The 2018 campaign to eliminate scotch broom, an invasive fire hazardous species, from the community has been very productive, according to City of Powell River fire chief Terry Peters.
“It’s been a busy, successful season for all of us and we have a lot of accomplishments to be proud of,” he said.
The volunteer-driven BroomBusters team retraced its steps from last year, tripled the participation by local elementary schools and tackled many new sites. These include the Hawthorn Street area, the old hospital site on Arbutus Avenue, Wildwood hill and the Tofino Street area.
“Countless other regional and city locations are all seeing noticeably less yellow flower than only two years prior,” said Peters.
It was with the assistance of Brookfield Renewable and BC Hydro that the biggest threat for the spread of wildfire was stemmed along the community’s power lines, he added.
“It’s been a big year,” said Peters. “Over 5,000 hours was done between us and the island groups.”
Current estimates are that more than 60 hours of individual participation were dedicated to mitigating scotch broom in the community, excluding the work done on the power line.
“I fully suspect more is being done so it is important if you know or see people cutting broom to encourage them to join our team and be counted,” added Peters. “Anybody who has cut broom, send me a picture of yourself cutting broom and I’ll send you a t-shirt.”
