‘This is the way forward’: Southern Manitoba community pitches ‘prescribed burns’ for wildfire prevention

A Manitoba community is pitching prescribed burns to help prevent future wildfires. Danton Unger reports.

A group of volunteers in a southern community are pitching ‘prescribed burn associations’ as a technique to prevent wildfires.

“In my heart of hearts, I know that this is the way forward,” said Michelle Gawronsky, reeve of the southern rural municipality of Stuartburn.

On Thursday evening, the community held its official launch of the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association. The volunteer-based group is the first of its kind in Manitoba. The goal of the group is to curb wildfires before they begin with prescribed burns.

“Everybody kind of thinks, especially with a year like we’ve had this year, that fire is bad. But the truth is this land has always burnt and it has burnt since the beginning of time,” said Bert Baumgartner, the association’s president.

“All that grass, the sticks, branches, dead trees—we’re burning that off in a controlled manner so that when Mother Nature does decide to have her own fire, there isn’t that volume of fuel and you don’t have as aggressive a fire as we have seen over the past couple of years.”

It’s a model widely used in the United States. Baumgartner said the group is able to conduct prescribed burns, but there is a lot more to it than lighting a match and watching a field burn.

He said each member must get training, which includes learning how to create risk assessments, monitor wind and moisture conditions, and safely create burn lines.

The association has partnered with the RM of Stuartburn, which recently received a $116,000 grant from Intact Insurance for equipment and training. On Thursday, community members and neighbouring municipalities were invited to the association’s official launch in Vita, Man.

“I was curious how the prescribed burn was working for them,” said Ken Prociw, a councillor from the RM of Piney.

His southern community suffered a major wildfire earlier this year, which forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.

“We lost, I believe, five structures and the majority of them were in areas where they had hunting cabins,” he said.

Gawronsky said with the province facing the worst wildfire season it’s seen in decades, she believes associations like this could make a difference.

“To be able to be proactive, to make sure that we are doing fire guards around our communities and around farms and around people’s homes, their livelihoods,” she said.

Gawronsky said she plans to take the idea to the legislature, meeting with Manitoba’s minister of natural resources in the coming weeks.

Bushie told CTV News in a statement, “The Manitoba Wildfire Service is engaged at the local level as we continue conversations with the RM of Stuartburn to advance safe community-led prevention and mitigation.”

He went on to say he is looking forward to working together.

Depending on the weather, the association hopes to conduct its first prescribed burn this fall.