Region Archives: Canada West

A Parksville-area helicopter company is off to fight forest fires at night in Alberta, which will be a Canadian first. The crew from Ascent Helicopters arrived in Alberta on Sunday to do some initial training with personnel there, according to Trent Lemke, owner of Ascent Helicopters. Ascent has experience doing search and rescue and air ambulance operations at night, but this will be the first night-time firefighting contract, he added. “Alberta will be the first province to do so,” Lemke said. “No one has fought fire at night in Canada, in the U.S. they do it quite a bit.” Ascent’s purpose-built tanks on the bottom of their helicopters, combined with night vision use will bolster forest fire fighting efforts by allowing crews to “action” a blaze throughout the night, Lemke said. “If it’s a high-priority fire you can stay with it, where traditionally we’re pulling off just before dark,” he said.

Barb Thomas

A research team at the University of Alberta is looking into why some trees in Alberta are more resilient when faced with drought, disease and the risk of wildfires by sequencing tree genomes. …The genome Alberta resilient forests project, led by U of A professor Barb Thomas are using the genetic makeup of trees to map out the genome for pine and spruce trees. “We measure populations and make assessments and measurements … to produce progeny that could then be used for reforestation,” Thomas said. …The Genome Alberta Resilient Forests project is already getting a lot of attention from the province and timber industry. “We are working to understand the impacts of the changing climate on the forest and are supporting research into the genetics of trees that appear to be better adapted to the future climate,” wrote Richard Briand, chief forester for West Fraser’s Alberta branch. 

Two special videos are coming from the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN) — “a 2-part documentary focused on the unique stories of Indigenous forestry workers.” Part One launches May 9 on IRN’s YouTube channel. …The BC government has committed to a policy of encouraging and enabling greater First Nations participation and more Indigenous partnerships in the industry. …We hope the IRN video tells us more. Because, sadly, the policy has become yet one more factor in the uncertainties affecting the sector. And at this point, the outlook of BC’s forest sector is a full of red ink and red flags. …BC has been implementing bans on, or deferrals of, much old-growth logging, with consequent impact on the industry. And the province has been pushing for more “value-added forestry” — more “high-value product lines…”  But that will be, at best, a painfully slow advancement. And if there is less wood cut, does that not mean more challenge for value-added forestry? 

UBC Forestry and the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence are excited to announce the Wildfire Coexistence in BC: Solutions Symposium, in partnership with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science at UBC Okanagan! This Symposium will bring together British Columbia’s leading wildfire experts and practitioners to highlight the urgent need to develop a transformative vision and implementation strategy for wildfires before it is too late. We will shed light on the profound impacts of wildfires and tremendous costs to the BC population, emphasizing that the 2017‒2023 fire seasons were not an anomaly but a new and escalating reality fueled by climate change. Join us June 3-5, 2024 at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna and learn about the stark realities of the societal, health, cultural, environmental, and economic costs of wildfires across British Columbia and the actions needed now.

ALBERTA — Impending clear-cutting of treasured hiking and biking areas near Bragg Creek will be done responsibly, Alberta’s minister of environment and protected areas said Tuesday. But conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts say they have their doubts, and insist logging two large blocks in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas is also economically dubious. Forestry company West Fraser said it’s going ahead in the fall of 2026 with logging what could be nearly 900 hectares of forest in a recreation zone less than an hour from Calgary. They have provincial government sanction to do so under a 20-year forestry management plan, but only under sustainable conditions, said Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz. “My department is concerned with ensuring we are protecting the environment, that environment standards are upheld, that we’re looking at impacts to water, wildlife, air and biodiversity — so those are the kinds of things we look at before projects move forward,” she said. 

Related coverage in CBC: West Fraser to host open house on contentious logging plans

The reservoir at Mountain Station, which feeds all the water pipes in Nelson, is not really a reservoir. …“Our reservoir is actually the snowpack, along with Five Mile Creek and the other creeks,” Chris Johnson, the city’s manager of community planning, climate and infrastructure says. The West Kootenay snowpack is only at 72 per cent of normal this year. But a low snowpack is not necessarily a threat to Nelson’s water supply, says Johnson. “We could still have a spring and summer such that enough precipitation falls that ensures the creeks continue to run strongly throughout the dry season.” Should Nelson be worried about its drinking water supply over the long term, in light of the lower snowpacks caused by climate change? It depends on the interactions of a multitude of factors including snow, rain, temperature, the aspect (north or south facing) of the watershed and how much forest cover it has.

The decision on whether to list, further delay or forego the auction of logging rights for TA0521 (Joe Smith Creek cutblock) “will be coming in the next few weeks” according to an April 24 email from the Ministry of Forests to Coast Reporter. Documents posted on BC Timber Sales’s (BCTS) website had the auction listed to occur by March 31. In the email the Ministry stated “initial timelines for cutblock decisions were estimates only. The Ministry will take as long as is necessary to ensure the proper reviews are conducted before decisions are released.”  On April 25, Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) ended an over three-week protest presence in opposition to logging the site at road access to the cutblock, just off the B & K logging road in the Roberts Creek area. Spokesperson Hans Penner told Coast Reporter the group would stand down “for now,” while it would be “keeping a close eye on BCTS’s sales list.

The Sunshine Coast Streamkeepers Society, the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan Committee and Elphinstone Logging Focus and individuals have contacted BC Timber Sales (BCTS) with concerns about the agency’s plans within the Sunshine Coast business area over the next three years. Those who have not yet submitted comments have until May 4 to do so. A public BCTS notice provides links to mapping and details on proposed cutblocks, tree retention areas and road sections. Just over 1,200 hectares are slated to be included in 64 cutblocks within BCTS’s map area 1214 (which includes areas on the upper and lower Sunshine Coast) from May 2024 to May 2027. …Streamkeepers pointed out, “logging the Roberts Creek headwaters will change the natural hydrology of the ecosystem of both the forest and the numerous upper main tributaries.”

Summer is just around the corner and for much of British Columbia that now means dealing with the looming threat of wildfires. But for one Abbotsford company it is their time to shine. Conair Aerial Firefighting, located on the Abbotsford International Airport grounds, is a global leader in the battle against wildfires and continues to grow. The company boasts the third-largest fleet of any company in Canada, with 70 aircraft taking on challenging situations all across the planet. They have been used for years in places like B.C., Alaska, Alberta, Australia, France and Washington State. Conair also recently announced a new deal to work with the Saskatchewan provincial government to battle fires in that area. Conair invited the media and government officials to tour their facility on April 26 and learn more about both the production and training aspects of the company.

The Skattebo Education Forest is located on the east shore of the Kootenay River between Nelson and Castlegar, just south of the community of Glade. Classes from natural resource diploma programs visit Skattebo to participate in field trips where they collect forest, fisheries and ecosystem data and learn to interpret this information. Skattebo also provides Selkirk Innovates researchers with the perfect location to test new technology and techniques in projects that benefit local communities, industry, and the environment. Principal investigator Dr. Brendan Wilson leads this suite of forestry intelligence research. “We’re very excited about the work we’re doing in Skattebo,” says Wilson, “because it connects learning with real-world applied research.” Skattebo research projects are currently testing methods to identify individual trees in the forest, quantify common forest stand metrics, determine canopy heights, determine tree health status, identify cones for seedstock, assess understory fuels and more.

B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has launched a new tool to engage the public during environmental assessments, empowering people to have a more meaningful impact on the decision-making process for major projects proposed throughout the province. EPIC.engage is a new engagement platform designed to improve the overall experience for people providing feedback during the public comment periods of an environmental assessment. …“Public engagement is a critical part of our environmental assessment process and of transparency. It provides valuable information about proposed major projects in BC,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. “EPIC.engage makes it easier for the public to provide information that is both helpful and might otherwise be missed during the technical process of an environmental assessment.” Providing feedback is anonymous. The platform protects the identity of commentors while verifying that are not “bots” or people seeking to undermine a project or the assessment process.

The April newsletter includes:

• 2024 BCCFA Conference & AGM, June 11 – 13 in Mackenzie, BC: Conference sessions, accommodations, field trip, and carpooling.
• Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit review and report.
• BC works with communities to boost wildfire prevention, preparedness
• Updates from the Forest Investment and Reporting Branch
• Commercial Thinning  – A Practical Guide for Woodlot Licensees in the North-Central Interior of British Columbia 
• Fire is medicine –  Westbank First Nation’s Ntityix Resources – Home of the Westbank Community Forest 
• Kootenay Community Forest Seeking a Mill Manager

Climate change, not habitat loss, may be the biggest threat to the survival of threatened caribou herds, new research suggests. “We might need to do additional management actions if our goal is to conserve caribou,” said Melanie Dickie, lead author of the study. For years, biologists have pointed to sustained industry-caused damage to the old-growth forests preferred by caribou as the reason the species is now threatened. …But climate change has also been at work in the forests. Slowly warming temperatures have greatly expanded the range in which whitetail deer can thrive. …Using an extensive network of camera traps that captured tens of thousands of images of whitetail deer, the researchers concluded that the north-south temperature gradient made a much larger difference to deer density than the east-west differences in human disturbance. …If Dickie’s paper is correct, no amount of tree-planting and cutline remediation will be enough.

In a historic victory for the Nuchatlaht First Nation, the Supreme Court of BC has recognized the aboriginal title to more than 4 square miles of land on Nootka Island, including a pristine salmon lake, salmon stream and forest that had been threatened by industrial logging off the west side of Vancouver Island. The ruling by Justice Elliott Myers recognized Nuchatlaht’s title to the remote coastal strip of land. With the ruling, the Nuchatlaht Nation of just 160 people has become the second-largest aboriginal titleholder in B.C. And the Nation is just getting started: Nuchatlaht is weighing going back to court on appeal for acknowledgment of a far larger claim. …Nuchatlaht’s victory marks the first time a B.C. trial court has recognized a First Nation’s aboriginal title of its ancestral territory.

Central Okanagan Public Schools offers alternate learning options that extend beyond sitting on a chair behind a desk. One such different learning path is the school forestry program offered at Rutland Senior Secondary under the instructional leadership of teacher Marshall Corbett. Jayden Shkrabuik and Nova Kidder, both enrolled in the program, appeared before the Okanagan Board of Education on April 24 to illustrate how their participation in the program has forged new career paths they never previously envisioned. Both talked about the learning excitement that comes from being outdoors four days a week and the lessons in life they are exposed to while learning about trees. …Local forest companies like Gorman Bros. and Tolko have also been partners to the program, providing logs for students to develop their chainsaw operation and equipment maintenance skills on at the RSS wood compound, a familiar site to school visitors at the southeast corner of RSS.

Angela Davidson

British Columbia’s highest court has ordered the Green Party of Canada’s deputy leader to be released from custody pending her appeal of a 60-day jail sentence (issued April 24) for her role in old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island. Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, was convicted earlier this year of seven counts of criminal contempt for breaching a court injunction blocking protesters from disrupting logging activities in the Fairy Creek watershed. …Davidson filed an appeal of her sentence two days later, and was ordered released on bail Monday pending the appeal hearing, according to the B.C. Appeal Court and the B.C. Prosecution Service. A spokesperson for the court said the Crown did not oppose granting Davidson leave for appeal, nor did it oppose granting her release from custody pending the appeal hearing. Davidson said her efforts to “braid the laws” of the Crown and Indigenous communities will continue.

I am not against saving old-growth trees — but I am against the ridiculous statements that keep getting thrown out there. Every tree planted is on its way to be an old-growth forest. The existing old-growth forests don’t last forever, as some would like you to believe. Some trees last a long time and others not so much. The end game is not years, but hundreds of years. Take large areas of new forests and plan to make them old-growth forests. …Compensate the owners and get on with it. All you keep hearing is how the old growth will never come back. How the biodiversity will be destroyed and never come back. Well, think about it. Fires have, since the dawn of time, destroyed the forests and the biodiversity. They came back. At one time, there was 1,200 metres of ice covering all B.C. …That probably lasted thousands of years. It all came back, didn’t it?

Todd Loewen

Two additional air tankers and two-night vision-equipped helicopters are being added to the province’s list of equipment to be prepared for wildfire season 2024. These pieces of equipment are contracted out. Alberta now has three-night vision helicopters on hand. As wildfire behaviour is usually subdued at nighttime with lower temperatures and higher humidity, Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen says the two additional helicopters will help with overnight operations. An additional $14 million will be going to the Community Fireguard Program administered by the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta. The program is in place for communities so they can clear areas to make fire breaks by cutting off fuel sources that could potentially drive towards infrastructure, properties, or other values at risk. There is now $19 million in place for the Community Fireguard Program.

As the climate changes, animals are doing what they can to adapt. Researchers from UBC Okanagan—which includes partners from Biodiversity Pathways’ Wildlife Science Centre, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, the University of Alberta, and Environment and Climate Change Canada—wanted to evaluate why deer densities in the boreal forest are rapidly increasing. Over the past century, white-tailed deer have greatly expanded their range in North America, explains Melanie Dickie, a doctoral student with UBC Okanagan’s Wildlife Restoration Ecology Lab. In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther north. …As they conclude their study, researchers caution that what is good for the deer isn’t necessarily suitable for other species, such as the threatened woodland caribou.

The Swampy Cree have met with all branches of government. There are three signatory tribes, Swampy Cree Tribe, The Pas Mountain, and Moose Lake. There are quite a few newly formed bands like IR20, IR21, that try to take over lands that belong to the long-established Swampy Cree Tribes. The government used the Indian Act to amalgamate. It called Indigenous treaties, it says we are not Indigenous. We are not Indian Act. We are the signatory treaties. Nation to nation as long as the sun shines, river flows, and grass grows. Why is the Saskatchewan government giving and signing off lots of acres of land for deforestation that belongs to the Swampy Cree Nation? No conciliation mean while crown corporations are selling the land to companies for logging, mining, and peatmoss processing. These activities are doing damages to the environment.

Clear-cut logging of a heavily-used recreational area west of Bragg Creek will happen unless a public outcry forces the province to cancel it, say opponents of the plan. Starting in the fall of 2026, West Fraser plans on clear-cutting nearly 900 hectares of forest in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas that are laced with hiking, biking and skiing trails. Conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts say maps provided by West Fraser showing the overlapping of logging areas over numerous trails signals the final phase in the lead-up to the logging. …A PowerPoint presentation provided by the company lays out a timeline for public consultations, planning, and from October 2026 to April the following year “road and watercourse crossing construction, timber harvest, timber removal, log haul” with reforestation to follow. …An open house on the plan is being hosted by West Fraser on May 8. …Woodgate said it’s imperative for clear-cutting opponents to make their voices heard.

For months, officials in Western Canada have been warning that this year could be a dangerous wildfire season, after a warm, dry winter and a lower than usual snowpack left conditions primed for ignition. This week, it appears the predictions may be coming true. In Alberta, the government officially declared the start of wildfire season 10 days early… allowing the province to issue fire bans to limit the risk. There have been five emergency alerts about wildfires already this year. BC’s first evacuation order of the season was issued this week as a fast-growing blaze, fanned by strong winds, posed an immediate danger to life near the District of Chetwynd. …The orders were all swiftly downgraded to evacuation alerts, but they represented the first in what wildfire officials know will be many more this year. [to access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]

Three First Nations seek to protect treaty forest land and may take a logging company and the province to court. The Pine Creek, Wuskwi Sipihk, and Sapotaweyak Cree nations allege that the logging company Louisiana-Pacific did not have an approved forest management plan in place during their activity on Treaty 4 territory. These actions could violate the Manitoba Forest Act if the allegations prove correct. Chief Derek Nepinak of Pine Creek noted in a press release that “In 2012 Manitoba agreed to consider other logging practices to protect moose habitat, More than 12 years later Manitoba is still without a viable plan”.

On a bright, mid-March morning Raymond James’s booming voice resonates through the crisp, spring air as he rallies his team for the day — two dozen men and women gathered in a field near the small community of Xwisten, also known as the Bridge River Indian Band. “Safety is the No. 1 thing for today,” James explains to the group of community members, volunteer firefighters, and crew members from the B.C. Wildfire Service. This use of fire is called prescribed burning, or cultural burning when it is harnessed by Indigenous communities to also meet ecological objectives, like restoring and enhancing traditional foods or medicinal plants. The land management practice was widely used by Indigenous peoples before colonization. In 1874, British Columbia became the first province in Canada to ban the use of fire in this way. The Bush Fire Act outlawed cultural burning and its knowledge was almost lost.

Garnet Mierau and Alan Waters

In B.C., woody debris from timber harvesting was recognized as a very serious cause of wildfires dating back to the Bloedel Fire, (a.k.a. Sayward Fire or the Great Fire), which burned wildly out of control for more than a month and destroyed millions of dollars of decked and standing timber… For the next seven decades, the BC Forest Service made prompt and excellent fire hazard abatement a priority on Crown and private land alike, where logging occurred. …That all changed when the Wildfire Act and the BC Wildfire Service were created. …Many private landowners are not aware of the legal requirements for fire hazard abatement after harvesting because neither the Ministry of Forests nor BC Wildfire Service informs the landowner when they apply for a timber mark to harvest timber on private land. …How is this unacceptable situation allowed to exist when we are repeatedly facing more extreme wildfire catastrophes, year after year?

Jade Richardson

Fire departments along with local governments attended a summit that the province says will help prepare municipalities for the upcoming wildfire season. The summit was put together to build on recommendations from the premier’s expert task force on emergencies, the FireSmart Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit. This year’s summit was held in Prince George and minister of forests Bruce Ralston says the insight offered from all services after a devastating summer last year will help provide preventative measures this year. “Communities bring critical knowledge, skills and relationships to the table, and we’re growing their role in wildfire preparedness,” he says. “The summit is a valuable opportunity for hundreds of leaders and first responders from across BC to delve into the insights gained from last year.”  …ire information officer Jade Richardson of the Coastal Wildfire Service says so far the shortage of rain, and snowpack could mean an eventful season. 

Wildfire season is here. Dozens of fires have already sparked in British Columbia this season — and many more are expected to ignite as spring turns to summer, and drought conditions persist. The province says it’s been preparing for this summer for months, purchasing new firefighting equipment and recruiting firefighters in advance of what’s expected to be a “challenging” season. “We’re taking action earlier than ever,” provincial Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma said in a news release. …Meanwhile, the Ministry of Forests said it has upgraded its fleet of planes and helicopters, using $56 million allocated in the 2024 budget. B.C. doesn’t own aircraft, but instead contracts them out. The ministry says it has access to 40 aircraft, including airtankers, skimmers and heavy lift helicopters, on an ongoing basis. When short-term contracts are utilized during periods of greater need, they can have access to up to 100 aircraft. 

Sonia Furstenau

The April 20 editorial “In this election, Eby should be put to the test,” notes that the official Opposition “has an obligation, a responsibility, to provide cohesive policy alternatives in the next election” and then laments that “this is not happening.” While this critique rings true for much of British Columbia’s political sphere, it overlooks the efforts of the B.C. Green Party. …Take, for example… the NDP’s plan to use public land for housing is weakened by their willingness to let for-profit private developers use that land. …One of our best defences against climate change is protection of the last remaining old growth forests in this province, yet the NDP has dragged its feet on implementing the Old Growth Review Panel’s recommendations. We saw an increase in the logging of old growth in 2021 — despite all the rhetoric from this government, the destruction of these ancient forests has continued.