A public information session will be held Thursday, Aug. 23 at the Lake Country municipal office to discuss a provincial government program to mitigate pine beetle infested trees.
Officials from Lake Country will be on hand to give a broad overview of the program and to answer any questions the public has.
According to Lake Country, the provincial government has made funding available for local governments to help mitigate the risk of wildfire in urban interface areas, sharing the costs of tree removal with municipalities.
The program has helped the District of Lake Country with the completion of a Community Wildfire Protection Plan and local parks and recreation areas have benefitted from the removal of hazardous trees and vegetation.
The government funding that has been made available is to be used strictly for local governments with parks and rec areas affected as well as crown lands that border municipalities.
Previously there has been no funding available for private property owners to help mitigate the wildfire threat, leaving the land owner on the hook for all costs associated with the work being completed.
But the District of Lake Country has approved a budget to aid private property owners with the removal or clean up of wildfire threatened areas.
According to the district it is also forecasted to be a cost sharing project between the land owner and the district to stretch the budget as much as possible to help as many land owners as possible.
The cost will be set out as a per-tree cost to the owner with the district subsidizing the removal and clean up. Property owners will be required to fill out an application.
Once applications are received and reviewed a site inspection will be completed and a cost estimate for work to be done will be made at that time.
Full details will be available at the public meeting on Thursday Aug. 23 at the Lake Country municipal office starting at 7 p.m.
