After devastating Summerland fire, B.C. faces call to ‘cut red tape’ for prescribed burns

By Simon Little & Chris Walker
CBC News
August 25, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As British Columbia grapples with wildfires of growing size and intensity, the province is facing calls to cut red tape to make conducting prescribed burns easier. It comes amid concerns that a number of prescribed burns meant to protect the Summerland area from wildfire were delayed by government bureaucracy …”We have to rethink where we are investing money, we need to get some of the regulatory red tape out of the way, which sounds wild coming from a conservation organization,” Jesse Zeman, president of the B.C. Wildlife Federation told CBC’s Daybreak South. …Bob Gray, a wildland ecologist who runs prescribed burns throughout the B.C. Interior, says they are a powerful tool to prevent fires. “It’s not all climate change-driven. You can have hotter, drier, windier [weather], if you don’t have fuels, you don’t have fire,” he said.

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