Region Archives: Canada West

Andy MacKinnon

It’s been six months since the B.C. government released its “Draft B.C. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework” suggesting a radical and welcome shift in its approach to resource management. …Up to and including today, the B.C. government’s primary forestry focus has been on timber supply, and that single objective has driven land use and forest management over public lands (about 94 per cent of the province) for the last century. …Protected areas cover 15.4 per cent of B.C. …Most of the areas important for logging have less than 10 per cent of the land in protected areas. Since the 1950s, most of B.C. has been divided into timber supply areas and tree farm licences. …That’s why the “Draft B.C. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework” is such a big thing. It suggests that, for the first time in our province, forest management and land use is to be driven by something other than a timber focus.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will examine the activities of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) and timber sale licence holders in the Haida Gwaii Timber Supply Area (TSA) portion of the Chinook Business Area. BCTS’s operating areas are in the Haida Gwaii Natural Resource District located west of Prince Rupert. Approximately half of Haida Gwaii is in protected areas and about 35% of the nonprotected areas are in the timber harvesting land base. BCTS’s operating areas are predominantly situated on Graham Island, with smaller portions extending into northern Moresby Island. The audit area is located within the territory of the Haida Nation, which includes the protected areas of the Naikoon Provincial Park and Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. Protected areas are co-operatively managed by the Haida Nation and the provincial and federal governments.

Evan Saugstad

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. —  …the primary rationale for [recent mill] closures [in northern BC] is the overall lack of available timber supply. The key word here is “available”. For various reasons, our NDP government has deemed our forest unfit for harvest. …On April 30th, Preston Manning wrote an Op-ed for the Globe and Mail titled “Natural resources are more important to the economy than city-dwellers realize.” …Unfortunately, the federal government tends to regard the natural resource sectors as … environmental liabilities. …the average city dweller, such as those working as waiters, plumbers, stylists, or technology entrepreneurs, needs to understand that their bills are underwritten by what our rural resource economies generate and provide, in an indirect way, to them. …I am still advocating for a strong, resource-based rural economy so we all can prosper and supply the rest of the world with the natural resources they so desperately want and need.

The lack of fibre for the forest industry is the direct product of more than 25 years of government policy. Yes, everyone blames the pine beetle, but a large portion of the pine beetle devastated timber stands that have been harvested since the late 1990s weren’t 100 per cent pine. Mature spruce and fir were taken along with the dead pine. As well, juvenile spruce and fir ended up burnt in the mountains of slash piles. …The reality, contrary to what Shirley Bond and John Rustad stated in Ted Clarke’s article earlier this week, is that the NDP has done little to increase the burden of red tape on local Canfor operations. …Contrary to what you may have heard, there have been no old-growth deferrals in the Prince George region. There are no new parks of any significance.

North Island College’s forestry technology graduates celebrated with a silver ring ceremony in April, as many are typically working in the field come graduation time in June. In January, the Coastal Forest Technology program was accredited by Technical Accreditation Canada (TAC), which audits technology or applied science programs. This subsequently led to accreditation as a Recognized Forestry Diploma Program with Forest Professionals BC (FPBC). This means that NIC grads are now eligible to register with the FPBC as Training Forest Technologists (TFT), paving a path to becoming registered forest technologists (RFT) after a 24-month articling period. …NIC’s program had to wait for the first cohort to graduate before it could apply for the accreditation. …There are only five other post-secondary forestry technology programs in B.C. with accreditation. Most have been around for some time, so NIC program’s accreditation is news for the forestry technology field, as well as for the college.

The West Kelowna Glenrosa Residents Association is lobbying for more fire prevention and is suggesting ideas for two of the community’s largest problems. The association has written to city hall asking that a fire break be constructed around the city. …“It seems like every year, we’re fighting these fires, they pop up, and it’s a reactive situation, not proactive,” association president Jared Franczak says the association feels more could be done to protect the city from wildfires. said. The City of Whitehorse in the Yukon is in the process of building a massive fuel break around the city, but it’s not a strategy being adopted in B.C. for a number of reasons. The BC Wildfire Service says that while fuel breaks are used in battling active fires, they are not “a permanent feature we want on the landscape.”

David Eby

Meta has agreed to amplify the B.C. government’s emergency evacuation information in exchange for a promise to better respond to harmful content that appears on its platforms including non-consensual images. Premier David Eby announced the deal on Wednesday. “Meta has agreed to establish a direct line of communication that will ensure response measures are closely co-ordinated as part of the government’s wildfire safety efforts, including the dissemination of reputable information available from official sources,” said Eby in a joint statement with representatives from five companies. “Meta, Snap, TikTok and X have offered to provide the province and additional crisis response organizations with advertising support to amplify awareness of safety resources throughout the wildfire season,” the joint statement said. The deal is for Meta to amplify “official information” from the government in emergency situations but it doesn’t address the fact that Meta continues to block Canadian news sites.

WINNIPEG — The Honourable Harjit Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada announced the investment of $38.4 million over four years under the Government of Canada’s Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program – Equipment Fund to support Manitoba’s efforts to purchase wildland firefighting equipment to enhance provincial readiness and capacity to prepare for and respond to wildland fires. Funding announced today will help Manitoba purchase and upgrade firefighting equipment to increase wildland fire preparedness and response efforts, improve safety for communities and firefighters alike, and strengthen capacities and capabilities for resource exchange across Canada. In addition, the funding will support the purchase of additional training equipment.

Additional coverage from CBC News: Feds give Manitoba $19.2M to boost wildfire fighting capacity, province matches for $38.4M total

Nanaimo, BC — The Private Forest Landowners Association (PFLA) is proud to announce the agenda for the 2024 Conference and Field Tour on June 6-7 2024 at Bear Mountain Resort in Victoria, BC. The annual event brings together private managed forest landowners, elected officials and guests for an opportunity to explore innovative approaches to sustainable forest management. The 2024 Conference theme, Beyond Borders: Collaborating For Success, sets the stage for an information-filled two-day event. The Field Tour on June 6 features an onsite visit to a private managed forest landowners’ property, a tour of Arbutus Grove Seed Orchard, and discussion about seed genetics at the Mount Newton Seed Orchard. The Conference on June 7 includes Keynote Speaker, Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston, as well as panel presentations on Fuel Management for Wildfire Mitigation, and Showcasing Innovation on Private Forest Land.

Doug Donaldson

Andrea Barnett

Oliver Brandes

…In B.C., the wildfire challenge continues to outpace the current suite of solutions, while ecological and social impacts worsen year after year. Unless we dig in now, there won’t be enough resources to the get the job done right and it will only get harder. In a recent report, we investigated the current state of wildfire prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery in the province. Based on our findings, we offer direction on where to get started and what to prioritize. Resilience — the capacity to deal with change and continue to develop — will be vital. …B.C. needs to adopt a whole-of-society approach to advance wildfire resilience. No one government has all the knowledge, resources, or authority to do it alone. …What we do today will be the best insurance against what will certainly be more dangerous fires tomorrow.

The Nakusp and Area Community Forest (NACFOR) open house had a strong turnout. Project information was on display, and staff and directors were available to answer questions. Operating since 2008, NACFOR is 100 per cent owned by the Village of Nakusp, allowing the community to benefit from forestry operations. NACFOR has been managed under contract by Cabin Resource Management for the past year. “Community forestry is a very direct reflection of our goal as foresters to uphold the public interest,” said Mike Crone, NACFOR project manager. “I’ve enjoyed zooming in scale-wise to such a small land base and really getting to know everything that’s going on. “But at the same time, the scope is way wider than what you get to do in regular forestry. “You get to do a bunch of everything, and get super involved in the community while doing it, which is exciting.”

Local government representatives have asked B.C.’s ministers of forests and emergency management to keep forest service roads passable in the event of wildfires, while the province says it is identifying such roads that can be brought up to par in emergencies. Bruce Ralston, minister of forests, and Bowinn Ma, B.C.’s emergency management minister, addressed attendees by video at the Southern Interior Local Government Association conference in Kamloops earlier this month. The ministers were asked if they would commit to ensuring forest service roads and other egress routes are passable in the event of an evacuation. Stephen Karpuk, SILGA delegate and Kamloops city councillor, told Castanet Kamloops there needs to be an effort to use heavy duty machinery during a wildfire or while preparing for an emergency, to keep the backroads passable for all vehicles.

FORT NELSON, BC — Sonja Leverkus and her crew are based in Fort Nelson, B.C., which is currently at the centre of several big, fast-moving wildfires. This season, they had to switch gears from putting out zombie fires that burned through the winter to help battle the massive Parker Lake wildfire. That wildfire, which started when high winds blew a tree onto a power line, forced an evacuation order for about 4,700 people, including the community as well as Fort Nelson First Nation in B.C.’s northeast. …Federal scientists and politicians weighed in with their predictions last week for another hot, dry summer — the “perfect conditions for intense wildfires,” said Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. …Timothy Caulfield says wildfires are increasingly used as an “opportunity to push an anti-climate change”. He worries this season might be even worse when you factor in the growing role of artificial intelligence in spreading misinformation.

COLD LAKE – The Government of Alberta, with industry stakeholders, is supporting caribou recovery while promoting sustainable development in the Cold Lake region – and seeking public feedback. Alberta has invested more than $30.2 million in the caribou habitat restoration program since 2018, which includes $30.2 million in provincial funding and $700,000 from industry. Budget 2022 included a commitment of $10 million per year for caribou habitat recovery, starting in 2023-24. The Government of Alberta says it is still waiting for a meaningful federal contribution to support the province’s caribou habitat restoration program. Julia Pickering, Assistant Director of Communications and Public Engagement for the Government of Alberta, emphasized the importance of implementing the approved Cold Lake and Bistcho Lake Sub-regional Plans to achieve the goals of caribou recovery. She clarified that the recently proposed regulations align with the existing sub-regional plans, emphasizing continuity in objectives and strategies. 

It’s no secret that British Columbia’s forestry industry is a massive economic driver for the province. According to the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI), forestry contributes $17.4 billion to BC’s gross domestic product and creates around 100,000 good-paying jobs, both direct and indirect. However, that is obviously a living number from year to year, and in 2023 that figure dropped to 90,000, according to COFI’s economic impact study published in April. That’s 10,000 jobs lost in 2023 alone, with half of them being direct and the other half being indirect or induced. Those job losses are coming as BC’s harvest levels are declining, from 50 million cubic metres of forest in 2021 down to 43 million in 2022 and 35 million in 2023.

Rick Campbell

LYTTON, BC — After fuelling up their drip torches, BC Wildfire Service workers wearing red jackets begin to lay fire to an area of dry forest ground in Nlaka’pamux territory. …The project was designed to help build on the Nlaka’pamux community’s knowledge of fire and the ecosystem, as well as to improve their confidence in mitigating wildfires. Fifteen BCWS members trained six young contract firefighters from Boothroyd on how to conduct a prescribed burn. The community itself has an extensive and long history of conducting their own cultural burns. Their wildfire mitigation treatment consists of trimming trees, removing debris, piling it all together and burning. Elder and former band Chief Rick Campbell estimated that the practice of cultural and prescribed burns hasn’t been done in some areas throughout the nation for at least 500 years. “I think it’s long overdue,” he said.