A multi-pronged approach is being taken to better prepare the Bragg Creek/Redwood Meadows area for wildfire.

Our extremely dry summer has served as a reminder of the imminent threat of wildfire to Bragg Creek, Redwood Meadows, and the surrounding area.

With no significant fire in close to 100 years, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry has identified the area as one of the most at-risk locations across the province for wildfire.

Banff-Kananaskis MLA Miranda Rosin has been meeting with Alberta Agricultural and Forestry officials to discuss ways to better fire-proof the communities and is working closely with local officials to advance initiatives.

"When you get dry years like this where we don't get much rain all summer, we've got 35-degree smoking heat, it's a year when a fire could erupt at any minute, and it could completely take out both of these communities," says the MLA.

"I think for most people in Redwood Meadows and Bragg Creek, one of the first things that come to their mind is the risk of forest fire out here, just because their homes are all nestled right in the forest leading out to Kananaskis."

She says there are fire-smart grants available and many individual property owners are utilizing them but there remains a risk of a massive fire like the one Fort McMurray faced in 2016.

She sat down with the mayor and fire chief of Redwood Meadow after the huge thunderstorm that struck the region this summer.

"They told me that the Redwood Meadows station was struck by lightning 500 times in the first hour of that storm, and it was only a little lightning rod that attracted the lightning there, and not the community, not the dry tree."

One option being considered is working with Spray Lake Sawmills to cut down old growth and replace it with new trees.  SLS has planted approximately 65 million new trees since 2000.

"The new growth trees are significantly less at-risk to burn than these trees that have been dried out for 100 years," says Rosin. "We need to find ways to work with our forestry providers to harvest areas that are most at-risk for the community and most at-risk to burn and to take them down and replace them with new-growth trees."

Shortly, she'll be sitting down with Rocky View County Councillor Mark Kamachi, a long-time fire-smart advocate, to further flush out the idea.

Additionally, Redwood Meadows wants to purchase a few water trailers to have available to deploy in case of wildfire. She is helping to facilitate their purchase by serving as a liaison between the community and forestry officials.

"There is no doubt, it's something that needs to be done in the near future because this is an extremely high-risk area."

She says there is a continued need for egress for West Bragg Creek residents.

"Their options are to essentially drive head-on into the fire in Kananaskis and hope to get out through Hwy. 40, or to try to get all the way through town to the new traffic lights and exit on Hwy. 22, and the entire community would back up through there."

She says they are working with Alberta Transportation and the county to establish an egress road for West Bragg Creek.

MLA Rosin and forestry officialsBanff-Kananaskis MLA Miranda Rosin, left, has been working with forestry officials to address wildfire prevention measures fo the Bragg Creek/Redwood Meadows area. (Photo/Miranda Rosin Facebook)