Photo: Grant Berg · CC BY-SA 3.0Birch Hills County is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Government of Alberta
Burn scars are few around Birch Hills County, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.014 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Birch Hills County: 8.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Birch Hills County a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Birch Hills County’s hazards
For Birch Hills County, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Birch Hills County faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Birch Hills County: B+
For Birch Hills County, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Birch Hills County has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Birch Hills County’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Birch Hills County’s 0.004% is in the low band.
Forest fuel is scarce around Birch Hills County: 1.2% of the land within 5 km, 3.7% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in Alberta · highest of 479
Wainwright burns fastest in Alberta at 1.43% a year; Birch Hills County, at 0.004%, ranks 69th of 479.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Birch Hills County stays low, with 92%.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Birch Hills County is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Government of Alberta
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Birch Hills County: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
2 studies on the inventory touch Birch Hills County, the newest Government of Alberta’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peace River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
| Watino Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Birch Hills County is one of the 46% of towns in Alberta with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Birch Hills County has come in steps: 2 studies from the 1990s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Birch Hills County.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Birch Hills County floods.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Birch Hills County: $0.014 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Birch Hills County it is only $0.014, 0.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Birch Hills County runs at $0.014 a year, near the $0.013 of the typical town in Alberta; Black Diamond has $0.048.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (73%) face more earthquake damage than Birch Hills County.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Birch Hills County is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Birch Hills County: 8.9% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Birch Hills County’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.9% over the guideline, against 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Peace Country Health as a whole, not for Birch Hills County alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Birch Hills County’s area, at 8.9%, is close to the median in Alberta (7.5%); 1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Birch Hills County, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Neighbouring homes in Birch Hills County can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Birch Hills County
Alerts for Birch Hills County come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Birch Hills County to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Birch Hills County faces
Practical steps for Birch Hills County’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Birch Hills County is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Birch Hills County’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Birch Hills County, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Birch Hills County.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Birch Hills County
Does Birch Hills County flood?
There is flood mapping for Birch Hills County on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Birch Hills County at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Birch Hills County’s low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Birch Hills County?
The area’s survey found 8.9% of 203 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Birch Hills County.
How big is the earthquake risk in Birch Hills County?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Birch Hills County $0.014 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Birch Hills County’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Birch Hills County’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).