FAQs

A Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is a strategic document that identifies wildfire risks and recommends actions to reduce those risks. It helps communities, governments, emergency responders, and residents work together to improve wildfire resilience and better prepare for future wildfire events.

Whitehorse is located within a forested environment where wildfires are a natural part of the landscape. As residential development continues to expand into forested areas, the potential impacts of wildfire on homes, infrastructure, and public safety increase. A CWPP helps identify areas of highest risk and prioritize actions that can reduce the likelihood and consequences of wildfire. 

No. Developing a CWPP is a proactive planning measure. The purpose is to understand risks before an emergency occurs and identify practical steps that can be taken to improve community safety over time. 

The primary goal is to reduce wildfire risk to people, homes, critical infrastructure, and community assets while recognizing that the forest, and also wildfire, is a natural part of the Yukon landscape. The plan will help inform future investments, mitigation projects, education programs, emergency planning, and community preparedness initiatives.

FireSmart is a nationally recognized, science-based approach to reducing wildfire risk around homes, neighbourhoods, and communities. The CWPP uses FireSmart principles as a foundation for many of its recommendations because research has shown that homes and communities that adopt FireSmart practices are more resilient during wildfire events. 

The CWPP itself does not create new regulations or requirements. Instead, it identifies recommendations and opportunities for reducing wildfire risk throughout the community. Some recommendations may inform future programs, policies, or bylaw discussions, but future regulatory changes still follow their own public consultation and approval processes. 

A FireSmart Home Assessment is a free property assessment conducted by trained City FireSmart staff. Residents receive site-specific recommendations that identify wildfire hazards around their home and practical actions they can take to reduce risk. Learn more and book your assessment at whitehorse.ca/firesmart.

Wildfire does not stop at property boundaries. Fire can spread between vegetation, fences, structures, and other combustible materials across entire neighbourhoods. The most effective wildfire risk reduction occurs when residents work together to improve resilience across a broader area. 

No. The goal is not to eliminate forests or greenspace. The CWPP focuses on reducing hazardous fuels and modifying vegetation in strategic ways to reduce wildfire intensity and improve community safety while maintaining environmental, aesthetic, and recreational values. 

Fuel management projects are planned treatments that reduce the amount, continuity, or arrangement of vegetation that could contribute to wildfire spread. These projects may include thinning trees, removing dead vegetation, pruning lower branches, or creating fuel breaks in strategic locations. 

Potential treatment areas are identified based on wildfire risk, proximity to homes and infrastructure, potential fire behaviour, environmental considerations, operational feasibility, and community priorities. 

The CWPP may identify areas where evacuation planning, emergency access, and public communication systems could be strengthened. Detailed emergency response and evacuation plans are developed and maintained separately by emergency management at the City. 

Across Western Canada climate change can contribute to longer fire seasons, warmer temperatures, increasing wind events and lightning storms, and more frequent periods of hot, dry conditions. These changes can increase wildfire risk and reinforce the importance of long-term wildfire preparedness and mitigation planning.