A half-million dollar grant given to the BC Cattlemen’s Association this spring is being used to fire-proof land in three areas of the province.

Kevin Boon says the association is doing work near Merritt, Summerland and Cranbrook and has also hired a fuel management coordinator.

“It amounts to much more than just our cattle grazing. It means building the landscape so that the firefighters can come in and have a place to set up a line of defence if a fire should spread in that community,” he says.

“Very targeted periods of time. So in the early spring, for example, we’ll move into some of these areas and graze the grass down pretty low. So that as it grows throughout the year it doesn’t dry out as quick. And we’re actually moving fuel from the fire.”

Boon says in the 2017 fire season, when a record 65,000 people were evacuated at some point, the association discovered that it was easier to fight fires in areas where cattle grazing happened.

“We knew it before, but it was something we were really able to illustrate, that those areas where cattle grazing took place were much easier to fight fires. We saw where we could either stop or trim the fires in those areas. So we’re taking what we know, and we’re applying it scientifically.”