As Firesmart-Forestwise crews continue to work around Jasper to thin the forests and protect the town from a future wildfire, there will soon be ways residents can contribute to the protection of the town and their home.

You don’t need to be holding a chainsaw or scaling steep terrain to help keep your neighbourhood safe – simply taking the right precautions around your own property can help reduce the damage of a fire.

Hazard assessments of residents’ homes will be offered to those who want help from the fire department and Firesmart crews to identify risks around their home.

Like last summer, there will also be worker bees where residents can roll up their sleeves and help out with the forest thinning and burning piles of debris with the Firesmart-Forestwise crews.

“What we’re going to do next summer is start trying to get people to do things in their own backyards, where it counts the most. So there will be a small program in the summer to get more of these community work bees going, to get people seeing what they need to do and to assist the small number of people to actually do that work in their backyard,” said Alan Westhaver, project lead for the Firesmart-Forestwise program.

Deputy fire chief Ron Stanko will offer his house and property as a model project that people can look at closer to the date.

“The bottom line is it’s their (the residents) responsibility and they need to take initiative to do it, but we’re willing to provide all the support possible to help them. Education and support,” added fire chief Greg Van Tighem.

Cleaning up backyards is the last element of the FireSmart-ForestWise project, and one that is important because those are the areas where the crews can’t get to. It is the residents’ responsibility, with the help of the assessment, to realize the combustible stuff that’s around their home, stacked under the deck, or things that make houses more susceptible to ignition.

While it is not mandatory to do these property cleanups or get a hazard assessment done, it is recommended. Doing them, just like putting up with smoke in town from debris burning, is better than a lot of smoke in the future or an evacuation.

“Imagine that, in a busy summer day in Jasper if we had to do an evacuation. That in itself is going to be a major undertaking. But then you look at the other…and you look at the social impact and you look at all those thousands of tourists that we’re expecting to be in Jasper and all the businesses expecting to service those people. All that gets disrupted,” said Van Tighem.

Then there is the question of what is left when you come back, added Westhaver.

The backyard cleanup is an effort that is running not just in Jasper but nation-wide to get citizens to clean up their backyards in prevention of fire.

Hazard assessments will start in the spring and summer, and Jasper residents and look for more information closer to the dates.