Region Archives: Canada West

While the discovery of a bear under the deck of a family near the Cowichan River recently was a shock, it’s not necessarily unusual according to one researcher. If there are fish in the river, bears might not hunker down for the winter right away, but they will eventually, says Helen Davis, a biologist with Duncan-based Artemis Wildlife Consultants. The problem is, there are fewer and fewer natural places for them to hibernate due to logging practices and that’s why we’re seeing them snuggled into more peculiar places. …Bears prefer to make use of large hollow tree trunks and stumps as their dens, but will make use of other spaces as well, she said. …Davis has been working to get changes to the Wildlife Act made to ensure that forestry companies are legally responsible to protect a den when one is found.

Ryan Senechal

The analysis mentioned in the Dec. 29 commentary “Density can mean more homes, more trees, more parks” highlights how simplistic urban forest measurements can lead us all astray. …For the 60 soccer field (111 acre) urban forest canopy area increase referenced to illustrate the sustainability of development in Victoria, the devil is in the details. …City of Victoria requested and received third-party technical reports that measured urban forest canopy change over two sample periods. …Those details include numerous measurements which should give an urban forest manager reason to pause pending the analysis of future sample periods. …The hyper-local distributional benefits delivered through urban trees are persuasively illustrated in research, so much so that in 2023 the Biden government signed into law $1.5 billion in funding for U.S. urban and community forestry initiatives that are equitably focused.

The BC NDP government is finally getting serious about protecting the province’s precious ecosystems, watersheds, and endangered species. A new policy framework proposed in November 2023 could radically shift the province’s approach to conservation and reconciliation with Indigenous Nations. …The government’s draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health framework offers the promise of a complete paradigm shift: putting long-term ecosystem health ahead of resource extraction and industry profits, protecting 30% of BC’s terrestrial ecosystems, and empowering Indigenous Nations. If properly implemented, the framework could spell the end of a long era of putting corporate interests ahead of conservation and biodiversity. …But to make a lasting impact, the legislation must have teeth – and there’s no doubt that industry lobbyists will be lining up to undermine its effectiveness. The real test of the government’s commitment will come when it’s time to implement the framework through the creation of enforceable laws and robust new institutions.

The McBride Community Forest Corporation was under the microscope recently due to the start of logging activities at the base of Lucille Mountain near McBride. Locals were concerned the logging would destroy a community trail through an old growth stand, referred to as “Lucy’s Lane,” and impact the Dominion Creek watershed. MCFC General Manager Craig Pryor confirmed that while logging activities have commenced, he says neither the trail nor the watershed will be affected. “We have left a 100-metre buffer on either side of the existing road, and the visual from the trails is minimal,” said Pryor. …The second concern expressed by members of the public was that the block is on the same bench as the village water system and will affect the watershed. Pryor showed that while the two are on the same bench, the drainage from both sides of the road continues to run downhill, not sideways.

Two grants from the Province for the First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS) will help support emergency management and land stewardship, as well as disaster- and climate-risk resilience in communities throughout B.C. “We are committed to working with First Nations partners to create stronger and more resilient forests and communities,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “These grants build on the incredible work already being done by First Nations communities and will help grow capacity for Nation-led wildfire and emergency management in the future.” A $5-million grant from the Ministry of Forests will go toward a broad range of fire-stewardship programs at the local level. …In addition, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness has provided $960,000 to FNESS to help advance the Province’s collective understanding of disaster and climate risk throughout B.C. to support community resilience, planning and decision-making.

Dave Peterson

In a bid to highlight and address the challenges posed by escalating wildfire frequency in British Columbia, Dave Peterson, Board Chair of the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC), will be part of a panel at the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) Convention exploring the crucial question: “With B.C.’s escalating wildfire frequency in recent years, is it imperative to ask if we can be doing better at risk mitigating and identify the requirements to make that happen?” …Expressing his anticipation for the event, Peterson emphasized the urgency of reassessing and enhancing current wildfire management strategies. …“My focus will be on describing the unique role of FESBC in risk reduction.” …Peterson will also be highlighting FESBC’s ongoing efforts to navigate the intricate relationship between climate change, fire intensity, and the evolving human connection with forests.

It is too early to tell whether 2024 will be a worse year than 2023 when it comes to drought conditions in B.C. But early signs are not encouraging after the provincial government released the first Snow Survey and Water Supply Bulletin for 2024. Jonathan Boyd, river forecast hydrologist with the River Forecast Centre, said last year’s drought with its accompanying record wildfire season was “probably” B.C.’s worst drought in recent memory. While not enough evidence is available yet, “certainly, it’s not looking in our favour right now,” he said, when asked whether 2024 will be worse. Boyd made that comment against the backdrop of figures that show the provincial snow pack as “extremely low”, 44 per cent below normal as of Jan. 1, 2024. Twelve months ago, the overall provincial snow pack was 18 per cent below normal. …“The low snow pack could significantly affect ongoing drought concerns into summer 2024”.

Nicolas Feau and Joey Tanney

A decades old maple in Victoria has been cut down after it was dying from Sooty Bark Disease, which scientists say will impact more trees as heat waves and droughts worsen with climate change. The fungal disease impacts maple species and was discovered in Victoria in 2022 after it was first detected in B.C. a year after the 2021 heat dome. Members of the Pacific Forestry Centre were present when the tree was felled by crews on January 11. Sooty Bark Disease infects the trees with a fungus that grows within the wood and can be identified by what looks like masses of dark soot on the bark. “What’s really interesting about this fungus is it produces the most spores I’ve ever seen,” said Joey Tanney, a Pacific Forestry Centre research scientist. …Nicolas Feau, another research scientist from the centre, said they’ve found 30 trees showing signs of the disease in Victoria this year.

In Glen Ridgway’s letter he writes about an idea or concept of logging he refers to as, “logging/recreation”. It is hard to believe how far archaic minded pro-logging ex-councillors will go. The very idea that Ridgway compares himself and his ideas equal to the scientists of UBC, who have demonstrated that carbon sequestration in other forests is a form of sustainable revenue and can be used here. Even Mosaic, the large logging company, has closed off logging to thousands of hectares of forest land they control in favour of carbon sequestration. …When will these egotistical, status quo, pro-logging, pulp wood cutting believers finally realize that our Six Municipal Mountains are worth more to the people of this valley left alone and standing?

In 2023, British Columbia FireSmart awarded the first ever Lynn Orstad Award, recognizing women working in wildfire resiliency. We are now accepting nominations for the 2024 award! Lynn was a community leader and a driving force for better wildfire risk management. This award was created to continually appreciate and elevate the female leaders who work so hard to make our communities safer—and our fire management better. If you know a woman who shares the same values that Lynn embodied as a female trailblazer in wildfire risk mitigation, click below to nominate them. Nominations will be open until February 27.

Four popular Pemberton trails will close this month to allow for fuel thinning around One Mile Lake. Spel’kúmtn Community Forest and Líl’wat Forestry Ventures will start the work on Monday, Jan. 8. Incorporated in 2019 as a limited partnership between the Lil’wat Nation and Village of Pemberton (VOP), the Spel’kúmtn Community Forest is a community-led forest located on 17,727 hectares of unceded, traditional Lil’wat land that is designed to promote reconciliation and increase benefits to the respective communities. …The project is part of ongoing work to reduce forest fire risk to Pemberton and its residents. It encompasses high-hazard forest land. The group aims to reduce the rate of spread and intensity of possible fires in the area, while maintaining ecological and cultural values. They also want to enhance public safety and firefighters’ ability to control possible fires.

After years of shoveling money of the back of the truck along with the turnips, governments including Justin [Trudeau], David [Eby] and North Cowichan are, at least for radio, TV and newspaper purposes, expressing concern about costs. …So local government should look to other revenue streams. One suggestion would be to accumulate some forest land. Start a sustainable logging/recreation program to provide revenue for the municipality and some jobs and fibre for local industry. In addition to covering the cost of the day to day operation perhaps some money could be set aside … in a reserve fund rising to say $5 to $6 million dollars. Taxes paid by those employed could fund UBC forestry studies into carbon credits or fund heat pumps in Nova Scotia. … Kingsview viewscapes may be impacted but it will help reduce property taxes. Give it some thought but please don’t get those UBC guys to study it.

70 Mile, B.C. – In light of the ongoing challenges facing the forest industry … Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR), has recognized the necessity of creating new opportunities within the sector. …Daniel Persson, CCR’s Forestry Superintendent explained that CCR identified the need for wood fibre utilization and rehabilitation work on the vast areas of land devastated after wildfires. …Extracting 7-year-old burned fiber poses significant challenges owing to the brittleness of standing dead trees and complexities in management. Nonetheless, CCR remains confident that it can be achieved, enabling the utilization of fibre for job creation and cost-effective production of biomass products. …The purpose of this pilot project is to help reduce wildfire risk and rehabilitate fire-damaged forests while producing a premium wood chip that will help offset the cost of the operations.

Cold winters, a lack of food and control measures have caused steep declines in Alberta’s destructive pine insect pest, according to figures released by the provincial government. In a news release last month, the province said populations of Dendroctonus ponderosae, commonly known as mountain pine beetle, have declined 98 per cent since the peak in 2019. …There are a few natural predators, most notably woodpeckers. …We also know the province has spent significant time, energy and money on controlling mountain pine beetle populations. Also, one of the only silver linings of the forest fires that we’ve experienced has been some populations have been consumed by those fires. …There’s a lot of active research going on to figure out what it is that mountain pine beetle does to prepare for overwintering because it’s not a classic diapause. But we do know they were active well into the fall because it was warm.

In late 2023, the federal government, BC and the First Nations Leadership Council signed a $1 billion Nature Agreement to protect 30 per cent of B.C.’s lands by 2030. …The Nature Agreement follows a series of historic federal investments in nature conservation. Like the previous announcements, the 2023 Nature Agreement includes funding for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, or IPCAs. However, despite advances in Canadian conservation policy and practice, our research has shown that First Nations advancing IPCAs can still face significant challenges. …One of the biggest challenges for IPCAs is the pressure of resource extraction. Even once an IPCA is declared, it may not be safe from resource extraction. Canadian governments continue to grant tenures and licences to companies for logging, mining, fish farms and other impactful activities inside IPCAs against the wishes of Indigenous nations. …IPCAs offer tremendous potential for addressing the biodiversity and climate crises and repairing relationships with Indigenous Peoples.

On July 17 the St. Mary’s River wildfire raced through the First Nations community of Aq’am. Driven by strong winds, the fire destroyed seven homes in Aq’am and burned hot enough to sterilize soil. It put more than 500 homes under evacuation alert and sent plumes of choking smoke into the summer sky. But the St. Mary’s fire is also notable for what it didn’t burn. Months before the blaze, in April, Aq’am – with support from the wildfire service and the Cranbrook and Kimberley fire departments – had carried out a prescribed burn on its biggest reserve, Kootenay 1, a swath of forest and pasture that covers about 75 square kilometres just east of the Canadian Rockies International Airport. …For everyone involved, it became a case study in fighting fire with fire, in a year when B.C. and Canada grappled with the costs and widespread impact of the country’s most destructive wildfire season on record.

Lori Daniels

The new centre for wildfire coexistence being established at the University of B.C. looks to have its work cut out for it right out of the gate. As of Dec. 28, the B.C. Wildfire Service counted 106 wildfires as still burning. …“Zombie fires, we call them, when they go underground and smoulder through the winter,” said Lori Daniels, UBC professor of forest and conservation sciences, who will lead the new centre. “But it’s shocking how many (there are).” The El Niño phenomena that has brought warmer ocean temperatures is to blame, delivering warmer and drier weather across the west that has starved regions of their usual snow and cold. …UBC’s faculty of forestry launched the centre Dec. 19 with $5 million from UBC patrons, the Koerner family. Its task is to take research findings about what makes communities vulnerable to fire and translate those findings into making forests more resilient.

Dozens of fires from Alberta’s record-breaking 2023 wildfire season are still burning, and with dry conditions so far this fall and winter, experts say the province could experience another one just like it. Conditions last spring contributed to Alberta’s worst wildfire season since 1981. …This year’s wildfire season in Alberta is shaping up as a repeat. Phillips said “the vast majority” of the province has seen less than 80 per cent of the precipitation it would normally expected over the last 90 days. “That’s the recharge season. That’s when you want to get the soil moisture full, you want to get the forest litter wet,” he said. …Story said Alberta will be entering the 2024 wildfire season, which begins March 1, with an elevated wildfire risk, “especially in the northern parts of the province,” adding that 63 fires are continuing to burn from last year. “There’s a tendency for El Niño springs to be drier than normal,” Phillips said.

Additional coverage in the Chronicle Journal, by Colette Derworiz, Canadian Press: Wildfires in Alberta burned 10 times more area in 2023 than the five-year average

A conservation group says its latest purchase of exclusive hunting rights in a BC rainforest is a major step toward protecting the area’s wildlife, but hunters say the move is an “abuse” of the licensing system. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said that it raised $1.92 million over two years to buy the rights from hunters that cover roughly a quarter, or 18,000 square kilometres, of the Great Bear Rainforest on the province’s north and central coast. …The province confirmed in a statement that it has received the application to transfer the certificate, and the transaction was being reviewed. The purchase makes Raincoast the largest hunting tenure holder in B.C., covering more than 56,000 square kilometres. Raincoast has been buying hunting rights in the province since 2005, after a 2001 moratorium on grizzly bear hunting approved by an NDP government was overturned when the Liberals were elected to government.

They’re leafy, shady, and in some cases come with a whopping price tag — the City of Calgary has assigned a value to most trees on public land. There are about seven million public trees in Calgary with a collective value of $1.3 billion. The practice of assigning value to a tree is somewhat common in Canada, where an assessment formula is used to determine the cost of a tree in case it is damaged or killed. Mike Mahon, urban forestry lead for the City of Calgary, said a tree’s cost in Calgary is calculated by urban forestry technicians who look at a tree’s structure, health, species — and most importantly, its age and size. Those figures are then put into an algorithm that generates a monetary value. A tree’s price is seen by the city as a way to retain trees and protect them from construction and development. 

Mike Morris

Prince George-Mackenzie BC United MLA, Mike Morris says it’s time BC stopped its clearcutting ways. Morris says the province has to change its management practices to restore the health of forests and decrease the likelihood of disastrous floods that threaten communities. “We’re going to have a forest sector, we’ve got 20 million hectares of managed coniferous forest planted since we started clearcutting in 1966 and they all need thinning, so pull the plug on clearcut forestry right now,” said Morris. “…we’ll get 2X4s and maybe 2X6s and pulpwood, but industry completely needs to change their business model.” …“We are in so much trouble from a forestry perspective in the province, it needs to be completely revamped,” said Morris. “…we’re out of harvestable wood under the current business model. We’ve exhausted our timber supply in the province.” …Morris follows research by UBC forestry professor Younes Alila, which attributes extreme flooding …to clearcutting and loss of forest ground cover. 

Mike Flannigan

Continuing drought conditions in Western Canada, a relatively mild start to winter across much of the country, and the lingering effects of El Nino threaten to create ideal conditions for wildfires to ignite this coming spring, as the country contends with lessons learned from the most destructive fire season in its history. “El Nino is generally milder and drier for many parts of Canada, and if that persists, we’re going to start off with drought conditions in spring. If that’s the case, it doesn’t absolutely mean we’re going to have an active spring fire season, but it loads the dice,” said Dr. Mike Flannigan, B.C. Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science. …“The bottom line is there will always be fire in the landscape. How we manage it to minimize the impacts, but allow fire to take its role when and where possible, is the way forward,” said Flannigan.