Venables Valley in Nlaka’pamux unceded territory, has been identified as a “wildfire high risk zone” by the ministry of forests. We need to address our fire safety challenges and develop practices that will heal the forest.
Goals:
- revitalize the forest
- fire safe our homes & surrounding areas
- implement sustainable forest practices and industry
How do we get to a healthy forest? Our forest is starving, so we need to reduce the amount of trees. The trees are fighting for limited resources. We remove low grade trees, dying trees, and crowded areas. We increase spacing with all the good strong healthy trees.
We must protect and enrich our forest by spacing trees & maximizing moisture retention. Water needs to be able to reach the ground. Sunlight needs to be able to reach the ground.
There is too much standing carbon in our forests. The trees have shut down growth and are awaiting fire. According to CWPP no canopies should be touching. Too many trees with canopies touching causes canopy fires. Canopy fires with too much carbon scarifies the duff layer and top-soil. The fungal component of the soil gets damaged which is 80-90% of the moisture holding capacity of the soil. When the fungal matrix is damaged the catastrophic water events can occur.
Grasses, flowers, animals, birds, bugs, carnivores, rabbits, deer and all other wildlife would flourish in a healthy forest. Plus, healthy forests don’t have pests like pine beetles. On top of all that, healthy forests survive wildfires. In fact, healthy forests are designed to survive wildfire.
Created by Vedic Eco Village, Venables Valley, Nlaka’pamux unceded territory.