Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - SRD staff is preparing an open Burning Bylaw for Cortes Island.
This is in response to Coastal Fire Centre’s decision to allow campfires, on June 20: ‘due to cooler conditions and rainfall, which has reduced the fire danger rating in these areas.’ However appropriate this may have been in other areas under the Centre’s control, it was not on Cortes Island. As Nancy Kendel wrote in the Tideline, “We have had basically NO RAIN since beginning of May, and our forests are tinder dry!”
The Coastal Fire Centre’s decision also applied to:
Marina Island
Maurelle Island
Raza Island
Read Island
Stuart Island
The Redonda Islands
The Rendevous Islands
The Coastal Fire Centre has once again announced a fire ban as of noon today, but Cortes Island is stll subject to regulations being drawn up in area that receives more rainfall.
Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch brought the matter before the SRD Board at its June 28 meeting:
“I got a lot of alarming emails and phone calls regarding the lift. I contacted the province and they said that they can't change that decision, because it's based on boundaries, unless we have a bylaw in place. So this is just a bylaw that will give us power to go against it. If a lift happens and we don't think it's appropriate, then we can decide for ourselves,” he said.
There was no opposition to the motion that staff prepare a bylaw for Cortes Island, which has passed.
