Region Archives: Canada West

Irreplaceable ancient forests that should meet criteria for interim protection are being left open to logging in BC due to outdated and inaccurate government data, advocates and an ecologist who advised the province say. “The deferral process was intended to stop the bleed,” said Karen Price, who served on the provincially appointed panel that identified 2.6 million hectares of high-priority old growth and recommended it be set aside from logging. …But Price said old growth remains unidentified and open to logging due to “problematic” data that underestimates its age, especially for ancient forests. …The discrepancy increases with age… so B.C.’s deferral process is missing areas that should meet the criteria for old growth, Price said. …The Forests Ministry said the panel worked with higher-level mapping and “acknowledged that the modelling would need to be verified and that some areas may turn out not to be what they had thought.”

…It is becoming increasingly common knowledge that if you do not address a fire near a community early on, it can grow beyond our control and put lives and properties at risk. At that point, we can only hope for better weather. Like many in Canada’s West, Jim Cooperman lives in an area that is at an ever-increasing risk of fire. Cooperman believes the fire service’s attempt to save properties with a backburn came much too late. In fact, he filed a complaint alleging that the backburn was lit right before an anticipated windstorm, resulting in 178 properties lost due to “gross negligence.” …In fact, veteran BCWS fire specialist Bruce Morrow wrote in Kamloops This Week that the model in place has “proven itself totally inadequate.” …BC Wildfire Service needs an updated mandate that requires more collaboration with communities and the establishment of a First Nations and Rural Fire Corps. [A subscription to the National Observer is required to access the full article]

Just six years ago, the Hamlet of Enterprise was celebrated as the first NWT community to become “Firesmart certified,” meaning the community had conducted a wildfire hazard assessment and create a Firesmart plan, then volunteers had worked on a clean-up that “removed potential fire hazards from the community’s boundaries.” Now, after much of the hamlet was destroyed by a wildfire in August, leaders are looking back at what happened. …In May this year, the hamlet reassessed its wildfire risk to inform a new fire safety plan. …The assessment concluded Enterprise was vulnerable to wildfire according to Blair Porter. “I honestly believe that because we had done what we did in May, that’s what saved that southern neighbourhood there.” …As the community prepares to rebuild, its council plans to introduce a beautification bylaw, which will include Firesmart principles for every property that gets rebuilt, according to Porter.

As Canada’s last wild spotted owl goes missing, a legal case that could change Ottawa’s approach to critically endangered species is poised to begin today on the seventh floor of a Vancouver courtroom. The case sets the environmental group Wilderness Committee against the federal government, in a showdown that tests the urgency with which Canada’s Species at Risk Act must be applied to protect wildlife at risk of extinction. Watching closely from the sidelines is the BC NDP government, which for months has lobbied Ottawa to stay out of provincial affairs while it continues to approve industrial logging in the spotted owl’s old-growth habitat. The environmental law charity Ecojustice, will ask a federal court judge to consider the question: did Canada’s Environment Minister Guilbeault act unlawfully when he delayed asking the federal cabinet to issue an emergency order to prevent the extinction of the spotted owl from Canada?

Colin Laroque

Saskatchewan is coming out of one of its most severe wildfire seasons on record. Saskatchewan has seen 494 fires in 2023, surpassing the five-year average of 378 fires, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency vice-president Steve Roberts said at a news conference Thursday. “From a magnitude issue, this is one of the busiest seasons that I have experienced in my 25 fire seasons in this province,” he said. “Approximately 1.9 million hectares of land was burned this year in wildfires. That is about five times the size of Prince Albert National Park and is greater than what was burned in 2015.” …Colin Laroque is head of the department of soil science at the University of Saskatchewan’s college of agriculture. “We had huge fires — astronomical numbers. It’s hard to comprehend how much, but it’s so much of our forest and our long-term carbon sequestration in both the soil’s and wood’s biomass. It’s all gone,” he said.

The Osoyoos Indian Band was recognized recently by the Minister of Forests for their lead role in a project to protect users of Mount Baldy. Work was recently conducted through funding from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC, creating an 8.5-kilometre fuel break, which is a cleared or managed area in a forest where vegetation is intentionally reduced or removed to help prevent or slow the spread of wildfires, along Mt. Baldy Road. The area cutback was aimed at mitigating wildfire threats to the infrastructure at Mt. Baldy and creating a safer egress route for public and firefighting crews in the event of a wildfire. In 2021, the Nk’Mip Creek wildfire near Oliver and Osoyoos crept toward the Mt. Baldy area, with well over 100 properties put under evacuation orders.

Tłı̨chǫ Grand Chief Jackson Lafferty has officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tree Canada and Let’s Plant Trees Ltd., to launch a three-year agreement to plant one million trees on Tłı̨chǫ land. This project represents the most ambitious reforestation project ever undertaken in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and encompasses significant employment and capacity-building opportunities. The MOU aims to restore vital Boreal Caribou habitat in the region and is an active response by the Tłı̨chǫ Government to the unprecedented forest fires this summer. The project represents a significant opportunity to combat climate change and support ecosystem restoration and economic development through green jobs. Working with Tree Canada, and Let’s Plant Trees Ltd., the Tłı̨chǫ Government will begin work this fall to harvest cones from local trees. Extracted seeds will be grown into saplings over the next 18 months before being planted in the summers of 2025 and 2026.

PRINCE GEORGE — If there’s one thing this past fire season has told us, it’s that we need to get serious about reducing the fire risk around Prince George. I want to stress the pretty straightforward idea of prioritizing broadleaf over conifer, aspen over pine in particular. It’s an undeniable fact the resinous pitch-soaked pine and spruce will light up much more swiftly than a water-logged aspen should a fire sweep into our city. The burn rates are different by orders of magnitude. …Residents should be encouraged to keep their broadleaf, not the conifer. And perhaps more critically, we need to pressure provincial forestry officials to ask themselves what they care about: growing fire-trap plantation forests to threaten our communities or diverse forests with lots of aspen to dampen those flames and feed those moose and beaver?

Pat Mackasey

MADGE LAKE — During a forest plan meeting held at the Duck Mountain Recreation Hall on Oct. 12 to discuss forest management strategies, with a particular focus on aspen harvesting in Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Paul LeBlanc, a district forester with Louisana-Pacific (LP) Building Solutions joined Pat Mackasey, a Park Forest ecologist based in Prince Albert to contribute to the meeting. The meeting’s agenda included an overview of aspen harvesting in Duck Mountain Provincial Park over the past few years and the direction for the coming year. A key point of discussion was the necessity of forest harvesting due to issues related to forest health. Old and variable forests, insufficient natural regeneration, and susceptibility to wildfires, insect infestations, and extreme weather events were highlighted as primary concerns. The depletion of forest biodiversity and wildlife habitat loss were also mentioned as significant factors.

Concerns for the future of logging, the amount of logging taking place and the quality of the sensitive Horsefly River watershed left in its wake were all topics of discussion at a meeting hosted by the Horsefly River Roundtable (HRR) recently. About a dozen professionals from the Ministry of Forests and forest industry made presentations at the open house and made themselves available for questions and comments. About a dozen residents were in attendance. It was a meeting months in the making as members of the HRR have been wanting to air their concerns with the amount of logging taking place in the designated fisheries-sensitive area. …Jason Kerley, tenures officer with the Williams Lake forest district, said the province is nearing the end of the last Timber Supply Review (TSR).

The Assembly of First Nations launched its new national climate strategy in Ottawa on Wednesday, calling on federal, provincial, and territorial governments to work with First Nations to implement their climate priorities. Interim National Chief Joanna Bernard said this year’s record-breaking wildfire season is a reason why all leaders should be taking climate change seriously, especially in First Nations communities. More than 150,000 square kilometres of land were burned, affecting both First Nations and non-First Nations communities alike. “This is only the beginning,” said Bernard, adding more extreme weather can be expected — “including fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, species migration (and) coastal sea level rise, among other challenges.” In the face of this, Indigenous Peoples have taken matters into their own hands to try to find solutions, Bernard said. The declaration called for the development of a First Nations-led climate strategy, which the AFN unveiled on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.

B.C. has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch a 20- to 30-year Indigenous-led ecological restoration strategy by tapping into what is estimated to be billions of dollars seeking suitable restoration and conservation finance projects. That’s the message that galvanized delegates into action at the RESOLVE Canada Restoration Conference 2023 in Vancouver last week. …Delegates heard that conservation finance, an approach that leverages philanthropic and private-sector capital for Indigenous stewardship, sustainable forestry, and restoration of watersheds and critical salmon habitats, for example, is gaining momentum worldwide. …If managed properly, restoration and conservation investment could create opportunities that are affordable, profitable, socially uplifting and economically sound, and that’s why restoration in B.C. must be Indigenous-led and devolved to local communities on the ground.

KAMLOOPS, BC — Thompson Rivers University’s senate will be presented with a proposal for a new research centre in Kamloops that will focus on the mitigation and adaptation to the effects of future wildfire seasons. The proposed Institute for Wildfire Science, Adaptation and Resiliency would be headed up by TRU’s Dr. Mike Flannigan. The proposal would position TRU as “an international leader in transdisciplinary collaborative wildfire science and education.” Topics of research would include fire science, the effects of drought and climate change and the social, behavioural, health and economic implications of wildfires. …Funding for the institution has already been secured for three-years, funding an operations manager position, administrative support and initial partnership development actives, with a proposed base operating budget of $204,200 a year. …The initial research team would include Flannigan, Jill Harvey, a Canada Research Chair in fire ecology, and LauchlanFraser, an industrial research chair in ecosystem reclamation.

An environmental group is challenging the federal government’s handling of protection for the northern spotted owl, calling an eight-month delay in deciding on an emergency order to prevent logging in the endangered owl’s habitat in British Columbia the latest “failure” in efforts to save it. The Wilderness Committee, represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice, appeared in Federal Court in Vancouver, telling Justice Yvan Roy that Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault originally said in January that he would recommend an emergency order to cabinet, which he did in late September. Ottawa announced earlier this month that it is not going ahead with an emergency order despite Guilbeault’s recommendation. The Wilderness Committee’s challenge is nevertheless proceeding as its lawyers argue the delay contravened the minister’s responsibility under the Species at Risk Act to address the imminent threat to spotted owl protection posed by old-growth logging in B.C.’s Fraser Canyon.

Mosaic is proud to announce the winners of this year’s Camping Photo Contest! Our 2023 contest saw photographers of every skill level submit their favourite images of BC’s wild west coast for a chance to win one of three, 7-day camping passes valid at one of Mosaic’s scenic campsites. Mosaic’s annual Camping Photo Contest is a celebration of the forests, people, places, and wildlife that make BC’s west coast so special. We’re delighted to announce the three winners of Mosaic’s 2023 Camping Photo Contest: Ashley Faulkner, People’s Choice Award winner for ‘Moonlight Over Lake Cowichan’; Meghan Wiles, Staff Choice Award winner for ‘August slipped away… smoky skies at Cowichan Lake’; and Jonathon Adams, Staff Choice Award winner for ‘Perseids over Lake Cowichan’.

James Hobart

Environmental groups and the Spuzzum First Nation are heading to court over the months-long delay of an emergency order recommendation that could protect the endangered northern spotted owl.  In February, federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault said he would recommend an emergency order that would prevent logging in the owl’s habitat. In June, Ecojustice launched legal action to force Guilbeault to actually recommend the order. Eight months after he made the commitment, Guilbeault recommended the emergency order in September — and cabinet rejected it.  On Wednesday, Spuzzum First Nation leadership and environmental groups Ecojustice and Wilderness Committee will go to Federal Court over the eight-month delay. …“The word emergency on the [emergency order] would denote some sort of urgency,” Spuzzum First Nation Chief James Hobart said. “But months went by… By the time he put it [to] cabinet, it didn’t seem any longer like it was an emergency.”

I started my career in a wildfire suppression crew and spent four decades working in our forests – developing a profound respect for the forest environment and the stages it goes through. But now, it’s beyond frustrating to see us collectively ignoring the incredible advantage forest management can bring to Canadians. Wildfires ravaged Canada’s landscape this year, scorching over 17 million hectares. …Our forests are aging and deteriorating, resulting in factors that are contributing to increased wildfire activity. Climate change means longer wildfire seasons … and the amount of forest consumed by wildfires is projected to double by 2050. Solutions demand a significant transformation of our forest management approach. First, we should incorporate wildfire emissions in our national and provincial greenhouse gas calculations. …Second, we must abandon the notion that forest preservation prevents wildfires and focus on reducing the age and density of our forests through forest management plans.

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Tolko Industries Ltd. on timber licence T0816 in the Okanagan Shuswap Natural Resource District, starting Oct. 23, 2023. Auditors will examine whether timber harvesting, roads, bridges, silviculture, wildfire protection and associated planning carried out between Oct. 1, 2021, and Oct. 27, 2023, meets the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. The audit area is in the Okanagan timber supply area and the territories of the Adams Lake Indian Band, Little Shuswap Lake Band, Neskonlith Indian Band, Okanagan Indian Band, and the Splatsin First Nation. The timber licence is located near Mabel and Sugar Lakes, Eagle River, and the communities of Revelstoke, Lumby and Sicamous.

If industry is allowed to access the wildfire-scarred backcountry, the general public should be allowed to as well, says the BC Wildlife Federation. The provincial government has in recent years brought in motor-vehicle closures of areas ravaged by wildfire to allow the landscape to recover. Those restrictions, however, don’t apply to businesses big and small ranging from logging companies to mushroom pickers. …“Anyone looking to make a dollar has full access to these regions, while ordinary British Columbians who want to hike, camp, hunt, or fish are barred from entry,” said B.C. Wildlife Federation Executive Director Jesse Zeman.. …“These landscapes cannot properly recover if the provincial government grants exceptions, while barring you and I from entry,” he said. BCWF says they support backcountry closures, road decommissioning, and post-wildfire restoration based on science.

Alberta conservationists say a recently built, potentially illegal logging bridge over the Highwood River in Kananaskis illustrates how the federal government is failing to adequately enforce legislation designed to protect at-risk species. …Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), announced it had opened an investigation on Aug. 30. Michael Sawyer said a DFO official told him Spray Lake Sawmills has since applied for a Section 73 permit. …If a permit is issued retroactively, Sawyer is willing to fight the decision in court, he said. …Before a Section 73 permit is issued for a resource development project, a DFO minister must be satisfied on two main elements: the harm to an at-risk species must be incidental, and a permit recipient must do everything they can to mitigate harm. …David Mayhood, a freshwater ecologist said the chances of Spray Lake being prosecuted are slim. 

At 8:30 p.m., just three hours after the 10-kilometre long “controlled” burn was lit by an aerial ignition on Aug. 17, a crew from the local volunteer fire department drove up the 670 Scotch Creek logging road to see that the fire was already nearing the creek and was too dangerous to fight.  One hour later they were at Meadow Creek and saw how the fire had jumped across the valley.  They proceeded to warn residents and called for an evacuation order.  They retreated east to a field and phoned the BC Wildfire Service, who did not arrive until early in the morning when it was too late to control what was, by then, an enormous fire. …Once an order is called, SVSAR’s role is to go door-to-door and urge residents to leave, using a list of addresses to keep track of everyone. If residents chose to stay, then police are notified.

BC’s forest watchdog has confirmed it is investigating the province’s response to wildfires that ripped through small communities on the shores of Shuswap Lake in August, destroying or damaging more than 200 properties. The Forest Practices Board (FPB) says it launched the probe after a resident filed a complaint about the B.C. Wildfire Service’s (BCWS) use of a planned ignition aimed at reducing forest fuels between populated areas. At the time the back burn was lit on Aug. 17, two blazes, the Lower East Adams Lake and Bush Creek wildfires, had been steadily moving toward the northern shore of Shuswap Lake after igniting about five weeks earlier. …The Forests Ministry says BCWS, “The purpose of [the burn] was not to contain the wildfire but reduce its intensity and provide a greater chance of survival to any structures in its projected path”. …The FPB says its probe will take six months to a year.

FireSmart BC has announced a new program that aims to teach the next generation how to keep their communities safe. According to a news release, the program will offer free and comprehensive lesson plans and materials that will introduce kindergarten to Grade 6 students and educators with essential knowledge in fire resiliency. Rachel Woodhurst, FireSmart BC program lead, said in the release that after the devastating wildfire season this year, wildfire education is no longer an option, but a necessity. “One of the best ways to be FireSmart is to start young. By equipping teachers with tools to educate the next generation, we can collectively work towards creating safer and better prepared communities across B.C.,” she said. The program, which includes themes such as safety, fire science and wildfire mitigation and prevention, will allow children and teachers to learn how they can help during or prepare for a crisis.