Salt Spring Wildfire Ready: Homes, Forests, Community
94% of wildfires on salt spring are human-caused
Which means almost every local wildfire is preventable.
This page brings together simple, practical tools to help you protect your home and property from wildfire — no expertise required. Since 79% of Salt Spring is privately owned, the small steps each of us takes at home add up to real protection for the whole island.
Explore the resources below to protect your home, property, and community. Every bit of prep helps.
Be wildfire ready:
START TODAY with easy steps
Most Salt Spring Wildfires Are Human-Caused. Don't be the Spark.
Get a Free Firesmart Assessment from Salt Spring Fire Rescue
Move Firewood 10 meters From all Structures
MORE LOCAL RESOURCES:
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Connect with neighbours and join your neighbourhood POD program to to strengthen your community's emergency response.
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Bookmark the CRD Emergency Dashboard, which updates in real time for emergencies including wildfire
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Nearly 500 Salt Spring residents shared their insight about wildfires. Here’s what they had to say.
SALT SPRING Wildfire LEARNING SERIES:
While We Still Have Time: Building a Wildfire-Resilient Salt Spring Island
Our climate is changing. Summers are becoming hotter, and drought is placing increasing stress on our forests. Eventually, Salt Spring could experience that dangerous combination of prolonged drought, dry fuels, low humidity, high temperatures, strong winds and an ignition at exactly the wrong place and time. We cannot know when those conditions will align, but we can prepare for them.
Wildfire risk: Understanding the 30-30-30 rule
The 30-30-30 Rule is widely used by wildfire professionals as a simple way to recognize conditions that can cause fires to grow quickly. When all three line up on the same day, vegetation and soil dry out fast, ignitions become more likely, and any fire that does start can spread quickly and unpredictably. Embers travel farther, spot fires can jump ahead of the main fire front, and firefighters face a much harder job. These are the days to take seriously.
The Sky Is Smoky Again. Here’s What to Do
If you have looked up at a hazy sky this week or felt that familiar smell in the air, you already know. Salt Spring is in smoke season again, and it is here now. We cannot control the fires themselves, but we can control how we protect ourselves and each other while the smoke is here.
Smoke is more than an inconvenience. It carries tiny particles that get deep into your lungs and can affect your whole body.
Salt Spring Residents Are Worried About Wildfire And Ready to Do Something About It
A recent community survey has given Transition Salt Spring a clearer picture of how residents feel about wildfire risk on the island, and the results are both sobering and encouraging. The survey received 459 responses from residents across Salt Spring. Read on to learn how the survey is shaping Salt Spring’s wildfire readiness.
Wildfire ready? Island braces for dry summer
Results from the recent Salt Spring Island Community Wildfire Survey showed that residents are increasingly concerned about hotter, drier summers and the wildfire risks that come with them. This year’s conditions are already reinforcing that concern. Read on for what you can do to help.
LOCAL Wildfire RESEARCH AND Resources
Salt Spring Island sits within the Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) ecosystem, one of BC's rarest and most endangered forest eco-regions. While wildfires here are historically less frequent than elsewhere in the province, a changing climate combined with decades of clearcut logging and human development is altering forest structure and shifting the island's wildfire regime. Healthy, intact forests are a critical buffer, influencing fire behaviour and helping protect our communities.
Most of Salt Spring is privately owned and sits within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), where homes and forests are closely interwoven. This makes regionally specific guidance essential: effective wildfire risk management here must account for local conditions while supporting the ecological resilience of our CDF forests.
Thank you to the local organizations & SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS WHO HELPED with this project:
CRD, Salt Spring Island Fire and Rescue, Salt Spring Island Emergency Program, Salt Spring Island Water Preservation Society, CARL Society, Salt Spring Island Conservancy, Salt Spring Garden Club, Briony Penn, Ruth Waldick, Erik Piikkila, Brandon Bauer, and Tal Engel
