The steep forested slope on the west side of Gyro Park has for years been carpeted with a tangle of dry wood and other debris 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ“ the perfect wildfire fuel. 

The City of Nelson had planned to clean up the fuel in the park this year, then a fire in the park set by an arsonist in July provided further incentive, said the city's wildfire resilience program co-ordinator Rob Leland.

"Certainly when that fire started here, being aware of the heavy fuel loads, it piqued all of our interest," he said, "because that thing could have really got ripping if it got into these fuels."

Leland was speaking to the press and other visitors on Nov. 8 at the park, where he explained that the city is piloting a unique way of removing wildfire fuel in steep urban areas.

Traditional piling and burning of debris would produce too much smoke for local residents and the hospital, he said. The usual chipping technology would not work well on the steep terrain.

"In Nelson, with the forest intertwined with where everybody lives, different areas pose different challenges with different fuel types and different reasons for needing mitigation."

Leland showed the group an unusual remote controlled tractor designed to operate safely with a small footprint on steep terrain. It is capable of chipping woody materials in place and transporting the chips out of the treatment area for disposal off-site. 

The owner of the machine, contractor Joern Wingender of Flow State Adapations, said it is like a Swiss army knife: it's a motor on tracks that can have various tools, including a chipper or a mulcher attached to it. Using a remote-controlled winch, it can drag bunched debris out of a hard-to-reach location.

In Gyro Park, the machine climbed the steep slopes and chipped the debris onsite, dropping the chips onto material that was tied up in a bale and then lowered down the slope. 

The project was funded by the provincial government's Community Resiliency Investment program, administered by the Columbia Basin Trust.

Leland said the city will measure the cost effectiveness of this method compared with more conventional practices, and he thinks the province will be interested as well.

"The province is going to use that information (about) when this kind of tech is, or is not, going to be cost effective. It's a matter of picking the right tool for the right job. We want to drive innovation and we want to try new things, but we don't want to do so if the cost is exorbitant."

Leland said the technology might be useful in other locations in Nelson that are close to houses, even if steepness is not an issue.

"As we are currently mapping and prioritizing roughly 150 other sites throughout town for treatment, this may be the right tool for the job in some of those limited access parcels like old right-of-ways between private lots, or narrow lanes that don91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t have practical vehicle access."