Region Archives: Canada West

Rebecca Alty

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. —As wildfire season approaches and Yellowknife’s the review of last year’s evacuation continues. The majority of Yellowknife’s media was not present in the city after the evacuation order was issued last August. Most left with the general public. To some, the media’s responsibility is to be present and document the major events of climate change firsthand — but only with proper gear and training. To others, little is to be gained from being present and the more likely scenario is the media using up precious resources. Rebecca Alty, Yellowknife’s mayor, said that is a tough balancing act. She said the media does have an important role, but with last year’s evacuation reaching international news outlets, there would need to be limits. Alty said journalists with proper safety training would make the situation safer, but there’s still a limited amount of food and medical care available under an evacuation order.

KELOWNA, BC — A community town hall on the “future of our forests” is planned for UBC Okanagan. Planned by the Interior Watershed Taskforce, which includes the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, the event will bring together a panel of speakers. “It’s more important than ever to learn about the measures we can take to safeguard our forests,” says event organizers. “The B.C. community needs informing. Trees can no longer be seen as only dimensional lumber profits.” Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris will serve as keynote speaker. He has been critical in recent years of the impacts of clearcutting on the ecosystem. …The town hall will take place Saturday, April 13 at UBC Okanagan in the arts and sciences centre.

Formal engagement and negotiations are underway between ‘Namgis First Nation and the Province on a joint decision-making agreement to support forest stewardship and sustainable forestry operations. “Alongside ‘Namgis First Nation, we are working with local communities and forestry operators to make sure local forests are managed sustainably, while increasing certainty in forestry operations that will help to maintain family-supporting jobs for the entire region,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “By moving toward joint decision-making with ‘Namgis and working together with local partners, we can advance reconciliation, take care of the forests that sustain local communities and support good forestry jobs for the long term.” Through the Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 37 Forest Landscape Planning pilot project, ‘Namgis First Nation, the Province and Western Forest Products Inc. are working together toward sustainable forest management that will support forest health, benefit local jobs and advance reconciliation.

The Lake Babine Nation, located in Burns Lake B.C., announced that its forestry company, Lake Babine Nation Forestry Limited Partnership (LBN Forestry), signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with West Fraser. Under the JDA, we are agreeing to combine portions of our tenure volumes from the Bulkley and the Morice Timber Supply Areas and transfer them into a single First Nations Woodland Licence (FNWL) to be held by the Lake Babine Nation. …“This agreement will contribute to the durability of forestry in our region and deliver employment and long-term benefits to the Lake Babine people, other residents, and the regional forestry sector,” said Chief Murphy Abraham.  “This agreement recognizes the central role the Lake Babine Nation has in stewarding resources in its traditional territory, while providing a measure of fiber security for West Fraser,” said Sean McLaren, President and CEO, West Fraser. 

Additional coverage in Black Press, by Binny Paul: Lake Babine Nation, West Fraser sign joint development agreement

Business in Vancouver, by Nelson Bennett: B.C.’s West Fraser Timber, Lake Babine First Nation combine tenure

Rashaduz Zaman

Climate change is hampering mountain pine beetle reproduction but also appears to slightly benefit the invasive insect in other ways, new University of Alberta research shows. The mixed scenario provides “a deeper understanding of dynamics that are crucial to building effective forest management and conservation strategies in the face of ongoing environmental changes,” says PhD candidate Rashaduz Zaman, who led the study,  in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. The study — the first to show specifically how the mountain pine beetle is affected by elevated levels of two greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and ozone — provides new insight into how the insect and its relationship with beneficial fungi are influenced by climate change. The findings signal a mix of potentially positive and negative implications for the beetle. The findings signal a mix of potentially positive and negative implications for the beetle.

D’Arcy Henderson

…West Fraser (WF), founded in Quesnel and now one of Canada’s largest forestry companies, has announced not only are they not using glyphosate any longer, they actually halted its use in B.C. in 2019, and all other herbicides too. …D’Arcy Henderson, West Fraser’s vice-president of Canadian woodlands said West Fraser recognizes sustainable and responsible forest practices are about much more than trees and includes a wide range of values like biodiversity, water management, fire suppression, climate change, and use of traditional knowledge. “Five years ago, [public feedback] led us to permanently phase out the use of herbicides in B.C.” Henderson said the company instead uses a variety of other non-chemical techniques to cut down on the plant-life competing for sun and water in reforested areas of the bush after it has been harvested.

As Alberta prepares for another threatening wildfire season, new firefighter recruits are in the field extinguishing staged fires as they prepare for real-life scenarios on the job. More than 40 new firefighters finishing up their week-long training to become a wildland firefighter were flying into a staged fire situation outside of Hinton where they put their skills and knowledge to the test. …“It’s critical to make sure these new staff can work safely in a fire environment. We don’t know how fast and furious fires are going to show up this spring, but these folks need to be prepared to work safely and effectively on  their first wildfire,” explained Nicole Galambos, the director of the Hinton Training Centre. …Despite the recent snow and rain, Alberta Wildfire is gearing up for another challenging season due to drought-like conditions across most of the province. …Alberta wildfire will have more than 500 new firefighters trained by mid-May.

Steve Roberts

Preparations for wildfire season are starting two weeks earlier than usual in Saskatchewan this year. However, Saskatchewan is bringing in the same number of seasonal firefighters as last year, unlike other western provinces like Alberta and B.C., which are adding more. Below-average precipitation, continuing drought conditions and predictions of high temperatures mean many areas in the province are at higher risk of grass fires, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) president Marlo Pritchard said at a news conference Monday. Ground crews will be ready to respond as early as next week and air crews began training on Monday, Pritchard said. …Saskatchewan will have 220 Type 1 firefighters and 410 Type 2 firefighters this summer, according to the SPSA. …”We are expecting a season that will be average or above average,” Steve Roberts, vice president of operations at SPSA, said at the news conference.

Marc Kitteringham & David Eby

When B.C. Premier David Eby walked in to the Starbucks at Quinsam Crossing, he was followed by a coterie of other MLAs, assistants and RCMP. He sat down after ordering a coffee, and remarked on how nice and new the building looked. It was Eby’s first stop, albeit an unofficial one, on his trip to Campbell River to be part of the official signing of an agreement between the Nanwakolas Council and Western Forest Products to manage timber in the North Island. …“Its really a template for what we hope to do across the province: agreements between Nations and forestry supported by the local community where there’s economic development and opportunity and stability particularly for the forest industry, which we know is facing a lot of challenges right now around price and availability of trees. …“The really remarkable thing about wood products is that they’re part of the climate solutions,” he said.

While finalizing contracts with Europe for two dozen new firefighting planes, De Havilland Canada has amped up local production. Over the last six months or so, the company bolstered up to 300 employees at its North Saanich site (formerly Viking Air), where parts are made in anticipation of assembly in Calgary, according to Neil Sweeney, vice-president of corporate affairs. “Knock on wood, heavily, our HR people have been very good at recruiting. We’ve done recruiting fairs and been pleasantly surprised by the people who want to get into aerospace,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t holes to fill.” The Canadair CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft have been a critical part of European and North American aerial firefighting fleets for more than 50 years. …In 2016, Viking (now De Havilland) bought the Canadair program – which has been around since the mid-1960s – from Bombardier.

Last year was the most destructive wildfire season in BC’s recorded history. According to provincial data, a total of 2,245 wildfires burned more than 2.84 million hectares of forest and land—a number that doubles the last record of 1.35 million hectares burned in 2018. “The area of forests burned both in BC and across Canada in 2023 was horrific,” says Jens Wieting, senior policy and science advisor at the Sierra Club of BC. “It’s a really emotional topic because the trends are very concerning.” It begs an important question: is the Province properly ready for this year? The 2024 wildfire outlook seems grim, and not just in BC. Alberta already announced an early start to wildfire season in February, when it typically starts March 1. “We have definitely seen in the last 20 years a major change in the way that fire is spreading and heating in our forests,” says Lori Daniels, the Koerner Chair of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence at UBC.

In the Toronto Globe and Mail this week –“Canada lost 8.6 million hectares of forest in 2023 more than anywhere in the world.” …As bad as all this is, it’s not the most destructive challenge facing our forest lands. Far from it. No, by far the greatest challenge facing our precious woodlands is something we all participate in – industrial logging. …But don’t blame the loggers! They are only doing their jobs as directed by registered professional foresters who to a man or woman are true believers in industrial forestry where “all” the trees are cut because it’s easier for heavy equipment to operate and trees can be moved to the mill faster and bigger profits made. …We’ve logged at an unsustainable rate for more than a century. If we don’t act now Beautiful B.C. will become only a sad memory.

A new dedicated wildfire training and education centre at Thompson Rivers University will welcome the province’s future wildfire fighters. The B.C. wildfire training and education centre is a first-of-its-kind program and is a flagship action stemming from recommendations from the Premier’s Task Force on Emergencies. “…By establishing the first-of-its-kind wildfire training and education centre in North America, we are preparing our future wildfire professionals for the critical work of protecting our forests, our communities and our families in a rapidly changing climate.” The centre, the first in North America to transition wildfire training into degree programs and research, will offer comprehensive wildfire training and education programs that progress from basic skills training and learning in the wildfire field, to the future development of wildfire academic diploma and degree programs in wildfire and emergency management disciplines.

Additional coverage in CityNews Everywhere, by Charlie Carey: B.C. to open wildfire education, training centre in Kamloops, first of its kind in North America

Devastating fires ignited by falling embers that destroyed hundreds of structures in the Kelowna and Shuswap areas last year underscore the need to increase the fire resiliency of homes and properties in B.C., according to the preliminary findings of a new study. Wildfire embers, some of which travelled 2.5 kilometres across Okanagan Lake, for example, were the primary mechanism by which fire entered communities in the Interior, shows an examination undertaken by FPInnovations, FireSmart B.C. and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. The preliminary findings, commissioned by the B.C. Wildfire Service and the B.C. FireSmart committee, were released this week. A final report is expected in May. …The findings show that embers ignited shrubs around homes such as junipers and cedars. …The findings also showed that homes and structures which had so-called “FireSmart” characteristics had better survival rates. …“There are simple things that people can do,” says Greg Baxter for FPInnovations.

Last year’s record wildfires in Alberta destroyed habitat for threatened species and will change the makeup of the province’s forests for decades to come, says a new report. And the assessment from the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute says the chance of a repeat of 2023’s massive burn poses an ongoing challenge for both conservation and industry. “The future of fire, and how land managers and industries respond to it, will determine the sustainability of Alberta’s forests in the coming years,” the report concludes. …The report finds that more than 10% of the economically vital foothills region was burned. Several forestry companies lost between a tenth and a third of their harvestable trees. …The fires also lowered the average age of Alberta’s forests, a crucial figure in determining which forests can be harvested. …Caribou herds, which have already lost the vast majority of their ranges to industry, lost more of them to fire.

“The community of Logan Lake spent 18 years preparing for a wildfire they hoped would never come. Then, in 2021, it did.” That is the tagline that filmmaker Vesta Giles uses for her new documentary film The Test, which has its premiere in Kamloops on April 7. The film looks at the events leading up to the Tremont Creek wildfire of 2021. The fire forced the evacuation of Logan Lake a month later, and for a time it appeared that the town might be destroyed by fire only six weeks after most of the Village of Lytton burned to the ground. “I was there the day the community was evacuated”, said Giles, “and all I could think of was, ‘This is the test, this is the first time this has been tested’” “This” refers to the signs outside Logan Lake noting that the town was the first FireSmart community in the entire country. 

Known for its snow, Whistler, B.C., will soon be running an emergency simulation for a threat that’s becoming ever more present: fire. First responders will be running an emergency evacuation drill on April 18, part of the resort community’s recent Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan as drought and climate change continue to intensify fire behaviour and the threat to life it presents. “Whistler is in the trees, we live in the forest, so it’s a real priority for us to understand risk and then do everything in our power to ensure we are prepared,” Mayor Jack Crompton told Global News on Thursday. The community has been implementing recommendations from a recent report into wildfire preparedness, which includes a recognition that Highway 99 is the only way in and out of the community. …Residents are also being included in wildfire preparedness plans, with a heavy focus on education and encouragement to FireSmart their properties.

A multi-year project on Fox Mountain near homes and properties is helping to reduce wildfire hazard and create healthier forests. The local Ministry of Forests has been managing the project, helping to oversee planning and contracts to complete the work to reduce accumulated forest fuels. This means cleaning up dead wood and woody debris, removing some larger trees to space them, where possible, and removing brush, juvenile trees and lower branches. …Much of the project work has involved hand-piling by contract crews and then burning or chipping and sending the chips for fibre, where physically and economically possible to do so. This work helps to ensure if wildfire does reach the treated area of forest, it would reduce the fire intensity in this section, helping keep the fire on the ground and potentially providing a point of defence for fire crews.

Students at Alberni District Secondary School are gaining some outdoor education experience from Mosaic Forest Management. The ADSS Outdoor Education program gives students in Grade 11 and 12 an opportunity to learn outdoor skills and environmental stewardship. “They learn to appreciate the outdoors and learn some skills while they’re at it,” explained ADSS teacher Tim Crosby. There are plenty of field trips … but money can be a limiting factor. Crosby says the school tries to keep the program as accessible as possible for all students, but it has struggled with funding in the past couple of years. …Mosaic Forest Management was “eager” to support the program, offering a few avenues for the class to raise funds. In March, students took part in a day of tree planting with Mosaic and Sitka Silviculture. …Mosaic is also allowing the class to sell firewood permits for the waste wood on their cut blocks in the Alberni Valley

As the region braces for another hot season of wildfires the regional district has stepped up its game in preparation. Approval has been given by the board of directors for an additional Emergency Program coordinator at the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) Nelson office to address several immediate and ongoing needs, including preparing for and responding to — as well as recovering from the increasing frequency, intensity and uncertainty — of floods, wildfires, drought and extreme heat in the RDCK. “…new provincial emergency management legislation, and seasonal Emergency Operations Center (EOC) staffing challenges could impact our capacity to deliver excellence of the Emergency Management Program,” said Dan Seguin, RDCK manager of Community Sustainability. The newly approved position will allow for the capacity to plan for, operationalize and implement the Emergency and Disaster Management Act (in force since Nov. 8, 2023).