildfire risk management system that evaluates a variety of factors that contribute to the probability or consequence of wildfire — contains 52 strategic recommendations for improving our emergency response and training, community education, emergency communications, building practices, and more, to make the District as fire safe as possible.

Read the plan in detail

Download the updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan

News and updates

April 2023 — Wildfire treatment 

We completed 26 hectares of fuel treatment in the Deep Cove area (McCartney Park and Cliffwood Park) with funding from UBCM and the District.

March 2022 — Wildfire treatment 

We have received funding to complete 26 hectares of fuel treatment in the Deep Cove area (McCartney Park and Cliffwood Park). The project is jointly funded between the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) and the District. This work is scheduled to start October 2022 and completed March 2023.

September 2020 to November 2020 — Wildfire treatment 

We completed fuel treatment of high-risk interface areas near Carmaria Crt with funding from the UBCM.

September 2020 — Plan updated

The Community Wildfire Protection Plan is now updated. The project is jointly funded between the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Community Resiliency Investment program, the District of North Vancouver, and the Province of BC.

November 2019 - March 2020 — Wildfire treatment

We completed fuel treatment of high-risk interface areas near Braemar Rd and Dempsey Rd with funding from the UBCM.

December, 2018 — Application for additional fuel treatment funding

We applied to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) Community Resiliency Investment grant program for additional funding for fuel treatment (managing the vegetation that fuels fires). This funding will enable us to treat the remaining 15.4Ha of higher risk areas identified in the 2007 CWPP (Carmaria Crt (2.4Ha) and Braemar/Dempsey (13Ha)).

Learn more about fuel treatment

November, 2018 — Restoration planting in Kirkstone Park

We undertook restoration planting in Kirkstone Park, following the fuel treatment work we did in March, 2018.

September, 2018 to May, 2019 — Plan updates begin

We have awarded the contract for updates to the CWPP, and we expect the update to be completed in May, 2019. In addition to updating the current plan, we will also be creating a Post Fire Rehabilitation Plan, which is an outstanding action item from the 2007 CWPP, and a Forest Resilience Plan, which is recommended in our Climate Change Adaption Strategy. We are funding these additional plans, which we expect to complete by Summer, 2019

Learn more about the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

March, 2018 — Wildfire treatment

We successfully completed fuel treatment of 16.5Ha of high risk interface areas, with funding from the UBCM. In addition, we did an additional 4.0Ha of treatment area at Kirkstone Park, which we funded ourselves, for a total of 20.5Ha treated in March, 2018. Altogether, a total of 54Ha of the 70Ha of high risk interface areas identified in the CWPP have now been treated through cost-sharing opportunities with UBCM.

Late 2017 — Plan updates

In late 2017, we began the early work necessary to update the CWPP to reflect all of the work that has been accomplished over the 10 years since it was created, to re-consider fire risk in a changing climate, and to plan for new actions to increase community resilience to wildfires.

June 20, 2016 — Staff update to Council

Staff met with Council to update them on our progress implementing the recommendations in the plan. Staff reported that substantial progress had been made, with 36 of the 38 recommendations complete.

May 24 & 26, 2016 — Emergency response training

We, along with our partner agencies, held a series of emergency response training exercises called Operation Dry Lightning II. The purpose of these exercises was to enhance wildfire response and coordination among agencies, test multi-agency response, refine communications among crews, other stakeholders, and the emergency centre, practice evacuation strategies, and improve media management.

2012 — Wildfire Hazard Development Permit Area (DPA) adopted by Council

We developed a Wildfire Hazard Development Permit Area to help minimize the risk to property and people from wildfire hazards, minimize the risk of fire to the District's forests, make fires easier to contain and suppress, and reduce the risk of post-fire landslides, debris flows, and erosion.

Learn more about the Wildfire Hazard DPA

July 4, 2011 — Update to Council

Staff provided an update to Council regarding progress made in implementing the recommendations in the CWPP. 

June 11, 2008 — Emergency response training

We held a full-scale functional exercise, called Operation Dry Lightning, to practice interagency response to a wildland-urban interface fire. Participants included the District of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service, Metro Vancouver, Ministry of Forests & Range Protection, BC Ambulance Service, the RCMP, and others.

May 14, 2007 — Plan presented to Council

Staff presented the draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan to Council, and asked for direction from Council on the 38 recommendations in the plan. Council directed staff to implement the recommendations in the CWPP.

Details

About the wildland urban interface

The wildland urban interface (WUI) is where the forest meets the community. Fire can spread from the forest into the community, or from the community into the forest. Although these two scenarios are quite different, they are of equal importance when considering interface fire risk.

Within the District, the probability of a fire moving out of the community and into the forest is equal to or greater than the probability of fire moving from the forest into the community.

Regardless of which scenario occurs, there will be consequences for the District, and this will have an impact on the way in which our community plans and prepares for interface fires.

Evaluating the risk of fire

To complete the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, we first developed a wildfire risk management system, which identified the aspects of our natural environment that contribute to wildfire risk.

The WRMS identified that the core area of the District is at moderate to high risk from wildfire. However, there are areas where the probability of wildfire is extreme, and public safety, and many of the important facilities and structures, could be severely impacted by a major fire.

Creating an action plan

The Community Wildfire Protection Plan contains an action plan that provides recommendations for addressing five elements.

Full details of the action plan — including goals, objectives, risks, and recommendations for each of the elements — starts on page 24 of the plan document.

Key elements of the plan

The plan consists of these five key elements:

1. Communication and education

Minimizing fire risk in the interface zone requires the coordination and cooperation of many levels of government and government agencies. District residents must also be aware of fire risk reduction within interface areas if prevention programs are to be effective.

2. Structure protection

Structure protection focuses on ensuring that building materials and construction standards (such as roofing, siding, glazing, eaves, decks, and vents) are appropriate to protect individual homes from interface fire.

3. Emergency response

When planning emergency response, it is important to consider a wide range of issues, including evacuation strategies, access for emergency vehicles and equipment, management of utility hazards associated with hydroelectric and gas infrastructure, and the reliability and availability of key fire fighting infrastructure during a fire.

4. Training

Practicing interagency communication, emergency operations, and evacuation strategies will ensure effective response during a real emergency.

5. Fuel (vegetation) management

Fuel management activities reduce surface fuels and creates a buffer between the forest and the community. This buffer will slow the spread of a fire.

Learn more about our ongoing fuel management efforts

Documents and resources

Council documents

June 20, 2016 update to Council

July 4, 2011 update to Council

May 14, 2007 presentation to Council

Related projects

Fire safe information

FireSmart Canada

Background

The need for a plan

Social, economic, and environmental losses from the 2003 fire season emphasized the need for greater consideration and due diligence regarding fire risk in the wildland urban interface (WUI).

In 2006, B.A. Blackwell and Associates Ltd. were retained to help us, the GVRD, and eight other member municipalities develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans. "FireSmart – Protecting Your Community from Wildfire" (Partners in Protection 2004) was used to guide the protection planning process.

Considering wildfire risk

In considering wildfire risk in the WUI, it is important to understand the specific risk profile of a given community, which can be defined by the probability and the associated consequence of fire within that community.

While the probability of fire in coastal communities is substantially lower when compared to the interior of British Columbia, the consequences of a large fire are likely to be very significant in lower mainland interface communities given population size, values at risk, and environmental considerations.

The impacts of climate change

Our Climate Change Adaptation Strategy identifies the frequency and severity of wildfires due to longer, drier, and warmer summers as a  top thread to the District.

We also anticipate that invasive species will become more prevalent due to climate change, which will decrease forest health and result in the forest being more susceptible to a rapidly spreading wildfire.

Post-fire, steep terrain will be highly vulnerable to landslides and debris flows, due to increased runoff.

Learn more about our Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

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