Former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber opened the COFI 2025 conference’s second day with a call for systemic change in how western jurisdictions respond to the interconnected crises of wildfires, community risk, and forest health. Speaking from decades of experience in politics, health care, and forest policy, Kitzhaber urged British Columbia to move beyond reactive firefighting and fragmented policy to create a landscape-level, cross-boundary strategy rooted in collaboration. “We need to reframe the problem,” he said. “We have a land management crisis masquerading as a wildfire crisis.”
Kitzhaber noted that both BC and Oregon are seeing escalating impacts from wildfire—ecologically, economically, and socially—but said existing policies are outdated and misaligned. “Most of the policy tools we’re using today were designed for a different time and a different reality,” he said. Drawing on his work with the Western Governors’ Association, he outlined a five-principle framework: take a whole-of-landscape approach, move from response to prevention, align funding with strategy, redefine risk as shared among all stakeholders, and build trust through transparent engagement.
He said this requires shifting incentives away from the per-acre suppression mentality that rewards bigger fires with more funding, toward pre-fire investments that reduce risk and enhance resilience. “The most effective fire management tool is a prescribed burn conducted last year,” he quipped. Kitzhaber emphasized that meaningful change depends on building durable partnerships among governments, First Nations, industry, and communities. “No one has all the answers,” he said. “But we all have a role.” Kitzhaber also challenged the way public safety is framed in wildfire policy, noting that investments in fire suppression are seen as urgent, while mitigation is treated as optional. “It’s public safety to do suppression. Why isn’t it public safety to do mitigation?” he asked.
Following Kitzhaber’s address, the panel tackled the challenge of bringing those high-level ideas into local practice. COFI Vice President Zara Rabinovitch moderated the conversation, which featured MLA Ward Stamer, wildfire researcher James Whitehead, and Klay Tindall of Lil’wat Forestry Ventures.
Stamer, a former mayor and now BC Conservative forestry critic, stressed the importance of listening to front-line communities and increasing local authority over land-use decisions. He said provincial processes are often too slow or disconnected to address urgent wildfire threats. “There’s no better experts than those that live there,” he said. “And they’re saying, let us do the job.” Stamer also expressed frustration with the lack of coordinated action across jurisdictions. He called for faster permitting, clear leadership, and more accountability. “We’re not coordinating between the ministries and the forest service,” he said. “And there’s too much red tape.”
Klay Tindall shared how his First Nations-led company is taking direct action on fuel reduction and cultural burning. He emphasized that Indigenous knowledge systems are central to long-term solutions. “We’ve been doing this work forever,” he said. “We just need the tools and support to do it at scale.” Tindall described challenges with inconsistent funding, a lack of long-term planning, and difficulty navigating overlapping regulations. He said programs like the Forest Enhancement Society of BC are helpful, but more stable funding is needed. “We need certainty,” he said. “And we need to be able to plan more than a year at a time.” He also called for capacity-building support to ensure Indigenous-led teams can deliver the work. “It’s not just about being at the table. We need to have the people, equipment, and training to do the job.”
Whitehead, who leads wildfire research initiatives at SFU’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue, focused on the science-policy gap. He said British Columbia has excellent data and modelling capacity but struggles to integrate that information into real-time decisions. “We have the science,” he said. “But science needs translation into policy, and policy needs to be actionable.” He argued that siloed funding structures make it hard to prioritize prevention. “The money shows up after the fire,” he said. “We need to get upstream of the fire, upstream of the crisis.” Whitehead also stressed that wildfire is not just a forestry problem. “This is a housing issue, a health issue, an economic development issue. If we don’t connect the dots, we’re going to keep chasing our tails.”
All three panelists echoed Kitzhaber’s call for deeper partnerships, particularly with Indigenous communities. Tindall emphasized the importance of trust and long-term relationships. “If we’re not at the table from the beginning, it’s not going to work,” he said. “It has to be co-designed.” Stamer added that politicians must be willing to let go of control. “Government’s job is to get out of the way,” he said. “We’ve got to empower communities to lead.”
In closing, Rabinovitch asked each panelist for one change that could unlock progress. Stamer said BC needs to align mandates across ministries so decisions don’t get stalled in bureaucratic contradictions. Tindall said Indigenous fire stewardship should be treated as core infrastructure. Whitehead said evaluation criteria need to shift from outputs to outcomes. “Stop measuring acres treated,” he said. “Start measuring risk reduced.” Kitzhaber returned briefly to the stage to respond. He said BC is ahead of Oregon in some areas, particularly in integrating First Nations leadership, but that both jurisdictions face the same core problem: “The system is designed to do exactly what it’s doing,” he said. “And what it’s doing is not good enough.” He urged BC leaders to resist the political impulse to chase quick wins and instead commit to the slow, complex work of systemic reform. “You can’t solve a complex problem with a simple solution,” he said. “But we can build a better system—together.”
Drafted with the assistance of digital tools to streamline the process.