What is being done to reduce the risk of wildfire in the dead spruce?
Protection of life and property is the primary concern of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Spruce Bark Beetle (SBB) Mitigation program. Recognizing that fuels are the only component of wildfires that we can manipulate the SBB Program has focused on vegetation analysis/fuel mapping and fuel reduction efforts. Mapping the fuels within the borough identifies where the most hazardous fuels are located and allows for targeted, prioritized fuel reduction efforts. Additionally, the AK Division of Forestry and Kenai Wildlife Refuge fire management personnel use the vegetation analysis/fuel mapping completed by the SBB Program to make tactical fire fighting decisions and to predict wildfire behavior. SBB Program fuel reduction efforts have focused on hazardous fuels on borough owned parcels within the wildland urban interface (WUI), on hazardous fuels surrounding borough communities, on hazardous fuels in high use public areas, and on dead spruce along road rights-of-way.
