Monthly Archives: March 2019

Mike Flannigan

There may still be snow on the ground — but Alberta’s wildfire season has already started. Mike Flannigan, professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta and director of the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science, said there’s the possibility of wildfires in March, and the season has already started. …”May is our busiest fire month. For the rest of the country it’s June or July, with the exception of B.C., which is August,” said Flannigan. The Polar Vortex may have caused the coldest winter in Calgary in 40 years, but that will do little in the way of preventing wildfires this summer, he said. …He said 495 crew members will be prepared for this spring. Trainees learn to battle wildfires with formal classwork, mock field work and a lot of physical exercise.

I recognize that this is a difficult time for debates on caribou-recovery options, especially predator controls such as wolf culls and organized predator bounties. However, this does not mean we invent science to support age-old predator rhetoric. Robert Serrouya… made several concerning comments regarding the viability of killing wolves to save caribou. …These conclusions… are at best an attempt to rationalize a century-old management practice of “killing to conserve.” …First, and most important, the study did not receive any ethics approval. …Second, the proximate cause of caribou population decline is identified as “predator” (largely wolf) while habitat loss is identified as the ultimate cause of decline. …Third, the B.C. government in the past 12 months has approved more than 80 logging cut blocks located, in part, within critical caribou habitat.

EDMONTON — Researchers and forest managers are turning to artificial intelligence in the hope it can help them predict the risk of catastrophic wildfires as climate change continues to rewrite the rule book. It’s been the subject of more than 150 recent academic studies, said Mike Flannigan, director of the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science at the University of Alberta. “It is definitely front and centre in terms of the research agendas in terms of wildland fire and will continue to be for the next years,” he said. One insurance company says it has already developed an artificial intelligence program that can assess fire risk well in advance. Fires are fought before they start, by getting equipment and crews to the right place to fight them early. Once well and truly ablaze, they’re tough to stop.

Robert Barron

I always get concerned when I perceive threats to the province’s once mighty forest industry. Western Forest Products, B.C.’s largest coastal lumber producer, has bought two sawmills in Washington over the last year. WFP acknowledges a major advantage, among others, to having production facilities in the U.S. is that the lumber produced there is not subject to softwood lumber duties if intended for the U.S. market. The company has assured it has no intention of abandoning B.C. anytime soon, but I still find it unsettling. I remember when I first arrived in B.C. many decades ago, I was amazed at how easy it was to get a fairly high-paying job in one of the many sawmills that were running on the Island at the time. …It turned out to be the hardest job I’ve ever had.

Jennifer Gunter

A two-day conference focused on wildfire preparedness, management and recovery took place in Williams Lake this week. “We have about 79 attendees from throughout the province who include community forest managers, provincial government staff and researchers,” said Stephanie Ewen, manager of the Alex Fraser Research Forest. …On Tuesday, a draft protocol agreement between the BC Wildfire Service, woodlot licences and community forest agreement holders was released at the conference. …BC Community Forest Association executive director Jennifer Gunter said community forests are very motivated to be engaged in wildfire management and mitigation trying to protect their communities and also manage forests in a way that brings back resiliency. “We want to lay out a framework that community forests and woodlots can use in communication with the fire centre staff in their zone,” Gunter said.

The B.C. government approved 314 new logging cutblocks in the critical habitat of southern mountain caribou over the past five months, while simultaneously negotiating conservation plans to protect the highly endangered species, according to maps released Thursday by the Wilderness Committee. The new cutblocks cover almost 16,000 hectares in total, an area almost eight times the size of the city of Victoria. The Wilderness Committee discovered a sharp spike in logging approvals in the critical habitat of B.C.’s eight most imperilled caribou herds, where last October the group documented an additional 83 new cutblocks covering an area the equivalent of 11 Stanley Parks in size. “On the one hand B.C. says it’s protecting caribou while on the other they’re handing out permits to log habitat as fast as they can,” said Charlotte Dawe, the Wilderness Committee’s conservation and policy campaigner.

CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – The City of Campbell River feel the response from the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resource Operations is not enough. Minister Doug Donaldson responded to a letter the council sent to the province regarding the Snowden Demonstration Forest and the BC Timber Sales’ (BCTS) plan to move ahead with timber harvesting in the area without a long-range plan. The letter from Minister Donaldson acknowledged the letter council sent on February 21st, but there was no indication of when a comprehensive forest management plan will be available. During Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Andy Adams said it’s important to keep in mind that Snowden is significant not just economically, but for recreation and tourism purposes as well.