On July 19, residents of Lake Edith received a plaque distinguishing their community as the first to be recognized under the FireSmart Canada Community Recognition Program.
The recognition was the result of more than a decade of work by Lake Edith residents, who for years have been actively working to make the community as safe as possible from forest fires.
FireSmart is an initiative of Partners in Protection, a nation-wide organization that promotes awareness and education aimed at reducing risk from wildfires. To make a neighborhood FireSmart, residents have to take steps to secure their properties against wildfires. They do this by moving firewood away from the side of their house, pruning and clearing trees close to their home and installing sprinklers on the roof, among other things.
Residents of Lake Edith have been doing these things since 1998.
Along with work residents do on their own, Parks Canada and the Jasper Fire Brigade have helped thin out trees around the community, reducing the risk of a large forest fire sweeping through.
Each year the Lake Edith FireSmart Committee organizes “work bees,” where the community gets together to maintain the work they and the fire brigade have done over the past decade—dragging recently cut trees out of the woods so officials can collect them.
Shauna Gifford, the president of the committee, said each year anywhere from 30–50 community members show up to the work bees, and that willingness to volunteer is the main reason Lake Edith was the first to receive FireSmart designation.
When Lake Edith first received the designation, Gifford said she was thrilled.
“The community’s been working ... for more than 10 years, and it’s been a very successful program, it feels great,” she said, especially after completing the “pages and pages” of paperwork it took to apply for the designation.
She said receiving the plaque at this year’s work bee made that feeling even better.
Although the plaque is currently sitting in her garage, she said it will be proudly on display at the entrance of the community very soon.
Trevor Nichols
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