Central Kootenay, Electoral Area A

Its land, ranked in BC

Shares of the land area, worked out from the Province's maps. Fire perimeters before the 1950s are less complete. A title or a past fire somewhere in the area says nothing about a given lot: a property report checks the parcel itself.

Large fires (1,000 ha or more) since 1990

Since 1990, 6 wildfires of 1,000 ha or more burned in Area A, together 16,786 ha, 9% of its land (ground that burned twice counts once). The most here was the Cultus Creek wildfire in 2021, 7,589 ha.

1. 2021Cultus Creek wildfire7,589 ha in all7,589 ha here
2. 2021Akokli Creek wildfire3,795 ha in all3,795 ha here
3. 2021Redding Creek wildfire1,131 ha in all · 63% of it here714 ha here
4. 2018Unnamed fire N723016,798 ha in all · 13% of it here882 ha here
5. 2003Unnamed fire N705567,984 ha in all · 24% of it here1,932 ha here
6. 2003Unnamed fire N708202,865 ha in all · 65% of it here1,875 ha here

Smaller mapped fires since 2016

Since 2016, the BC Wildfire Service mapped 18 smaller fires (under 1,000 ha) that reached Area A, newest first. This season's are as mapped by November 9, 2026.

1. 2026Unnamed fire N7132835 ha in all35 ha here
2. 2026Unnamed fire N7200431 ha in all31 ha here
3. 2026Unnamed fire N7200327 ha in all27 ha here
4. 2026Unnamed fire N719595 ha in all5 ha here
5. 2026Unnamed fire N720024.9 ha in all4.9 ha here
6. 2025Cultus wildfire773 ha in all773 ha here
7. 2025Unnamed fire N7225011 ha in all11 ha here
8. 2025Unnamed fire N705781.5 ha in all1.5 ha here

And 10 more

1. 2024Unnamed fire N71176671 ha in all671 ha here
2. 2022Unnamed fire N51881796 ha in all · 14% of it here109 ha here
3. 2022Unnamed fire N72196104 ha in all104 ha here
4. 2020Unnamed fire N719736.9 ha in all6.9 ha here
5. 2019Unnamed fire N710945.1 ha in all5.1 ha here
6. 2019Unnamed fire N716974.8 ha in all4.8 ha here
7. 2018Unnamed fire N71590155 ha in all155 ha here
8. 2017Unnamed fire N713291.7 ha in all1.7 ha here
9. 2017Unnamed fire N721491.6 ha in all1.6 ha here
10. 2016Unnamed fire N703702.5 ha in all2.5 ha here

Small fires that were never mapped as a perimeter aren't listed: the BC Wildfire Service maps an outline for only some of the fires it records. Past fire is history, not a forecast. The chance of fire on a lot today depends on what the record doesn't show: the forest and grass around it, the slope, what has been thinned or burned since, and how far it is from a fire hall. Every BC season and large fire since 1990.

Sources: BC Wildfire Fire Perimeters – Historical, BC Wildfire Service; BC Wildfire Fire Perimeters – Current, BC Wildfire Service; BC Wildfire Fire Incident Locations – Historical, BC Wildfire Service; BC Wildfire Fire Locations – Current, BC Wildfire Service (Open Government Licence – British Columbia), as published on November 10, 2026; 2021 census subdivision boundaries, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). Outlines simplified and places measured by PlaceDossier.

How the land burned

On the Province's ecosystem map, Area A's land is 46% NDT2 (burned in large fires about every 200 years), 26% NDT3 (burned in large fires about every 100 to 150 years), 18% NDT1 (rarely burned, about every 250 to 350 years and in patches), 8% NDT4 (burned often and lightly, every 4 to 50 years) and 2% NDT5 (alpine tundra and subalpine parkland). Its main biogeoclimatic zones are Engelmann Spruce–Subalpine Fir (53%) and Interior Cedar–Hemlock (47%). This is how the land burned before fires were put out, not its fire risk today. A report names the type over a lot. Every place's natural fire regime.

Source: BEC Map (biogeoclimatic zones and natural disturbance types), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia), read 2026-10-12; areas worked out on the census boundaries.

Evacuations since April 2017

Since April 2017, the Province's record holds 1 wildfire event with an evacuation order or alert over Area A, alerts only. The latest: Akokli Creek Wildfire, July 2021.

1. 2021Akokli Creek WildfireJuly 2021 · evacuation alert · Regional District of Central Kootenay173 homes

Listed when an order or alert area covered at least 5% of the land in Area A, or lay mostly in Area A and held at least 5% as many homes as the 2021 census counted there. An order means people were told to leave; an alert, to be ready to leave. Homes are the record's own counts, area by area, shown where the areas lie mostly in Area A. The Province's record starts in April 2017: earlier evacuations aren't in it. A lot's report checks every order and alert over the lot itself, and any in effect now.

Sources: Historical Orders and Alerts, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (Open Government Licence – British Columbia), as published on November 2, 2026; 2021 census subdivision boundaries and dwelling counts, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). Each order and alert area placed in the municipalities and electoral areas it covers by us.

Evacuations for floods, landslides and other hazards since April 2017

Since April 2017, the Province's record holds 1 flood event with an evacuation order or alert over Area A, alerts only. The latest: an unnamed flood, May 2020.

1. 2020Unnamed floodMay 2020 · evacuation alert (flood) · Regional District of Central Kootenay

Listed when an order or alert area covered at least 5% of the land in Area A, or lay mostly in Area A and held at least 5% as many homes as the 2021 census counted there. An order means people were told to leave; an alert, to be ready to leave. Homes are the record's own counts, area by area, shown where the areas lie mostly in Area A. The Province's record starts in April 2017: earlier evacuations aren't in it. A lot's report checks every order and alert over the lot itself, and any in effect now.

Sources: Historical Orders and Alerts, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (Open Government Licence – British Columbia), as published on November 2, 2026; 2021 census subdivision boundaries and dwelling counts, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). Each order and alert area placed in the municipalities and electoral areas it covers by us.

53 landslides are recorded inside Area A in the Preliminary Canadian Landslide Database (version 14.0), including 22 rock slides, 13 mountain slope deformations and 6 debris avalanches. The latest with a date of its own: a debris flow, 11 Sep 2004 (listed under “Kuskonook Fire”). The database lists slides known to have happened, mapped from inventories, satellite images and lidar. It isn't a hazard map, and some parts of BC are mapped in far more detail than others. Landslides near a given lot.

The Province maps about 1.5 km of dikes in Area A, along Crawford Creek, LaFrance Creek and Sanca Creek; the longest are the Crawford Creek dike, the Mountain Shores dike and the Sanca Creek dike. All of it is orphaned, with no local authority responsible. A dike lowers the chance of a flood behind it, not to nothing; a report names the dikes within 1 km of a lot and who maintains them. Dikes in BC, by place.

The Province lists 2 dams in Area A, none classed High or above for the harm a failure would do downstream. One of them is recorded as breached (failed). The class rates what a failure would do, not how likely one is; a report names the dams within 1 km of a lot. Dams in BC, by place.

One Water Survey of Canada gauge in Area A has 5 or more years of yearly peak flows: Duck Creek near Wynndel peaked highest at 14.8 m³/s in 1948 (46 years on record). A gauge's record is the river where it stands, not a flood line; a report gives the nearest gauge on a river by the lot. River gauges in BC, by place.

Radon

Area A lies in 2 health regions. In East Kootenay (about 71% of the area), 20 of the 105 homes tested (19%) were at or above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline; In Kootenay Boundary (about 29% of the area), 32 of the 109 homes tested (29%) were at or above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline, in Health Canada's 2009–2011 survey; across BC, 143 of 1,817 (7.9%).

The survey tested about a hundred volunteer homes per health region, with one long-term test each. That gives a rough regional picture: it isn't a map, and a region where few or none tested high can still have homes above the guideline. The only way to know is to test the home: radon and buying a home in BC.

Source: Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011), Health Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Health Service Delivery Area Boundaries, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).

Check one lot: has it burned? · is it on a floodplain map? · is it behind a dike? · is there a dam nearby? · landslides nearby? · contaminated sites nearby? · radon? · how much is too steep?

Source: Agricultural Land Reserve polygons, Agricultural Land Commission (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Fire perimeters – historical, BC Wildfire Service (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Mineral, placer and coal tenures, Mineral Titles Branch (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Preliminary Canadian Landslide Database, version 14.0 (May 2026), Brideau et al. (CC BY 4.0); 2021 census subdivision boundaries, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence).

In Area A, a zone limited to detached houses must allow at least one secondary suite or detached accessory home (a garden suite or carriage house) next to a house. A floor of 3 or 4 homes applies on rural land only inside an urban containment boundary drawn in a regional growth strategy, and most rural land is outside one. None of it applies on land in an Islands Trust local trust area or under a rural land use bylaw, and in the Agricultural Land Reserve the Commission's limits come first. How many homes you can build on a lot.

The Province's principal residence requirement doesn't apply in Area A (list in force from June 1, 2026), so the provincial rule doesn't limit short-term rentals to the host's home. Local bylaws, including the zone's own rules, can be stricter. Hosts anywhere in BC register each unit with the provincial registry. Short-term rental rules in BC.

Reports for lots in Area A can't name the zone: we have no open zoning map for it (see the places covered).

Ask the Central Kootenay Regional District for a lot's zone and what it allows.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay's building inspection covers all of Area A (Building Bylaw No. 2200, 2010): building, adding on, moving or demolishing a building needs a building permit, and the work is inspected. Our reading of the Regional District of Central Kootenay's own page, checked 2026-10-07. Do you need a building permit on rural land?

The Province maps 10 designated community watersheds, Sanca Community Watershed, La France Community Watershed and Duck Community Watershed among them, over 16% of Area A: land draining to a licensed drinking-water intake, where logging and roads on Crown land must protect the supply. A report says whether a lot lies in one and whose water it is. Community watersheds in BC, by place.

Check one lot: is it in the ALR? · is the soil good for farming? · is it in a community watershed?

Source: Agricultural Land Reserve polygons, Agricultural Land Commission (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); 2021 census subdivision boundaries, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence).

Mapped aquifers

4 mapped aquifers lie in Area A, most wells first.

1. 1Aquifer 488: East Creston Bedrockfractured sedimentary rock386 wells · moderate productivity
2. 2Aquifer 982: Confluence of Arrow Creek and Goat Riverfractured sedimentary rock0 wells · low productivity
3. 3Aquifer 499: Alice Sidingfractured crystalline bedrock0 wells · low productivity
4. 4Aquifer 983: Wild Creek near Duck Lake, BCfractured sedimentary rock0 wells · moderate productivity

An aquifer is listed for each place that holds at least a twentieth of it, so a sliver of one at the edge can be left out. Wells and productivity are for the whole aquifer, which can reach well beyond Area A. The province maps aquifers mostly in settled valleys, so a lot outside every outline can still have groundwater. Every mapped aquifer in BC · sampled lakes.

Sampled lakes

2 sampled lakes lie in Area A (one only partly), largest first.

1. 1Kootenay Lake423 km² · 52% of it hereoligotrophic to mesotrophic (inferred)
2. 2Crystal Lake25 hatoo few readings to judge

A lake is listed for each place that holds at least a twentieth of it or 100 ha of it. Clarity is the median summer Secchi depth; the nutrient class is our reading of Carlson's index from phosphorus or chlorophyll, not a provincial rating. Either is given only for a lake with at least 10 summer readings from open water, spread over at least 3 different years, since 2012. Most lakes have never been sampled, so a lake missing here may simply have no record. Every sampled lake in BC.

Source: Groundwater wells (GWELLS), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Ground Water Aquifers, Water Protection and Sustainability Branch, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); BC Environmental Monitoring Data System (EnMoDS) results, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); 2021 census subdivision boundaries, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence).

Normals for 1981-2010 at the Creston treatment plant station, about 9 km from Wynndel (of the communities here with a station within 30 km, the one with the most addresses); ECCC has no fuller 1991-2020 set for it. Its normals don't include days with snow on the ground, so that is left out. * Based on at least 20 of the 30 years, short of the World Meteorological Organization's standard: treat as a rougher guide. The records are single days measured at the station: the most rain, snow and wind it saw in its record up to 2010 (ECCC's 1981-2010 sets give records over the station's whole history, so some dates are older than 1981). Each is one event, not what to expect in a year, and the lot can get more or less than the station. Elevation matters a lot in BC: a hillside lot can be much colder and snowier than the station.

Plant hardiness zone: most homes here are in zone 7a (53%); 43% are in 7b, on Natural Resources Canada's 2025 map. Higher numbers are milder winters. What the zones mean.

Solar panels: a south-facing panel tilted at the latitude would make about 1,100 kWh a year for each kW of panels at Wynndel, about 44 of it in December (estimated from Natural Resources Canada's 1998-2022 sunshine map). An open sky is assumed: the hills, trees and buildings around a lot cut it, and a report sets the lot's own skyline beside it. What solar panels would make in BC.

By the 2050s (2041-2070) at Wynndel, climate models project about 19 more days over 30 °C a year, a longest frost-free run about 45 days longer and about 18 percentage points less of winter's precipitation falling as snow, each against the same models' 1971-2000 (model projections under SSP2-4.5, a middle path for emissions). The models work on a grid of about 9 by 6 km, which averages valley floors with the slopes around them, so their own figures can sit well off a station's normals and aren't comparable with them. Their own figures there: about 23 days over 30 °C a year in 2041-2070 (range 15 to 42 across the models), against about 4 days in 1971-2000; a longest frost-free run of about 180 days (range 155 to 205), against about 135; and about 62% of winter's precipitation falling as snow (range 48% to 66%), against about 80%. The ranges run from the 10th to the 90th percentile of the models' 2041-2070 figures. The 2050s across BC.

Light at night within 1 km of Wynndel: faint, as around Wells or Lytton (our reading), and darker than about 84% of BC's homes (2024 satellite record). A lot away from the centre can be much darker. How dark are BC's nights?

Lightning: around Wynndel, a cloud-to-ground flash within 10 km on about 11 days a year and 0.23 flashes per km² a year, more than at 3 in 4 BC homes (the Canadian Lightning Detection Network, 1998-2025 average, on a grid of about 11 by 7 km).

Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020 and 1981-2010, Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Plant hardiness zones of Canada (2025 map), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Solar position: General Solar Position Calculations (NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory; Spencer, 1971) (Public domain); Daily average solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada (1998-2022), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Photovoltaic Potential and Solar Resource Maps of Canada (performance ratio), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Statistically downscaled climate indices from CMIP6 global climate models (CanDCS-M6), Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, via the Canadian Centre for Climate Services (Open Government Licence – Canada); VIIRS Nighttime Lights, 2024 annual composite, Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines (Elvidge et al. 2021, Remote Sensing 13(5):922), via Hengl, OpenGeoHub, Zenodo doi 10.5281/zenodo.7750174 (CC BY 4.0); Canadian Lightning Detection Network cloud-to-ground flashes (CanCPLDv1), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada).

The Province lists 12 active waste discharge authorizations in Area A; the commonest kinds: sewage treatment or discharge site (6), sawmill or other primary wood processing (3) and concrete plant (1). Of these, 3 may discharge to air, 8 effluent to water or land and 2 refuse to land. A report lists any within 2 km of a lot, and flags one whose point is on it. Permitted discharges in BC, by place.

The Province maps no open gravel pit or quarry in Area A, but one open mineral exploration or mine permit area. A report lists the permits within 2 km of a lot, names an open pit or quarry within 500 m and flags one whose permit area takes in the lot. Gravel pits and mine permits in BC, by place.

On ParcelMap BC, the land in Area A is 28% private, 13% Crown land with a parcel drawn (1% with no title); no parcel is mapped over 55%, likely most of it untitled Crown land, with lakes and road allowances. A report says who owns the land along a lot's line. Crown land next to a property, and every place's land by owner.

The Ministry of Forests maps 2 active Crown range tenures (2 grazing) reaching into Area A, over less than 1% of its area, licensed for about 200 animal unit months of grazing a year in all. Outside a pound district, keeping livestock off a lot is the owner's fence to build. A report lists any tenure within 1 km of a lot. Open range and grazing in BC, by place.

The Province maps 17 registered traplines over 76% of the area and 4 guide outfitter territories over nearly all in Area A. The maps are drawn over titled land too, but traplines are registered on Crown land: on titled land, anyone but the owner or occupier needs their written permission to trap. A report says whether either takes in a lot. Traplines and guiding territories in BC, by place.

Area A lies in wildlife management units 4-6 (49%), 4-7 (40%), 4-19 (11%): the Hunting and Trapping Regulations Synopsis sets seasons and closed areas by unit. Hunting and shooting on your own property.

BC Parks maps 7 parks and protected areas (Drewry Point Park, a provincial park; Kianuko Park, a provincial park; Kootenay Lake Park - Midge Creek Site, a provincial park; Lockhart Beach Park, a provincial park; and 3 more) reaching into Area A, over 4% of its land. Recreation Sites and Trails BC lists 5 sites there. A report names the nearest park and recreation site within 25 km of a lot. Parks and recreation sites in BC, by place.

Check one lot: is there a mineral claim? · power lines nearby? · pipelines nearby? · a gravel pit nearby? · a landfill or plant nearby? · logging planned nearby? · cattle on open range? · is there a trapline? · can I hunt on it? · a park nearby? · Crown land next door?

Source: Mineral, placer and coal tenures, Mineral Titles Branch (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); 2021 census subdivision boundaries, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence).

Census figures are from 2021; the next census results start in 2027. Area boundaries are Statistics Canada's census subdivisions, which follow municipal and electoral area lines. The places named at the top are the official place names in the area (BC Geographical Names) with the most 2021 homes nearer them than any other name, on ISED's home points: our reading.

Source: Census of Population 2021, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence); BC Geographical Names, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Pseudo-Household Demographic Distribution (2021), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada).