Region Archives: Canada West

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.

Jed Kaplan

…The University of Calgary’s Dr. Jed Kaplan — associate professor in the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment — spoke with the Gauntlet about the role of climate change, as well as the effects of land management and the natural forest ecosystem of Western Canada on the Jasper Wildfire Complex. Kaplan said, “the forests of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and a large part of surrounding areas are adapted to fire. They are forests that have naturally burned for tens of thousands of years. That’s just a part of our product of the climates that we have here in summertime, where we often have periods of warm weather and dry conditions and also lightning strikes.” However, Kaplan also explained climate change has increased both the length of these hot dry seasons and the temperatures themselves, both of which contribute to increasing severity and frequency of wildfires.

SECWÉPEMC TERRITORY, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Splatsin te Secwépemculucw (Splatsin) and Tolko Industries Ltd. (Tolko) proudly announce the signing of a renewed relationship agreement — titled the “Mlkwátaka” (place where we come together) — which serves to support and advance this long-standing partnership built upon mutual trust and respect. The essence of the Mlkwátaka Agreement, evident in its name, lies in its mission to unite Splatsin and Tolko together on their continued journey of learning and growth. Splatsin and Tolko share a vision to advance innovative forest management practices while respecting and implementing Splatsin’s traditional laws, values and principles. Splatsin and Tolko have been collaborating on land management, forest management and business opportunities since 2008… “Our relationship with Tolko has been ongoing since the early 2000’s … how we work together is a model for co-management that we plan to implement throughout Splatsin area of caretaker responsibility,” says Kukpi7 Michael Christian.

A flood warning, flood watches and an evacuation order have been issued due to a landslide over the Chilcotin River near Farwell Canyon as the Province takes action with partners to keep people safe. On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, a landslide blocked the Chilcotin River, near Farwell Canyon, which feeds into the Fraser River. A sudden release of the water behind the landslide dam may cause rapid rises in river levels downstream along the Fraser River south to Hope. The Cariboo Regional District has issued an evacuation order due to the landslide. …Several helicopters have been dispatched through BC Wildfire Service to assist with search and rescue of people in the area. The River Forecast Centre has issued a flood warning for the Chilcotin River upstream of the landslide in the vicinity of Farewell Canyon and a flood watch for the Chilcotin River downstream of the landslide in the vicinity of Farewell Canyon. 

Additional coverage by the Canadian Press: ‘Massive’ B.C. landslide blocking river may burst, sending a torrent of water, debris

EDMONTON, Alberta — Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, with Todd Loewen, Minister of Forestry and Parks, announced a joint investment of over $57 million over five years under the Government of Canada’s Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program – Equipment Fund. This funding is already supporting Alberta’s efforts to purchase key wildland firefighting equipment as well as hire and train key personnel to enhance provincial readiness and capacity to prepare for and respond to wildland fires. So far, Alberta has purchased aircraft parts, general wildfire equipment including pumps and hoses, and telecommunications equipment. …The funding announced today will continue to enhance fire management efforts across Alberta by procuring and upgrading specialized wildland firefighting equipment and by hiring and training personnel to increase wildland fire preparedness and response efforts.