Region Archives: Canada West

CHETWYND — The BC Wildfire Service is setting the record straight on response times and crew availability in Chetwynd this wildfire season, as disputes over the Northern Initial Attack base linger. “It is only the live-on portion of the base that has closed,” said Sharon Nickel of the Prince George Fire Centre. In a statement to CJDC-TV, the BC Wild Service says the base will remain operational and staffed based on wildfire activity in the area. “As it pertains to operations and response in Chetwynd, once our prep levels determine that hazard or expected activity in the area are high, response personnel will be stationed at the base, “ said Nickel. Nickel adds that there are a number of variables that go into response times when a fire is discovered, including whether the person reporting the fire is in a location with cell service.

With snow coming down in sheets, the firefighters dropped their jerry cans, shrugged off their coiled hoses and, one after another, handed over heavy pumps to waiting instructors. …The drill, in which recruits repeatedly carry as much as 70 kilograms of gear up a steep hill for two hours straight, is meant to be “one of the toughest things you’ve ever done,” instructor Katelynn Harness said last week. But it’s more than just intentional suffering – it’s about each recruit proving to themselves what they are capable of. And it’s an annual rite of passage for new recruits in the BC Wildfire Service, one of several on the final day of New Recruit Boot Camp. Instructors – some with decades of wildfire experience – can still recall their own battles on that hillside in the mountains above Merritt, B.C.

The public will be able to review and comment on forestry plans across B.C. through a new online service. The Ministry of Forests announced Tuesday the public will have access to a new online portal called Forest Operations Map. The portal will allow people to comment on plans for forestry roads and cut blocks, which are spaces planned to be harvested. “The portal will allow greater public input on forestry activities,” said the ministry. “As well as greater transparency about forestry proposals.” “Previously, the public primarily learned about proposed cut blocks and roads in the local newspaper or in-person at district forestry offices, and then submitted comments by email or regular mail.” The public will also be able to search the online portal to find the estimated time of harvests.

Province of BC Release: New Forest Operations Map portal supports transparency, engagement

Occupying 10 per cent of Canada’s land mass and almost two-thirds of the province under forest cover, British Columbia is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. But the beauty of B.C.’s biological diversity is scarred by two ugly truths: B.C. is in a biodiversity crisis with over 1,800 at-risk species, and the province’s laws perpetuate this crisis by allowing big logging companies to treat public land as if it’s their private property. …The presumption of a public right to access, especially for those endeavouring to protect at-risk species amid a biodiversity crisis, should never be lightly interfered with. Unfortunately, through the ongoing authorization of road closures, the B.C. government is signalling these lands belong to industry. Forests will continue to be logged. Species will continue to die in darkness. …The TFL 46 case is but one example of how B.C.’s legal framework prioritizes exploitative industry practices over all other values that forests hold.

The Interior Logging Association’s annual general meeting and convention will return to Kamloops this weekend, with all things related to forestry. The 66th annual event runs Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at the Powwow Grounds in Kamloops, will feature a free logging show open to the public. …The show will include displays of heavy equipment including, a logging industry helicopter, simulators to try, demonstrations, vendors, a chainsaw carving demonstration, a big truck show and shine and educational information. There will also be a log loader competition, where operators compete to stack logs three high to be the most accurate and fastest. …The Interior Logging Association encourages the public come check out the show to get to know those who work in the industry and what they are all about. In fact, Todd Chamberlain, ILA general manager, says some of the biggest environmentalists he knows work in the logging industry.

The Province is working with the Regional District of North Okanagan, District of Lake Country and the Okanagan Indian Band to protect the primary water source for Lake Country and the Greater Vernon area from the risk of wildfire. “Many people in the Okanagan depend on the North Aberdeen Plateau for their drinking water,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “We know that the risk of a wildfire in the area could have very real impacts on the water people depend on…” The North Aberdeen Plateau hosts critical natural resources and is a high priority for wildfire mitigation. Through $15 million from the Ministry of Forests, a team will begin planning and implementing fire-mitigation prescriptions to protect water, water infrastructure and cultural heritage values in the North Aberdeen Plateau. This is a multi-year, multi-phase project, with phase 1 beginning immediately. 

Additional coverage in Black Press: Project protects Okanagan watersource from wildfires

A group of residents on the Sunshine Coast is voicing concern about the fire risk posed by 200 slash piles that were supposed to be cleaned up by now. The piles of wood debris were left by logging companies… near to the town of Egmont, B.C., in 2022 and 2023. In a letter addressed to Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simmons and Premier David Eby, the residents say the slash piles are in places where accidental ignition is a real fear. …North Lake resident Marcia Thomson said in community consultations with B.C. Timber Sales and the shíshálh Nation, co-managers of the timber licences, residents were assured that fire mitigation would take place and the slash burned off during the rainy season. But … the group has been informed by the shíshálh Nation that the piles will remain through a second summer because the window to burn has closed.

‘The Last Logging Show: A Forestry Family at the End of an Era,’ is a newly published book from Harbour Publishing. The book follows Williams, a third-generation logger who has mostly found employment elsewhere, as he treks to Haida Gwaii to embed with a mostly aging workforce and document the twilight of conventional logging as a new set of possibilities opens in B.C.’s forests. Excerpt: …In North America, falling is second only to fishing in terms of danger. For most of his career Dave has made his odds worse by doing a difficult sub-species of the job known as right-of-way falling. This is the falling done to open up new roads to new cutblocks. Fallers working in a cutblock quickly create an opening in the canopy — a safer space — into which most other trees are felled. On a right-of-way, an open space is never achieved. 

CHETWYND — The debate over the relocation of the Northern Initial Attack in Chetwynd continues. The Peace River Regional District has written a letter to Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston in support of reinstating the base. Bruce Ralston confirmed the closure of the facility and its staff lodging on December 15^th, 2023 in a letter addressed to the Chetwynd Mayor Allen Courtoreille and city council. Since then, there has been mounting pressure from mayors across the Peace Region. In early February, Hudson’s Hope and Tumbler Ridge supported Chetwynd in condemning the move to relocate crews to Dawson Creek saying it could double response times in the community and surrounding district. The concerns surrounding response times continue to mount. PRRD chair Brad Sperling citied the BC Wildfire Service, who say 94 per cent of new wildfires are suppressed by initial attack crews.

A wildfire expert says rapid detection and initial action to tackle fire starts is important as climate change spurs the hot, dry conditions which result in more intense fires. Mike Flannigan, wildfire researcher at Thompson Rivers University, was one of two presenters who spoke on the future of wildfires in B.C. during the Southern Interior Local Government Association conference Thursday. “In terms of impacts, B.C. is at the pointy end of the spear. We’ve been hit by freight trains in 2017, 2018, 2021, 2023,” Flannigan said. “Yes, we’re going to get hit by more freight trains — and they’re going to be more intense, more frequent.” Flannigan said extreme fire weather — hot, dry, windy days with lots of lightning — is the “key driver” of the increase in wildfires. While the number of human-caused fires are decreasing, last year, more than 70 per cent of B.C.’s wildfires were caused by lightning.

The Canadian wildfire season has already begun, and western provinces are preparing for 2024 to be potentially more devastating than last year, which shattered records with 18.5 million hectares of land burned. The fears of a brutal fire season — heightened by a lack of snowfall and rain — has also created demand for new community initiatives and provincial programs in several western provinces. …Alberta government officials … have been trying to prepare for the possibility of another bad fire season. In February, the province announced the official start of fire season 10 days earlier than normal. …Last week, British Columbia announced a burn ban that covers vast swathes of the province’s interior for the next five months. While B.C. has yet to ban campfires, the open burning of debris and leaves is prohibited. …Saskatchewan is planning to purchase four re-purposed air tanker planes, at the cost of $187 million, to help fight fires across the province.

Melanie Joy Murray and Howard Gerald Breen

NANAIMO — A judge disagreed with the defence arguments from two environmental activists, who said they had no choice but to break the law to draw attention to the dangers of climate change. Judge Ronald Lamperson rejected the arguments in cases involving Howard Gerald Breen, 70, and Melanie Joy Murray, 48, who were indicted on multiple charges related to highway blockades and other protests in Nanaimo from late 2021 to early 2022. During the Friday, May 3 ruling in Nanaimo provincial court, Lamperson said he disagreed with the ‘defence of necessity’ argument, with the defendants claiming their actions were justified due to the severe threat of climate change. …Breen, co-founder of the environmental activism group Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Island, staged a hunger strike in April to draw the attention of the Ministry of Forests related to the government’s strategy for old-growth forests.

Brian Barber

Re: Canada should avoid the mistakes the U.K. made in biomass for energy. As a forester living and working in British Columbia, I have a good understanding of how BC’s forests are managed and harvested. Our current logging practices do not “risk devastating ecosystem collapse” everywhere, as suggested by Bertie Harrison-Broninski and Richard Robertson. …I am also aware of the export of wood pellets from BC and elsewhere to generate electricity at Drax’s facilities in the UK. Pellets are made from wood unsuitable for milling into higher-value products, and which would otherwise be burned on site. However, shipping pellets half-way around the world does not make sense. …BC Hydro is making funding opportunities available for climate action projects as its large hydro-electric dams can’t keep up with growing demand. Certainty there must be a business case for burning BC’s wood pellets in BC, while also protecting old growth.

OTTAWA, ON – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed the presence of emerald ash borer (EAB – Agrilus planipennis) in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. These detections, which are outside of currently regulated areas for emerald ash borer in Canada, are the first detections of EAB larvae in BC. Emerald ash borer is a highly destructive insect that attacks and kills ash trees (Fraxinus sp.). It is a federally regulated pest in Canada. EAB is currently found in parts of six provinces and is spreading to new areas via the movement of firewood and ash material (such as logs, branches and wood chips). This pest poses no threat to human health. …The CFIA is conducting surveillance activities to determine where EAB may be present, and is collaborating with the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the Province of British Columbia, to slow the spread of this pest.

WHITEHORSE, YT – The forest and wood products industry is an important contributor to the Yukon’s economy. Businesses that harvest timber or manufacture products from wood provide essential goods, such as heating fuel and lumber, to people and communities and contribute to a diversified economy. Today, the Honourable Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, PrairiesCan and Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, announced that the Government of Canada is investing up to $341,600 in the Yukon Wood Products Association’s (YWPA) Yukon Forest Resources Capacity Support Initiative. …Through this initiative, the YWPA will provide training, build new opportunities for Yukon’s forest sector, and expand its membership to include artisans, craftspeople, woodworkers and non-timber forest products. It will also increase public awareness of the benefits of local forest and biomass opportunities as a way to reduce the territory’s reliance on imported goods and fossil fuels.

Tony Kulbisky

Westlock County, Alberta — Westlock County chief administrative officer (CAO) Tony Kulbisky will be providing his expertise as a firefighter for more than 15 years to a new provincial working group whose purpose is to establish a long-term strategy for the management of wildfires outside of Forest Protection Areas. Council agreed to sign a letter of support and to appoint Kulbisky to the working group, which is being established by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA). Last November, RMA members passed a resolution to have the association engage with the Alberta Government, Alberta Municipalities (AM), and the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association (ACFA) to develop a long-term strategy for managing wildland fire events outside of Forest Protection Areas. 

ALBERTA — Participants in an Alberta Wilderness Association sponsored talk with West Fraser Timber of Cochrane got a primer course in general forestry planning from company officials Tuesday, but little in the way of hope they’ll have any success in stopping or even slowing down clearcut logging in the recreation areas of West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain. West Fraser recently made more detailed maps available to the public, showing the actual cut blocks in West Bragg Creek, along with the names of the biking/hiking /horseback trails affected, prompting anti-logging groups like Bragg Creek and Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation (BCKOR) to declare their “worst fears realized” on social media. West Fraser plans to clearcut 900 hectares, the size of 833 soccer fields. near West Bragg Creek and another 450 ha. in the Moose Mountain Trail Networks.

As B.C. heads into what is predicted to be a hot summer, the need to build wildfire resiliency is a top priority across the province. Last week’s FireSmart Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit in Prince George brought together representatives from municipal governments, fire departments and other stakeholders to discuss insights from last year and what communities can do to recover, rebuild and repair. Lucy Grainger, FireSmart BC’s education officer, said… wildfires have become a collective responsibility, and they now require more interagency co-operation than ever before.  The annual Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit, which is now in its fourth year, is an opportunity to connect people working throughout the region. …Alongside large fuel mitigation projects happening at the municipal scale in Prince George, free FireSmart assessments are now available to people living in the community.

Southern Alberta didn’t see much rain in April, but May came in cold and wet. …According to Christie Tucker with Alberta Wildfire, the moisture across the province this week has made a difference. “Recent cooler weather and precipitation has meant wildfire activity has been subdued this week,” she says. “We’ve managed to extinguish a number of wildfires, including carryover fires that have been burning since last year.” She says there are currently 43 wildfires burning in the forest protection area of Alberta, with 3 of those being classified as held, and the rest considered under control. Tucker says the break in the weather has been helpful to contain those fires, but the province isn’t out of the woods yet. …The drought code still showing very high to extreme wildfire danger in some parts of the province. They would need a week of heavy and steady rain for the situation to improve.