Prescribed burns planned for Lumby and Cherryville | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Prescribed burns planned for Lumby and Cherryville

Crews will be torching wildlife areas around Lumby and Cherryville during the next few weeks to improve the health of ecosystems. 

The controlled burning will be used to assist ecosystem restoration. Flames will be unleashed in several phases between March 28 and May 15. The fires will be conducted by Wildfire Management Branch crews and staff from the Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District.

The Satellite Hill burn area covers an estimated 36 hectares, approximately six kilometres south of Lumby and Highway 6 in the Harris Creek area.

The Woodward Creek burn area covers an estimated 15 hectares, approximately 20 kilometres west of Lumby, north of Hwy. 6.

The South Fork burn area covers an estimated 32 hectares, approximately 12.5 kilometres east of Cherryville, north of Hwy. 6.

Historically, grasslands and open forests in the Okanagan have been renewed through frequent, low-intensity ground fires. Such fires limit tree encroachment, rejuvenate understory plants (trees and shrubs that grow beneath the forest canopy but above ground-cover plants) and maintain open grassland and open forests containing large trees.

The reintroduction of managed, low-intensity ground fires to these grasslands and open forests is intended to restore and maintain plant communities that are native to these areas.

These prescribed burns are part of an ongoing ecosystem restoration program administered by the government of British Columbia in collaboration with local ranchers, various outdoor organizations, the Shuswap Okanagan Forest Association, the Forum for Research and Extension in Natural Resources, the B.C. Wildlife Federation and the Wild Sheep Society of British Columbia.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca or call (250)309-5230.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013
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