Region Archives: Canada West

Ken Hodges, the veteran forester who years ago warned Parks Canada about the potential for a catastrophic wildfire in Jasper, is now worried about wildfire hitting hard in Banff and Canmore. Hodges, retired in Canmore, was pained by what he sees as government inaction in the lead up to the Jasper wildfire. “Was there anything that could have been done to stop it? Maybe.” …Hodges, for 35 years a forester for the BC government, worked in the Prince George region. …Government logging, prescribed burns and clearing of deadfall has been carried out on public land around Canmore, but nothing is being done on some large tracts of private land around town, Hodges said. “That creates a major issue.” …After the devastating Waterton National Park fire of 2017, Hodges and fellow forester Emile Begin prepared a report for Jasper town and park officials on the dangers of a major fire.

It has been another intensive wildfire season with thousands of fires in both B.C. and Alberta burning more than a million hectares of forest. …But the fact that 70 per cent of Jasper was saved is a testament not only to the commitment of the firefighters but also to the FireSmart program put in place to help protect the community. The losses would have been much greater without years of preventative wildfire mitigation. Similarly, mitigation work conducted by the Penticton Indian Band helped firefighters contain and prevent the spread of the recent wildfire above West Bench. Sixteen homes were evacuated but ultimately only two sheds were lost. As a community surrounded by wildland, the District of Summerland has also been undertaking fuel modifications in interface areas to help fortify the town in the event of a wildfire. 

JASPER, Alberta — A large wildfire ripped through Jasper, Alta., last month, destroying hundreds of buildings and turning much of the west side of town into a wasteland. It’s a jewel of Canada’s national parks, with a tiny picturesque townsite nestled in the forested folds of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. Now, parts of Jasper are a scorched landscape with years – if not decades – of recovery ahead. On July 22, 2024, thousands of Jasper residents and tourists were ordered to evacuate as wildfires – started by lightning and fuelled by catastrophic drought conditions – threatened the town and the surrounding national park. Within 48 hours, firefighters faced a nighttime battle against a wall of flames propelled through surrounding valleys by howling winds. By morning, when the sun rose above Roche Bonhomme, about one-third of the townsite was rubble, with many more buildings damaged. Here’s a more detailed look at that timeline.

David Suzuki

Last summer, during a record-breaking wildfire season, a podcast host asked Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about the connection between fires and climate change and her government’s opposition to federal climate policies. “I think you’re watching, as I am, the number of stories about arson,” she said. “I’m very concerned that there are arsonists.” She’s not alone in blaming arson, lightning or forestry policies for increasingly intense wildfires and lengthening wildfire seasons. Those are factors, but not the point. Whether fires are ignited by arson, lightning or accident, human-caused global heating is making them more likely and more furious. …Because we’ve already released so many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we’ll be facing escalating wildfires for years to come. We can reduce future risk by shifting from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner energy and protecting green spaces, but good forest management is also necessary.

FORT ST. JOHN, BC – The District of Chetwynd has announced its support for ForestryWorksforBC. …The district received a letter from a group of forestry-based organizations asking for the council’s support in a grassroots initiative to raise awareness about forestry. The letter detailed the importance of forestry, the industry’s critical role in rural and urban communities, and the struggles within the industry due to decreasing harvest levels and reduced government revenue. ForestryWorksforBC is advocating for reliable access to allowable annual cut (AAC), the annual amount of timber that can be harvested on a sustainable basis. “Without reliable and timely access to the AAC, we have a lot more to lose than mills,” the organization wrote. Mayor Allen Courtoreille and councillors unanimously agreed to lend the district’s support to ForestryWorksforBC’s message and voted to write a letter of support addressed to the provincial government.

As the provincial election approaches, an organization concerned about wildlife and related issues is holding election town halls to make sure their concerns are heard. The B.C. Wildlife Federation has already held nine election town halls across B.C. and plans to hold 15 more, says Randy Shore, BCWF’s public relations and communications specialist. Three town halls are scheduled for the Okanagan in the coming weeks, followed by four more on Vancouver Island, with Metro Vancouver hosting four town halls in September.  “We want to ensure that voters and our elected officials have a chance to discuss wildlife management without the noise that comes with the general election period,” Shore said. “Also, it takes time for parties to build their election platforms. We want to make sure they are considering wildlife management during that process.”

The news out of Jasper is tragic. …Predictably, the disaster has now turned into a political blame game. …So I may as well jump in on the action and blame something no one else will – the elk. At least partially. Yes there should be more controlled burns happening. …And more of those dead pine should have been selectively logged. But we also need to eradicate the elk herds, which never existed in Jasper in large numbers until 1920, when park authorities shipped in 88 elk from Yellowstone. Like in Yellowstone, elk have had a massive impact on the most fire-resistant forest type we have – the aspen. …We need to recognize the elk aren’t precious, nor do they represent a natural park. …They need to be either hunted again or possibly excluded in key areas with fencing.

As infernos blazing across swaths of B.C.’s forest grow in intensity and number, experts say the amount of wildfire-caused landslides is expected to increase as well. Thomas Pypker, Thompson Rivers University natural resource science professor, said that wildfires can cause landslides by disrupting vegetation and soil. He said soils stay wet for a longer period of time after vegetation is burnt away. This is because less precipitation is absorbed by the vegetation where it can eventually evaporate into the atmosphere. Pypker said about 20 per cent of incoming precipitation is normally reduced through “interception loss” in forest canopies, where it then evaporates. …“If you go deeper in the soil profile, the soil stays wetter …once they saturate, they become liquid and they’ll run downhill.” Roots, which will hold soil in place, will also be killed off by a fire which can further facilitate landslides.

A team of University of Northern British Columbia researchers has received $5 million in funding to study the impacts of climate change and human activity on salmon. …The research team will be led by Prof. Ellen Petticrew at UNBC and Jason Raine, manager of the Quesnel River Research Centre. …“We expect the findings to be applicable to other large lake systems in the Pacific Northwest which are undergoing climate change,” Petticrew stated. Researchers will study the impacts of climate change, including drought, flooding and wildfires, as well as human activity on salmon habitat. Construction of a new building as well as space for teaching and community outreach in Likely, B.C. is included in the project. The UNBC facilities department is co-ordinating the building’s construction. …The funds came from the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, which is co-funded by both the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia.

Three days after water and debris from a breached landslide powered down the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers in southwest BC, officials say the surge is starting to settle.  Last Wednesday, a landslide blocked the Chilcotin River causing water, fallen trees and other debris to build into a rising lake behind the slide. Water began spilling over the dam on Monday, and soon carved a channel through the landslide that sent a dangerous torrent rushing down the Chilcotin and into the Fraser River. In an update Wednesday evening, the province said the pulse of water has “essentially dissipated” into the southern reaches of the Fraser River in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. …But BC Minister Nathan Cullen said the focus now is on assessing fish passage across the Chilcotin landslide site. There were around 60,000 cubic metres of debris, half of which was captured by the debris trap.

Mathieu Bourbonnais

UBC Okanagan researcher Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais is pursuing solutions to help communities predict, plan for and prevent destructive wildfires like the 2023 McDougall Creek fire. His low-cost, purpose-built wildfire sensors help pinpoint when forests are most susceptible to ignition. …As an Assistant Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, he’s examining wildfire coexistence. …Dr. Bourbonnais is placing sensors around the Okanagan Valley to pinpoint high-risk locations. …In collaboration with Rogers Communications, Dr. Bourbonnais’ team is leveraging satellite technology to enhance the sensors. The partnership provides access to Rogers’ cellular networks, technical support and deployment strategies crucial for real-time data transmission, particularly in remote areas outside cellular coverage. …Changing management practices without the ecosystem-specific information can lead to repeated damage, which is why Dr. Bourbonnais joined Dr. Lori Daniels of UBC Vancouver in creating the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence.

Kenneth Green

With Jasper badly damaged by fire, Albertans and Canadians are wondering how such destruction was allowed to happen. Much of the public debate assumes that the disaster, in some way, was human-caused or aggravated by governmental negligence or incompetence. Some argue that government policies to suppress natural wildfires, …allowed the build-up of massive amounts of fuel for potential mega-blazes. Others argue that governments have been negligent by failing to allow aggressive logging of dead trees and by using insufficient controlled burns to manage fuel loads of underbrush. Some, of course, blame climate change… There’s a lot of finger-pointing right now. Political point-scoring is the order of the day, particularly in the realm of climate policies. But using the Jasper fire for political ends distracts from the important questions about whether or not anybody or any level of government should try to tame nature outside of human-built environments. 

Liam Parfitt and Gord Chipman

Liam Parfitt, co-owner of Freya Logging, thinks he has a forestry management solution that will keep northern B.C. mills operating, reduce the risk of wildfires and create habitat that will give plants and animals a better chance to thrive. Parfitt is convinced that selective logging practices that have been used for decades in European countries is what is needed to make Canada’s forest economy thrive again. Selective logging [cuts] some, not all, trees from a specific area. Parfitt says the thinning of forest cut blocks, ones that were clearcut and replanted as recently as 30 years ago, will create more than enough fibre to rejuvenate a forest industry decimated by beetle kills and wildfires. He said the industry is also challenged by a government bureaucracy that has delayed permitting and contributed to a shortage of economically available timber, which has forced companies to curtail mill operations at the cost of hundreds of jobs.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (the Tahltan) and Metlakatla Forestry Corporation (Metlakatla) on First Nations Woodland Licences N3B and N3E, starting Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. The Tahltan and Metlakatla operate within the Skeena region in the northwestern part of the province. The forest operations of Tahltan, which are subject to audit, are situated in the Iskut Forest Development unit within the Cassiar timber supply area of the Skeena Stikine Natural Resource District. Forestry activities are primarily concentrated along Highway 37 south of Iskut. Metlakatla conducts its forest activities in the North Coast Forest Development Unit 1, located within the North Coast timber supply area of the Coast Mountain Natural Resource District. Forestry operations are south of the Work Channel, near Prince Rupert.

VICTORIA – An audit of the BC Timber Sales Program (BCTS) and timber sale licence (TSL) holders in the Boundary Timber Supply Area portion of the BCTS Kootenay Business Area has found significant issues with road and bridge maintenance. The Forest Practices Board conducted the full-scope compliance audit of all BCTS and TSL holders’ forestry activities carried out between June 2022 and June 2023. The audit found that BCTS did not inspect any high-risk or very high-risk roads, and only a limited number of moderate-risk roads during the audit period, which is not compliant with the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation. “Most of these roads were built decades ago before the advent of modern road-building techniques,” said Board Chair Keith Atkinson. …The audit also found that TSL holder Tolko Industries Ltd. did not repair broken guardrails on a bridge used by industrial traffic during the audit period. 

Additional coverage by Canadian Press in Business in Vancouver: Audit of BC Timber Sales program finds issues with road and bridge maintenance

Some 260 tickets have been issued to people in B.C. in the last five years for violating the provincial Wildfire Act. The Ministry of Forests confirmed the number of tickets handed by Natural Resource Officers (NROs) between April 2019 and March 2024, with Glacier Media. NROs are provincial staff who work throughout B.C. and investigate human-caused wildfires. During the same period, these officers brought 38 cases to administrative hearings for more serious contraventions. “There are a number of enforcement actions Natural Resource Officers can take when a Wildfire Act violation has occurred. Issuing violation tickets and pursuing administrative enforcement penalties or prosecution are different actions,” said the ministry. Carelessly flicking a cigarette butt in British Columbia can cause catastrophic damage and spark wildfires. 60 per cent of wildfires are caused by lightning in B.C., but flicking a cigarette butt or not putting out campfires are common reasons why wildfires start.

B.C.’s Chilcotin River is flowing once again after breaching a kilometre-long landslide that had barricaded it for five days, unleashing a surge of water laden with silt and timber that poses an uncertain new threat to beleaguered salmon runs currently sniffing out their spawning grounds. Officials have yet to determine any effects on salmon runs, but are prepared to intervene as soon as the river is safe. The emptying of the temporary 11-kilometre lake that formed behind the landslide dam was slower than worst-case scenario modelling, averting the need for mass evacuations downriver. …Dr. Scott Hinch, associate dean at the University of British Columbia’s Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Laboratory is optimistic, saying the Chilko sockeye have the best swimming ability of any of the Fraser sockeye and has a broad thermal tolerance. Studies have found they also have more efficient hearts than other salmon populations. [A Globe and Mail subscription is required for full access]

BC United has pledged to create a “world-class” wildfire prevention and response institute in Kamloops if it forms government following the October election. At a news conference Tuesday morning, Todd Stone, BC United MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson, said the institute would have an initial funding amount of $78 million. Stone said the focus of the proposed institute would be to bring together the BC Wildfire Service, Thompson Rivers University and other post secondary institutions, local communities and First Nations to implement new technologies. “There’s different aspects of research being done by institutions around the province, but the private sector is the piece that’s largely missing from being at the table at the moment,” Stone said. “The institute that we’re announcing here would be largely focused on ensuring that there’s a very strong private component to the acceleration, of the adoption of new technologies, new approaches to wildfire fighting.”

The Hawaii Mars waterbomber is back to flying status. And its time in the Alberni Valley is winding down. The aerial firefighting tanker, owned by Coulson Aviation, took its first flight in eight years on Thursday, Aug. 1, surprising dozens of photographers, boaters and onlookers when a high-speed taxi turned into a takeoff. …Richard Mosdell, who runs Save the Mars program for the B.C. Aviation Museum, was in Port Alberni over the long weekend and said taxiing in the Mars “was just thrilling.” Fifty or 60 boats followed behind or alongside the waterbomber on Saturday, Aug. 3, he said. The waterbomber flew briefly on Sunday, Aug. 4, the same day Coulson hosted an event at the bomber base for more than 400 employees and family members. Coulson Aviation confirmed the Hawaii Mars will fly out of Sproat Lake on its final mission next Sunday, Aug. 11. both time and flight path are still to be determined.

…As the Jasper disaster continues to unfold, many Canadians are pointing fingers, looking to blame a single source for what happened. Some say it was the mountain pine beetle, which killed off significant sections of forest, leaving dry, dead trees. Others say not enough was done to thin the forest and build an effective fire break near town. The reality, however, is more complicated. Decades of highly effective fire suppression in and around national parks have left them more vulnerable to large fires, according to Pierre Martel, the director of national fire management for Parks Canada. …Research suggests logging leaves boreal forests more susceptible to fire from both lightning strikes and increased human activity in the woods. …Add in climate change, with its increased heat and chaotic precipitation, as well as dead trees from mountain pine beetles — themselves a byproduct of warmer winters and past forest management — and the conditions are prime for a devastating firestorm.