The gardening hack that could slow forest fires

Jul 28

A slash pile is pictured in a newly constructed firebreak near Canmore, Alta., on May 15, 2025. File photo by: Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press

By Jennifer Cole

For years, Kyle Gillich watched the same cycle at Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality in BC’s interior: every year, forestry crews would head into the forests surrounding the municipality to help mitigate wildfire risk. The forests would be thinned of underbrush, fallen branches and dead trees, leaving mounds of debris in towering bonfire piles, to be burned in the fall when the weather was cooler and wetter.

However, as summers get longer and hotter, the legal window for burning that debris has narrowed. Burn piles, according to Sun Peaks Fire Chief Dan Schiavon, can sometimes sit in the woods for more than a year. The material dries out and, instead of deterring wildfires, contributes to them. In 2022, a fire escaped a burn pile in Sun Peaks, scorching a hectare of forest.

Gillich, a wildfire risk management planner with Forsite Consultants Ltd., has been working with Sun Peaks on a new way to manage the thinned-out debris — one that both benefits the forest and mitigates wildfire risk to the community.

Convincing everyone, though, that spreading flammable material across the forest floor is a good idea is not always easy.

Keeping the soil moist

The process known as mastication (“chewing”) is used throughout North America to improve forest health. Rotating drums with cutting teeth are attached to the front of large excavators to shred small trees, underbrush and dead sticks and branches. The shredded material is left on the ground as a mulch.

This reporting is produced with support from I-SEA’s Climate Solutions project and is not behind National Observer’s subscriber paywall. Readers are asked to create a FREE National Observer account to access the full article.

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