Region Archives: Canada West

People in British Columbia are invited to share feedback on a proposal to add a new Special Forest Management Area (SFMA) supporting regenerative forestry and conservation in the Great Bear Rainforest. The proposed area consists of 7,865 hectares of forested land that would transition from commercial harvesting to being prioritized for conservation and regenerative forestry. The SFMA designation is specific to the Great Bear Rainforest and restricts commercial forestry operations. If approved, this area will be the ninth SFMA within the Great Bear Rainforest. Public comment will be accepted until April 5, 2024, and will allow the Province and Kwiakah First Nation to consider public input into decisions and implementation. It will also provide insight into how the land is being used by the public. The Province is working with Kwiakah First Nation, which seeks an active role in the long-term management of the area. 

Quinton Hayward

This year’s theme of “Everything is Connected” was present throughout the conference.  There was meaningful presentations around reintroducing fire as a landscape level management tool, creating more value from the harvested volume, recruitment and retention of professions into the industry, and collaborative planning with Indigenous groups on Forest Landscape Plans. There were also discussions on ecosystems integrity and technology to help evaluate ecosystem integrity, wildfire urban interface and continuing to build resiliency to wildfires and the path ahead for Indigenous relations. There was a strong focus on Indigenous joint-planning management and decision making. It is very clear in the presentations and from the nation members present at the conference, that nothing will happen on the ground in forestry without First Nations being involved. This is consistent with the government’s direction and should not be a surprise or anything new to those working with natural resources.  

Wildfire fighting and forest management decisions are potentially being hampered by inaccurate government data that misrepresents forest fuel loads in British Columbia’s Interior, a new study has found. The B.C. government says the provincial wildfire service is working with the study’s lead author and others to close the data gap, which involves “mismatches” between remotely-sensed mapping, forest fuel classifications, and observations on the ground. …The researchers from the University of B.C. and Canadian Forest Service acknowledge that mapping forest fuels is “notoriously challenging” despite its importance in influencing and predicting wildfire behaviour. …Lead author Jen Baron says fixing the data will help officials identify and respond to fire-prone areas, though will likely require a “huge lift.” …The national and provincial forest inventory data are largely derived from aerial imaging, and Baron says it was “significantly underestimating” the density of underbrush that serves as a conduit for flames travelling up to the forest canopy.

On February 20 I attended the latest meeting of the Williams Lake and area Community Wildfire Roundtable held at the Cariboo Fire Centre at the Williams Lake Regional Airport. The facilitator, Mike Simpson, who contracts with the Fraser Basin Council guided the 41 participants from a wide variety of backgrounds including five levels of government, UBC , forestry consultants, industry and private citizens. …The session started with UBC grad students Mike Stefanuk and Georgina Preston (via zoom link) describing their research in the dry belt fir stands. …One of the positives coming out of these roundtables is the ongoing need to examine and improve the communication between the various participants and the public. …The Fraser Basin Council (FBC) is a charitable non-profit society that brings people together to advance sustainability in the Fraser Basin and across British Columbia. …

Todd Loewen

The Alberta government will spend more to monitor and combat wildfires in 2024, and put aside a bigger contingency fund after taking out more than $1 billion to deal with the most destructive wildfire season on record. In total, drought and wildfire expenses for the last fiscal year added up to $2.9 billion, including agriculture disaster support. After nearly three-quarters of a $1.5-billion contingency fund went toward wildfire response in 2023, the UCP government’s 2024-25 budget is boosting the total to $2 billion. Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen said Friday that an additional $55 million will go toward wildfire management this year, with $151 million in total spending over the next three years. That will increase the number of nighttime wildfire-fighting helicopters from one to three, add two new air tanker contracts and more drones for aerial surveillance.

A professor at the University of Northern BC has been tapped to study the ecological impacts of glyphosate-based pesticides on forests. …Canada’s regulatory regime deems the pesticides safe, but its assessment does not account for the potential chronic impact of low-level exposure and does not examine forests. Researchers have found low-level exposure to glyphosate can impact the health of animals’ gut microbiomes. …Because the federal government does not track where, when and how pesticides are used, it is impossible to know exactly how much glyphosate is sprayed on Canadian forests each year. However, researchers estimate tens of thousands of hectares are sprayed each year, except in Quebec where the practice was banned in 2001. …Lisa Wood, who is working on the project in Alberta, BC and Alberta said, “because of the extent of the use, we start to think about how the previous research applies in these extensive-use cases — are there aggregate effects?”

• The BCCFA 2024 Conference & AGM will take place in Mackenzie, BC on June 11 – 13. Registration will open March 18, sponsorship opportunities are available now. 
• Climate Change Adaptation Project The Harrop Procter Community Forest (HPCF) now has a real climate action plan with clear management priorities and site-specific treatments. They want to collaborate with other interested Community Forests to do the same in order to scale up and refine methods.
• A series of educational wildfire risk managment films To reach and interest a broad audience on it’s wildfire risk reduction work, HP partnered with the Province of BC and Columbia Basin Trust to produce a series of short films.
• Landscape Resiliency and Wildfire: A Primer for Collaborative Dialogue In November 2023, the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative (MWI) at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue organized a two-day workshop in Williams Lake.
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BURNS LAKE, BC — The province has initiated a wolf cull near Burns Lake as part of a predator reduction activity to protect the endangered Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd. …Confirming the wolf cull activity in the area, Octavian Lacatusu, Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship public affairs officer spokesperson, said the Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd is located in west-central B.C., approximately 50 kilometres southwest of Burns Lake. He said that the herd is designated as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, which was why the wolf cull was initiated. …He said that the decline of southern mountain caribou across B.C. has been attributed to extensive habitat change leading to a shift in the predator-prey dynamics of caribou. In the Tweedmuir range, he added that the mountain pine beetle epidemic, associated salvage logging, and large wildfires have contributed to significant landscape disturbance.

Mike Flannigan

KAMLOOPS, BC — A wildfire expert at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops is tipping his hand on a national wildfire response. Mike Flannigan says he can see the BC Wildfire Service working together with a National Wildfire Service to help speed up the deployment of crews and resources from other parts of the province, during extreme wildfire situations. Flannigan says this as he points to a recent poll, suggesting 75 per cent of Canadians support a wildfire fighting effort. “I could see a national one working in those extreme periods and be hand and glove with the BC Wildfire Service. …“BC does not have enough crews to deal with 100 new fire starts in 24 hours, but calling in help, ahead of time would hopefully let us deal with it.” …Additionally, Flannigan suggests a national response would also reduce the need to call in international crews to help.

Archie MacDonald

Murray Wilson

Retired foresters Archie MacDonald and Murray Wilson presented at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board meeting in Salmon Arm. The two retired foresters, with more than 35 years experience in the forest sector, said British Columbia’s forests are in poor health and in dire need of a new management prescription to reduce future frequency and intensity. “We have become increasingly frustrated about the misinformation and doom and gloom being spread about wildfires and are equally concerned about the lack of any meaningful measures being put forward by the provincial government to combat wildfires,” said MacDonald. “This is concerning because 95 per cent of the province is Crown land and the vast majority falls within the jurisdiction of the provincial government.” While frustrated with the province’s management, MacDonald said he and Wilson are encouraged by the programs in place at the community level designed to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.

Out in the bush near Fort Babine, B.C. is a plot of recently planted tree seedlings. They are destined to be under unusual levels of scrutiny as they battle for survival and growth—if they grow at all. The odds are stacked against them. …The Fort Babine site includes species not normally planted in that part of west central British Columbia. … The list includes Douglas fir; ponderosa pine; western larch; cedar and birch. The Fort Babine plantation site initiative is being spearheaded by the B.C. Ministry of Forests with the support of a variety of forest industry partners. The hope is the Fort Babine plantation will become part of a chain across the province. The mixed species plantations are in direct response to B.C.’s warming climate. The idea is the various Fort Babine’s across the province will in time produce a useful insight into which tree seedlings respond best, and where.

In 2021, a deadly heat dome produced a devastating wildfire season across British Columbia. While immediate media coverage often focuses on evacuations and the numbers of homes destroyed, many First Nations say what these fires do to the land in their territories — and the cultural lives of their communities — is often overlooked. IDEAS visited St’át’imc territory around Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st-century wildfires are reshaping the landscape — and their consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. This two part-series follows a post-wildfire research project led by northern St’át’imc Nations — Ts’kw’aylaxw, Xwísten, and T’it’q’et-P’egp’íg’lha — alongside the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC and the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society. More than two years after the McKay Creek wildfire, the nation and their co-researchers are working to document the effects of wildfires — and to chart a new future based on Indigenous approaches to healing and balancing an ecosystem.

Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society (BFWSS), a grassroots citizens group in southern BC, is launching a campaign … to push for a new Forest Act so that forests are protected so that communities are safe. As a result of massive losses of intact primary forests due to industrial forestry, BC communities are faced with: decreases in agricultural and drinking water supply and quality; more drought; more fires; and more floods. Scientists, such as Dr. Younes Alila, have been sounding the alarm… Communities and Indigenous groups on the land are paying the price. Despite calls from BC residents to reduce logging of primary forests, the BC government is not changing industrial forestry practices. Volunteer-led groups do not have the resources or influence of the forestry lobby. …BFWSS has a plan to join forces with grassroots groups and Indigenous people across the province to push for a new Forest Act.

B.C. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy announced that $14 million has been earmarked to help pay for the long-sought replacement of the Cowichan Lake weir in the 2024 provincial budget. With climate change and more extreme droughts every summer, which has seen water levels in Cowichan Lake and Cowichan River reduced to dangerous levels, impacting the local supply of drinking water and fish habitat. …The current weir, located in the Town of Lake Cowichan, was built in the 1950s, mainly to provide industrial water storage for Catalyst Paper’s pulp and paper mill in Crofton. But the weir was not designed to hold the additional and necessary volume of water to sustain the river flows that is now needed, nor does it meet today’s engineering standards required for expansion of storage capacity. The weir is owned and operated by Catalyst Paper, under licence from the province. 

WEST KELOWNA, BC — Bowinn Ma is defending her ministry’s decision to issue a regional travel ban last August due to the McDougall Creek wildfire that erupted in West Kelowna, B.C. …“The conditions had rapidly escalated and the projections grew to more than 28,000 people on evacuation order and 36,000 more people on evacuation alert who could have needed to evacuate at any moment. “In addition, I was hearing from senior executives of key response partners that access to accommodations were hampering their ability to import critical response personnel, firefighters, health-care workers and more,” Ma said. …Ma made the comments after receiving a letter from the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce that stated it was seeking assurances that “more effective protocols and accountabilities will be put into place before an emergency measure like a travel ban is ordered.” 

BRITISH COLUMBIA — The Early Edition’s political panel weighs in on the details of B.C.’s 2024 budget and how best to diversify and grow the province’s economy. Panelists interviews include Diane Watts (United), Aisha Estey (Conservatives), Adam Olsen (Green), and Moe Sihota (NDP). 

Sam Coggins

Smithers RCMP are looking for suspects responsible for damaging Community Forest logging equipment over the long weekend. Corporal Madonna Saunderson said police received a report of mischief to property on Feb. 17. A grader, parked on the McDonell Forest Service Road was damaged. The Wetzin’kwa Community Forest Corporation confirmed it was one of their logging contractor’s equipment. General Manager Sam Coggins said it is a shame the grader was damaged. “There is pretty thin margins in forestry already,” he said. “Just to shell out money for people having a bit of fun or maybe intentionally vandalizing, it is hurting the contractor and there is the safety aspect to it as well.” This is the second incident of vandalism the Community Forest has faced in the last six months. Late last year, an outhouse was blown up near the Silvern gathering shelter. Coggins is hoping this isn’t becoming a trend.

A Kootenay-based conservation group is calling on British Columbia to enact an interim logging moratorium in the critical habitat of endangered mountain caribou. …Over that time, B.C. has blown past deadlines to release recommendations that would protect the species. With one year left before the agreement expires, Wildsight says caribou habitat continues to be logged. …Responding to the call for a logging moratorium, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said in an email it has made “significant progress” recovering southern mountain caribou in the four years since signing the bilateral agreement. That includes implementing logging moratoriums on over 724,000 hectares of land, read the statement unattributed to any individual at the ministry. …Timber companies reached by Glacier Media said interim measures to protect caribou habitat have already had a serious impact on the industry.

The We Wai Kai First Nation has reached a two-year agreement with Mosaic Forest Management to undertake collaborative planning and timber harvesting within We Wai Kai territory. The agreement builds on the partnership established in 2022 between Mosaic and Way Key LP, as well as a more recent agreement between We Wai Kai and Mosaic in 2023. The services will take place within We Wai Kai territory on Quadra Island and in Jackson Bay on the mainland. “We Wai Kai Council has made significant investments in our forestry businesses and in building relationships with licencees that operate in our territory,” said We Wai Kai Chief Ronnie Chickite. ..Timber harvesting will be provided by Way Key, a First Nation-owned company employing 14 We Wai Kai band members.

The District of Tumbler Ridge and the District of Hudson’s Hope have sent letters to Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests, expressing their concerns with the removal of an initial BC Wildfire attack crew based in Chetwynd, which has been reassigned to Dawson Creek. In a Feb. 8 letter, Hudson’s Hope called the relocation arbitrary, and noted that no consultation was done with local stakeholders and First Nations, including West Moberly, Saulteau, and Halfway River, in addition to the communities of Chetwynd, Tumber Ridge, Moberly Lake, Hassler Flats, Jack Fish Lake, Farrell Creek, and Upper Halfway. Initial attack crews from Chetwynd have been vital to controlling wildfires in the community and the region through their quick response, explains the letter, signed by Hudson’s Hope Mayor Travous Quibell and Fred Burrows, their Director of Protective Services. 

Port Alberni residents are upset to see logging activities taking place right on the edge of a cemetery. …Mosaic Forest Management took down a number of trees near Alberni Valley Memorial Gardens. The logging took place right up to the edge of the Yates Memorial Services cemetery. …In a statement to the Alberni Valley News, Mosaic says they initially planned for a retention patch of trees adjacent to Alberni Valley Memorial Gardens. “However, further professional review indicated that retaining large trees in this area would create public safety risks with potential future blowdown,” said a Mosaic spokesperson. “Small leave trees that posed no risk of blowdown and no safety concerns were retained in this area.” …While Barry Tuck, the owner of Yates Memorial Services acknowledges that Mosaic has the right to log their own property, he feels that the harvesting wasn’t done with much sensitivity to his clientele.

©David Moskowitz

Kootenay-based environmental group Wildsight is calling for an interim moratorium on logging and road building in core southern mountain caribou habitat. The moratorium should stay in place until permanent protections are in place, says Eddie Petryshen, Wildsight Conservation Specialist. Petryshen says that in an agreement signed in February 2020, the province of B.C. committed to actions to stabilize caribou populations. These actions included increasing protection of habitat. “With one year left before the agreement expires, almost no progress has been made, and caribou habitat continues to be logged,” he said. …B.C.’s overall caribou populations has dropped from an estimated 45,000 to 15,000 over the last century. The deep-snow herds have declined from 2,500 in the 1990s to approximately 1,250 today.