Region Archives: Canada West

Wildfire fuel mitigation will remain a priority for the city, despite the B.C. government’s plans to stem the flow of FireSmart funding. At its March 23 meeting, city council received a presentation by Assistant Fire Chief Carmen Guidos, who was seeking direction on a couple of matters. One had to do with the Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (CWRP) currently under development. The other was in regard of fuel mitigation work already planned for Coyote Park, South Canoe, and a small treatment area on Mt. Ida. The connecting thread prompting Guidos’ presentation was recent changes by the BC government to how it funds community FireSmart initiatives. The province introduced the FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FSCFS) programs in 2018, providing approximately $175 million since then for communities to hire coordinators, conduct education campaigns and pay for fuel management efforts.

A new website and film showcasing wildfire mitigation efforts have been launched by the Logan Lake Community Forest. New branding has been launched alongside the release of a movie that delves into the community forest and its role in wildfire risk reduction and recreation. In a news release, Randy Spyksma, general manager for Logan Lake Community Forest, said the new, refreshed branding “better reflects who we are today and where we are going.” “It is a visual highlight of our commitment to responsible forest stewardship while supporting the long-term sustainability of our community.” …“Our film speaks to the heart of what we do as a community forest and allows us to share this work through storytelling,” Spyksma said.

A commentary by two forest ecologists who lead Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s ­Forest Conservation Program, and Raincoast’s executive director, who is a Southern Gulf Islands resident. The Islands Trust recently invited public input to help update its Trust Policy Statement, a document that guides how land-use decisions are made across the Trust Area in the Salish Sea. While the draft includes some overdue updates, it drifts from its mandate of environmental protection and fails to connect words in a policy document to decisions on the ground. To work properly, the Trust Policy Statement must clearly show how the Islands Trust will carry out its environmental protection mandate. The Islands Trust is a unique form of government. When it was established 50 years ago, its role was clear: to prevent unrestrained growth and development in the Trust Area of the Gulf Islands. The legislation recognized that the islands’ natural environment and rural character were fragile and irreplaceable.

Clearwater recently hosted a roundtable discussion on wildfire risk reduction, training and preparation in advance of the approaching fire season. The Clearwater and Area Community Wildfire Roundtable was held on March 16. Chance Breckenridge, Clearwater FireSmart coordinator, said the meeting brought together 25 people representing a “broad cross-section of agencies and organizations with a shared stake in wildfire preparedness and community safety.” He said community wildfire roundtables are meant to support coordination and communication among the organizations responsible for different aspects of wildfire preparedness and risk reduction across B.C. interior communities. …Breckenridge explained that the roundtables were originally established with support from the Fraser Basin Council, and that the Clearwater and Area Roundtable “has been a key part of that effort locally and is now being coordinated directly by the District of Clearwater’s FireSmart program.”

Richard Hamelin

UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship (FES) researchers has developed a new genomic test that can trace the Asian spongy moth—one of the biggest threats to North America’s forests—back to its source, giving officials a better chance of stopping infestations before they spread. SpongySeq is a DNA analysis tool designed to detect the Asian spongy moth, an invasive insect capable of defoliating entire forests within weeks. Unlike the European spongy moth, which has been established in North America for more than a century and spreads slowly because its females cannot fly, the Asian variety can travel long distances, feeds on a far wider range of trees—including conifers—and remains a high-risk invader with no strong natural controls. …Dr. Richard Hamelin’s team created a tool that works like a “genomic passport,” analyzing 283 specific DNA markers at once to identify a moth’s geographic origin with 97-per-cent accuracy.

A packed theatre in Victoria brought together residents, experts and advocates on March 19 for a film screening and panel discussion focused on the future of British Columbia’s old-growth forests. …The 50 minute screening examined forestry practices in B.C. and raised concerns about what speakers described as outdated policies and unsustainable logging. A panel discussion followed, featuring Suzanne Simard, Casey Macaulay, Teresa Ryan, Rachel Holt and Garry Merkel who addressed questions from the audience. Dr. Rachel Holt, an ecologist working in forest policy, said current approaches to forest management are too focused on timber production. …Gary Merkel, a forester and policy adviser, said the issue is complex and involves balancing environmental protection with economic realities. “We’ve had a forest sector that’s existed the same way for a long time, and it’s going through a major transformation,” Merkel said. …While public concern over old-growth logging has grown, Merkel noted that the path forward remains unclear.

Several log bundles ended up on beaches in the Parksville and Nanoose Bay area after rough weather caused a log boom to break open at Mosaic Forest Management’s Northwest Bay waterfront facility last weekend. … “Shifting high winds pushed the logs into shallow water before crews could safely reach them,” Mosaic told the PQB News. “We responded as soon as we were alerted early Sunday morning, recovering 10 of the 19 bundles.” Mosaic says salvage crews are standing by to recover the remaining nine bundles, but the current weather system has hampered access to the shallow beach areas where they came ashore.

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A fire chief who helped battle last year’s devastating wildfires says he doesn’t feel the funding in the Saskatchewan budget is enough to prepare communities for the upcoming fire season. Jim Arnold, chief of the Candle Lake fire department, helped defend the resort village from the flames as it was placed under a state of emergency last year. He said he’s expecting more of the same this summer. “I think this year is going to be another year that we’re going to have some forest fires, because we’ve got drought in the northern forest,” he said. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency will get $140 million in this year’s budget, an increase of $20 million over the year before. Finance Minister Jim Reiter defended the funding, saying the provincial government will respond if the flames becoming overwhelming this year.

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Another year, another wildfire season, and some B.C. communities are looking to get a head start before any major blazes. Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz says preparations in his community never really stop. “We are one of the very few communities that have a full-time Emergency Management Coordinator,” he said. “We also have a full-time EOC [Emergency Operations Centre] that is always ready to go, and we have a full-time training session for our ESS [Emergency Support Services] members.” The city communicates regularly with the local fire department, BC Wildfire Service (BCWS), BC Forestry, and the River Forecasting Centre, Goetz says. He says they have been working to streamline operations at their local airport to make sure fire resources are able to make their way to the area.

Ravi Parmar

PRINCE GEORGE – British Columbia’s wildfire service is getting a major boost ahead of the 2026 fire season. A new, larger equipment depot in Prince George is now operational, and officials say it could make a critical difference when the next big fire breaks out in the north. The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) has received $21 million in capital funding for this new depot. The facility, located on the Old Cariboo Highway, near the Prince George Airport, gives crews in northern B.C. a much bigger home base to work from. …The depot is stocked with trucks, pumps, hoses, structure-protection units and camp infrastructure, all pre-positioned so crews can move gear faster when fires ignite. It’s not just equipment. This year, the wildfire service hit a record of roughly 24-hundred applications for seasonal firefighter positions. That’s the second straight year for record applications to the BCWS.

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Tyson Atleo, a hereditary leader of the Ahousaht First Nation, says the creation of three new forestry areas to be managed by his community and two others on the west coast of Vancouver Island marks the realization of a long-standing promise. Atleo recalls assuring the community more than 15 years ago that “we would find a pathway forward to regaining control over some of our forest resources.” The vision is to manage the forests of Clayoquot Sound, a globally recognized biosphere that includes Tofino, B.C., in a way that reflects the nation’s interest in ecological integrity and balance it with access to economic opportunity, he said. The total combined area of the three new tree farm licenses is about 52,000 hectares, with Ahousaht set to manage about 33,000 hectares, Atleo said. The areas were previously part of a single, larger licence with harvesting rights belonging to forest company MaMook Natural Resources. 

A UBC FES study with St’át’imc Nation communities finds invasive grasses are the sleeper threat on B.C.’s post-fire landscape—and the window to stop them is narrow. After a wildfire, the flames may fade, but the danger does not. A new study by UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship researchers reveals that burned landscapes remain vulnerable for years, with large areas still bare and at risk of invasion by fast-growing, fire-prone grasses. The research, one of the largest vegetation trajectory studies in the world, monitored landscapes two years after major wildfires in interior B.C. While some native plants returned, recovery was slower and more fragile than expected. One of the most pressing concerns is invasive grasses, which germinate early in spring, dry out during the hottest months, and act as dry runways that spread flames at highway speed—a dynamic that contributed to the 2023 Lahaina fire in Maui and is increasingly likely in B.C.’s Interior.

Daria Mykhailovych, a Sooke resident, has been raising awareness across Greater Victoria about a petition calling on the provincial government to strengthen protections for British Columbia’s remaining old-growth forests in hopes of encouraging more people to support it. …Originally from Ukraine, she said landscapes like those on Vancouver Island are rare elsewhere in the world. …The petition was launched in fall 2025 by two B.C. forest ecologists, Dr. Suzanne Simard, a professor at University of British Columbia, and independent ecologist Dr. Rachel Holt. Originally, the petition was started with a goal of getting 10,000 signatures. As of March, 16, the petition has received support from about 4,070 people. …“Our concern is that we’ve been cutting these forests at an unsustainable rate,” Simard said. “We wanted to raise awareness and encourage people to question whether the path we’re on is good for the people of British Columbia and for the forests themselves.”

Logan Lake, B.C. – The Logan Lake Community Forest (LLCF) has unveiled a refreshed brand, website, and film that highlight its commitment to the stewardship of local forests, through indigenous collaboration, supporting what makes the communities of the Logan Lake area strong: the people, the land, and our future. …[The] redesigned website that provides clear information about forest management activities, current projects, and the local benefits of community forestry in the Logan Lake area. … The film, launched in collaboration with the BC Community Forest Association provides a look at the planning and treatment activities of the LLCF specific to wildfire risk reduction, and the enhancement of trails and wildlife habitat, and is part of a broader provincial-wide storytelling initiative showcasing community forests across British Columbia.

• Additional coverage: Logan Lake Community Forest Featured in New Film Celebrating Forestry and Community Stewardship

BC Timber Sales is bringing forward an application to establish 17 new cut blocks on Crown land east of Okanagan Falls and Penticton. The application is being brought to the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen on March 19 for support, as the proposed cut blocks are located within the boundaries of the Okanagan Falls electoral area. The 17 cut blocks total 494.7 hectares, and the proposal would also see road construction and road deactivation. The rehabilitation process for the roads would include tree replanting. The land is in an RDOS-designated resource area, and a staff report says the proposed cutblocks fall within watercourse development permit areas and “important ecosystem areas.” The advisory planning committee for Okanagan Falls gave its support to the application at its March 9 meeting, while requesting that any approval be subject to a full environmental assessment.

Okanagan Nation Alliance is hosting a two-day water and climate forum in honour of World Water Day on March 23 and 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. In partnership with Okanagan Similkameen Watershed Collaborative Leadership Table (CLT), the alliance is bringing together Indigenous leaders, local government representatives, researchers, scientists, regional and international water experts and community partners to advocate for climate-resilient governance and collaborative watershed stewardship. ​The forum will teach participants about the importance of watersheds and how to build resilience amid rising risks from wildfires, drought and ecosystem stress.​ …“Our forests are burning, our waters are drying, and the time to act is now — the siwɬkʷ Water and Climate Forum is a call to protect our watersheds and ensure that there is cold, clean flowing water for all living things – now and for future generations,” reads the release.

Steven Hofer & hegus John Hackett

Tla’amin Nation is set to take back control over a large piece of its territory, after signing a deal to take over Western Forest Products’ licence to log more than 1,540 square kilometres of forest in their homelands. The nation agreed to buy Western’s tree-farm license for the massive parcel … for $80 million on Feb. 19. The license for the Stillwater Forest Operation covers a vast majority of forest in the qathet (Powell River) area, where Tla’amin is located. The lands themselves are not being returned to Tla’amin; tree-farm licenses are granted by the “B.C.” government to allow companies to harvest on “Crown” lands, typically over 25-year terms. But Tla’amin Hegus (Chief) John Hackett said the ability to steward his people’s land is a major step forward. “This acquisition brings another 43 per cent of Tla’amin territory back under our stewardship and control,” Hackett said in a statement.

The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) was barking up the right tree with the District of Sicamous, with council officially endorsing its Forestry is a Solution initiative. The request came to the March 11 council meeting, explaining the program that launched on Jan. 20 is a province-wide initiative led by a coalition of community leaders, workers and industry advocates to support forestry in light of new challenges. COFI president and CEO Kim Haakstad said in a letter, “the sector currently faces significant headwinds from global competition, challenging operating conditions, and damaging U.S. trade actions. We believe that by working together, we can show the provincial government that forestry provides the solutions for B.C.’s most urgent challenges.” …The initiative’s goal is to get 5,000 signatures to show support of having government action on those points, with Sicamous council unanimously onboard.