SOPFEU! Oh – you mean Stop Fire!?
Actually, SOPFEU means Société de protection des forêts contre le feu. We all need to know what that means. It takes every single one of us to protect our forests – and homes – from wildfires.
We in the Townships were abnormally lucky last summer, as fires raged around us. In little Maple Leaf, we even lucked out in terms of air quality; our smog was mild, at a distance, mostly. We went south to visit my sister in Pennsylvania, and as we opened our car window to greet her, we found our eyes, noses and throats burning with acrid smoke. It had leapfrogged over southern Quebec, and landed there, all the way from northern Quebec.
No doubt about it, the 2023 wildfires in Canada, including Quebec, made history. What can we expect this year?
Well, the word on all the airwaves is: Expect the worst. Our winter was unusually dry. Some of last year’s wildfires are springing to life again, after smouldering all winter. We have ongoing drought forecasts. El Niño promises continuing extreme temperatures.
Anyone with their nose to the wind is worrying. Here in the Haut-Saint-François, our luck could run out any moment.
PREVENTABLE
Listen up! Don’t smoke in the woods. Discarded matches and cigarette butts set off devastating forest fires. Smoking, campfires, fireworks, and off-trail ATVs are real hazards for our precious wild plants and animals.
Many municipalities ban outdoor fires when there’s a high danger of fires. Dry, windy conditions make it easy for fires to spread rapidly and get out of control.
About halfway down the page on the Newport municipal website (MunicipaliteNewport.com), I see a distinctive yellow-orange rectangle, like a window into the heart of a wildfire. This window takes you in two directions. Clicking on the SOPFEU logo takes you directly to the sopfeu.qc.ca website, offering a bilingual interactive map. This map shows today’s level of fire danger in your area.
At this writing, it’s raining and the danger is low in Estrie; our colour is dark blue. In Kamouraska/Rivière-du-Loup, their colour is yellow: Their fire risk is high. Beyond that are orange (very high) and red (extreme).
The map also shows where active fires are burning. Watch out for the red flame; that’s where fires are out of control.
Finally, it shows where municipalities have placed restrictions on activities that could cause fires. For example, a ban on open fires. Restricting forestry operations. Prohibiting access to or travel within forests, or flying over them.
Sopfeu.qc.ca has a plethora of information about fires and their prevention. It’s worth flying over.
The other place the SOPFEU yellow-orange window can open to is what you must do before burning something outdoors: Apply for a fire permit. The Cookshire-Eaton and Newport municipal websites take you “directly to the Cookshire Fire Department form, which provides this service.”
Click. Oh no! The Cookshire form tells me to click again for the Newport form.
Click again. Oh no! The Newport form sends me back to the Cookshire form.
Many clicks later, I am lost on the Cookshire-Eaton website, cookshire-eaton.qc.ca. Try for yourself; the English takes you endlessly back and forth between the Cookshire and Newport titles, with nary a form in sight. The French version takes you down a rabbit hole of Cookshire-Eaton “reglements,” and perhaps, just perhaps, lets you land at last on a form for a permit to build a fire. But I wouldn’t know; I ran out of time and patience.
If you want more information, may I suggest the trusty old phone: 819-560-8585 for the Cookshire-Eaton municipality; 819-560-8565 for Newport.
SmART Science
Engineering Squad is a new creative family activity for ages 9+ brought to us by Literacy in Action. It’s Saturdays 1-3 p.m. for the next month. The catch is that it just began on May 4th, and limited spots are available. So before you pop over to Bury to join the fun, be sure to sign up with Angie@lia-estrie.org, or 819-346-7009.
CANTERBURY FLEA MARKET
Canterbury Cultural Centre’s Flea Market is on May 18-19, Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Old, new, used, vintage or antique items in good condition: paintings, dishes, old tools, weaving, and more. Jams, baked goods, honey, maple products, hotdogs and coffee. All proceeds go to the restoration and regular maintenance of the Canterbury Centre at 1095 Victoria Road (Route 214), Bury. Info: 819-872-3400.
Heads up for a concert at the Canterbury Centre on June 21st at 8 p.m. for the Fête Nationale; traditional Quebec music with guitar, mandoline, accordian, violin, bass, and voices. Tickets: $15.
SPRING POTLUCK
The Brookbury Hall is open for business! The first event of the season will be a Spring Potluck supper and Silent Auction on May 25 at 5 p.m. The Hall’s address is 571 Brookbury Road (aka Route 255). Info: Brenda Bailey, 819-884-5984.
VIACTIVE
May 15 is the last Viactive session of the season at the Newport Municipal Hall in Island Brook. Happy midsummer!
GARDENS
When you think Townships gardens, do you think veggies, or flowers? Both? What is the primary predator of gardens, whether ornamental or nutritional? The answer is Knot Nice, John Mackley tells us. This fun fact and others are in the current Townships Sun on gardens, guest-edited by Angela Leuck. It is available at townshipssun.ca or the magazine stands at the Cookshire IGA and Dépanneur Lachance in Sawyerville.
CHURCHES
Baptist. Sunday Services are in French at 9 a.m. and in English at 11 a.m., at the Sawyerville Baptist Church, 33 rue de Cookshire. For information, please contact Pastor Michel Houle at 819-889-2819.
Anglican. To find services in the deanery, check the schedule at deaneryofstfrancis.com/calendar/. Info: 819-887-6802, or quebec.anglican.ca.
United. Sunday services are 9:30 a.m. in Cookshire, and 11 a.m. in Sawyerville. Info: 819-889-2838. For pastoral care, call Rev. Spires at 819-452-3685.
Do you have news to share? Call 819-640-1340 or email rawrites@gmail.com by May 9 for publication May 22.