Region Archives: Canada West

The B.C. government doesn’t have a comprehensive wildfire and forest resilience plan unlike California and Washington state, whose plans have helped produce faster and more significant results.  B.C. has set no goals on how much land it wants to reduce wildfire risk on each year or larger timelines, and it doesn’t track and report publicly on progress, as do the two U.S. states, shows a review by Postmedia News of publicly available plans.   …California’s online tool — which provides public transparency and accountability — is part of a strategic wildfire and forest resilience plan launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. …Washington state launched its wildfire strategic protection plan in 2019.  …The Forests Ministry didn’t answer a question on whether it sets annual targets or a timeline.  Ministry staff said there is no “singular” database that tracks progress and is publicly available.

The charred hills surrounding Okanagan Lake in the B.C. Interior will likely look very different in a year’s time and beyond as life returns to the wildfire-ravaged landscape, ecologists predict.  An eruption of low plants, grasses, and shrubs will turn the hills green. Birds and small mammals, as well as deer and bears, will return to feast on berries and other plant life. Carnivores including cougars could move in.  But the tall trees destroyed by the fires may never recover or return, said Robert Gray, a wildland fire ecologist.  “When you look at West Kelowna, it’s really rocky, steep ground and trees aren’t going to come back very well there. There is not a lot of moisture in the soil and it’s only going to get drier with climate change,” said Gray. “A lot of that landscape may not see a lot of trees come back.”

In the burned-over hills between Ashcroft and Cache Creek, the Secwepemcúl’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society is getting a glimpse of what the future holds for B.C. forests after a record 2023 wildfire season.  The Society, which represents eight Secwépemc First Nations, was formed in 2017 to advocate Indigenous principles in recovering from the 1,900-square-kilometre Elephant Hill fire of that year. Its researchers are already learning important lessons. “It depends on the severity of the fire,” said society CEO Angela Kane. “In some area’s nothing has come back because (the forest) is burnt so bad.”  “What our technicians, my people out on the land are telling me is that it burned so hot and deep into the ground that some of those seed banks are gone.  …“We’re learning the hard way (about) unintended consequences,” said wildfire ecologist Lori Daniels.

EAST KOOTENAY, BC — This season’s forest fire tragedy unfolding around us is nothing less than an economic and ecological catastrophe and raises a troubling question – how bad can it get? According to UN statistics, the largest forest fire in recorded history occurred in 2003 when a mammoth blaze erupted in eastern Siberia and burned 22 million hectares. …The Donnie Creek fire in northeast B.C., at 120,000 hectares the largest in B.C.’s history. … So, what can we do to prevent forest fires from happening at all? …We can do things on the ground to lessen the chances of lightning strikes setting off major fires. For starters, we can pressure government to live up to its word and stop the cutting of old growth timber which is fire resistant because of its very nature. …What will fire season be like in B.C. a decade from now?

SUNSHINE COAST, BC — The Sunshine Coast Community Forest has established a Wildfire Resiliency Plan in partnership with Frontera Forest Solutions, SCCF announced last month. The three-phase plan focuses on identifying key infrastructure to be protected, as well as reducing excess fuels within the community forest, with opportunities to receive public input. Phase 1 of the project involved fuel management planning using data from the SCRD Community Wildfire Protection Plan and information from the community forest. …This information is used to create a burn model, which will show what sections of the forest are more susceptible to wildfires and will identify key areas within the forest. …Phase 2 is the identification of proposed and prioritized mitigation projects. …Phase 3 of the project is when the proposed mitigation projects will be presented to the public, explaining why these projects are recommended and how they would help reduce risk.

CAMPBELL RIVER – An audit of forest practices on five woodlots in the Campbell River Natural Resource District found mixed results in licensees’ compliance with legal requirements, according to a series of reports recently published by the Forest Practices Board. The board audited woodlot licences W0085, W2001, W2004, W2044 and W2046 as part of its 2022 compliance audit program. Auditors examined whether timber harvesting, road construction and maintenance, silviculture, fire protection and associated planning carried out from Oct. 1, 2020, through Oct. 20, 2022, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act, as well as the Woodlot Licence Planning and Practices Regulation (WLPPR). …“It is important for licensees to uphold their timber and forest resource commitments by meeting their free-growing obligations,” said Keith Atkinson, chair of the Forest Practices Board. …The audited woodlots are located within a 100-kilometre radius of Campbell River and within the territories of the Kwakwaka’wakw, Coast Salish, and Mowachaht/ Muchalaht Peoples.

Forest Professionals of BC published their August newsletter. Highlights include:

• Garnet Mierau, RPF joins the Forest Professionals BC as Director of Practice. Garnet, past-chair of the FPBC Board, takes over from Mike Larock, RPF, who will act as a special consultant with FPBC until the end of the fiscal year.
• Sydney Kucera takes on new position as Certifications Lead, a redesigned role based on the former Registration Manager position previously held by Conrad, Malilay, now FPBC Compliance Manager.
• FPBC is hiring: Complaint Investigator and Registration Coordinator
• The FPBC conference and AGM is scheduled for February 7-9, 2024 at the Delta Hotels Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna.

The wildfire that has been rampaging through the Shuswap region of the B.C. Interior has also sparked a fight over whether local Opposition MLAs have been encouraging residents to disobey firefighters, or if the government is refusing to listen to critics of its response to the fires. The Bush Creek East fire has destroyed or significantly damaged nearly 170 properties. …But it has also been in focus because of some residents’ decision to defy evacuation orders and instead stay to defend their homes from the flames. The New Democrat government accused the Opposition BC United of supporting residents who refused to obey the North Shuswap evacuation order, while the Opposition denied the accusation and said it was calling on the government to work with the community. …In recent days, North Shuswap residents with firefighting skills have indeed been recruited to work with government firefighters in the area, BC Wildfire Service officials said.

DRAYTON VALLEY, Alberta — In an effort to fully understand the damage caused by the wildfire in the Pembina Forest Management Area, Councillor Tom McGee and Mayor Nancy Dodds reached out to Weyerhaeuser earlier this month. …The two met with Jeff MacKay, the General Manager of Pembina Timberlands, to get a better feel for the damage that was done and what the fire would mean for residents. MacKay says that even though there were 1.9 million hectares burnt, much of that wood can still be used at the mills. …“Weyerhaeuser’s harvesting operations have already begun salvaging fire-killed trees for our Drayton Valley Lumber and Edson OSB mills,” said MacKay. “We expect to maintain a reliable supply of fibre to operate our mills at forecasted rates for the foreseeable future,” he says.

Many forests, wildlife species and ecosystems in British Columbia are fire-dependent. This means they need fire to revitalize the ecosystems. For thousands of years, fires have varied in frequency, size, severity, and duration. …British Columbia is striving to manage wildfire risk at three levels: Hardening homes and buildings, including reducing nearby flammable materials; Reducing the concentration and arrangement of trees adjacent to communities in the Wildland Urban Interface; and managing fire as part of natural ecosystem function. FESBC has been working with a number of other organizations to provide funding and resources to assist communities in British Columbia in reducing their risk of catastrophic wildfires while learning to live naturally with fire. “With provincial funding, FESBC has supported projects of many types that help First Nations and communities protect themselves against wildfire risks. We hope to see these efforts and collaborations continue,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests.

The province is extending the state of emergency as wildfires and drought continue to plague B.C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma announced the extension during a wildfire update on Thursday. She was joined by Forests Minister Bruce Ralston. “The nature and unpredictability of the wildfires that we are experiencing this year means that we all need to remain vigilant,” explained Ma. More than 4,200 people are still on evacuation order, while another 65,000 are on alert. …Ma said the northeastern region of the province is expected to continue to see unseasonably warm temperatures, smoke and strong winds, which could then lead to previously under control wildfires becoming out of control again. Of the province’s 34 water basins, 27 of those are at the two highest drought levels. More than 1.91 million hectares have burned so far this year from 2,027 wildfires. There are currently 42 wildfires actively burning in the province, said Ralston. 

Government of BC press release: Use caution, be fire safe this long weekend

During this summer’s drought, the provincial government has been telling farmers who are short of water, or not licensed to use it, to find places to buy it. …It would be more sensible, she said, to give priority to ecosystems and rivers, then make sure farms producing food have enough, before allocating water to golf courses, riding rings, water bottling and less essential uses,” Vancouver Island farmer Arzeena Hamir said. … “My feeling is the Ministry of Forests is using the drought as the excuse to come into the community and enforce water licensing. Nor, in Hamir’s view, does it make sense for the Ministry of Forests to be causing suffering to farmers by restricting water use when logging that could reduce water supplies continues. The land in the area, as on much of eastern Vancouver Island, is privately owned and the forests are managed with even fewer restrictions than they would be on public land.

The Government of Yukon and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency combined financial contributions to launch a new support program offering funding for commercial harvesters and retailers. Commercial harvesters and retailers can now apply for reimbursements of up to $15,000 for purchases, repairs and upgrades to harvest equipment, vehicles, trailers, personal protective equipment and other equipment. For larger harvesting businesses, the funds can be used for things like planning and administrative costs. This program will help commercial timber harvesters and retailers reduce barriers in getting more firewood to market. Commercial timber harvesters and retailers that harvest, process or sell timber and firewood can apply for this program. Applicants have until March 31, 2024, to apply or until the $200,000 in total available funds is exhausted. This program is in addition to the Timber Harvesting Incentive, which is accepting applications until March 31, 2024.

Jim Jones, owner of North Thompson Aprotek Fire Safety offered free firefighter training last weekend to three dozen North Shuswap residents looking to protect their homes. Jones said he was contacted by community members in the North Shuswap looking to get certified so that they could help BC Wildfire Service crews battle the Bush Creek East fire. …Jones said he worked for decades with B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, including extensive wildland firefighting experience. …Dozens of North Shuswap residents were desperate for certification after the BC Wildfire Service last week said it was willing to work alongside those in the community provided they had proper training. …BCWS operations director Cliff Chapman said the Co-operative Community Response Project aims to provide “community members that are willing” basic training to have them work alongside firefighters.

The 1993 protests over clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound were a seminal moment for environmental activism in B.C. that shaped much of what has happened since, both in terms of forestry practices and the conservation movement. And 30 years later, environmentalist Tzeporah Berman estimates the protest — dubbed the War in the Woods — “had a massive impact,” helping to push forest companies toward eco-forestry practices and government into working with First Nations on co-management of forests to consider ecological values. …Industry rep Linda Coady agrees… who was an executive for MacMillan Bloedel at the time. “On the coast, it really opened up and changed the role of First Nations, (which) continues today. …Government’s response sparked the Clayoquot Sound scientific panel, which made the ecological case for new harvesting methods, such as variable retention logging rather than clearcutting. Those lessons were used in the landscape-level planning [which]… the province now is expanding across the province, Coady added.

Each year at the BCCFA conference we hear from a number forest professionals. As wildfires raged across the province this month, some of our past conference speakers were called upon to share their perspectives and insights on the situation. Check out what they are saying as BC has the biggest fire year ever.  Lennard Joe, RPF and CEO of BC First Nations Forestry Council acknowledged that the catastrophic intensity of wildfires fires has grown, as has the impact on wildlife and berry producing areas. Kira Hoffman is a UBC Fire Ecologist and a friend and colleague of the BCCFA was interviewed by CBC News. Bruce Blackwell, Robert Gray and Sarah Dickson-Hoyle were featured in an article by Gordon Hoekstra, in the Vancouver Sun: 20 years after devastating Kelowna wildfires, what have we learned? These professionals continue to advocate for significant increases in provincial funding for proactive fuel reduction. Click the Read More to see the full newsletter.

The Sierra Club of B.C. says the logging of large old trees in verdant, biodiverse forests on Vancouver Island has continued mostly unabated in the 30 years since one of the biggest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history. “We have ongoing industrial devastation of the last intact forests,” said the conservation group’s Jens Wieting in Vancouver. “We have few exceptions. We need a breakthrough in terms of conservation solutions.” …The Sierra Club of B.C. and the Tla-o-qui-aht used provincial data to show that in 1993 there were about 6,870 square kilometres of productive old-growth rainforest — trees at least 140 years or older — left on Vancouver Island. That’s about 31 per cent of what’s estimated to have been there before industrialized logging began. Thirty years later, the groups say the remaining productive old-growth rainforest on the island is 4,470 square kilometres — about 20 per cent of the amount before logging began.

Becky Miller

This coming winter the European fallow deer population on Sidney Island will be eradicated to restore the native understory growth. The invasive deer have impacted the island’s ecosystem by eating the diverse species of plants, including Douglas fir, western red cedar, arbutus and maple trees. Local First Nations and Parks Canada are implementing the cull to recover the herbs and trees. The deer eradication is part of a $5.9-million contract that has produced a backlash from animal advocates. In response, Parks Canada took media members to Sidney Island to show the impact of fallow deer. Restoring the island’s understory is crucial to protect Sidney Island from significant wildfire impacts if one were to strike it. According to forest ecologist Becky Miller, the grand fir makes up a majority of the forest floor seedlings.

COWICHAN LAKE, BC — Pumps will soon be installed at the Cowichan Lake weir to maintain the flow of water from the lake into the Cowichan River, if needed, next month. Catalyst Crofton pulp and paper mill Environmental Manager Brian Houle says unless there is an adequate amount of rain, the lake level will be too low to continue gravity feeding the river as of September 12th. The flow of water over the weir into the Cowichan River has been reduced to 4.5 cubic metres per second since the beginning of July. He says they will start moving pumps out of storage at locations in Canada and transporting them to the weir in Lake Cowichan next week. The Cowichan Watershed Board is currently lobbying the province for funding to raise the level of the dam by 70 centimetres.

Federal officials are investigating an Alberta logging company for building a bridge without a permit over a river considered crucial habitat for threatened species. “Fisheries and Oceans Canada is investigating the construction of a bridge over the Highwood River,” said department spokesman Rodney Drover. “Construction of infrastructure near water may require review to ensure compliance with relevant provisions under the Fisheries Act.” Spray Lake Sawmill is building the bridge in a popular recreation area called Kananaskis Country in order to reach a large swath of forest it has slated for clearcutting. Fisheries and Oceans has confirmed no authorizations for the bridge have been issued, although the Species at Risk Act requires permits for such activities in critical wildlife habitat.

A former municipal councillor is urging the city to pursue creating a fire guard “headband” around Salmon Arm. In a letter to the city, Chad Eliason encourages working with the province and local forest companies to plan and log a fire break around the community. He noted communities need fire breaks and FireSmart programs cost money. “This would mean expanding their licences into areas that they would not have been able to log previously,” wrote Eliason. “I envision a headband-like ring around the city. “While not acceptable in the past as it was not aesthetically pleasing, it could make a big difference.” Eliason said the initiative would result in jobs, increased safety and trails. Coun. Kevin Flynn saw merit to Eliason’s suggestion, though jokingly said he didn’t wish to give the former councillor credit, as it’s something he’s “been talking about forever.”

The head of the BC Wildfire Service says the agency is willing to work alongside community members like those in the North Shuswap as destructive blazes become a more common occurrence. Cliff Chapman, director of operations for the BCWS, said he knows the agency has to be nimble given the increasing frequency of interface fires. The BCWS took a lot of heat earlier this month from residents of the North Shuswap, who claimed they were not consulted in the firefighting process and not allowed to help protect their homes. That has since changed. Over the weekend, the BCWS trained a number of North Shuswap residents, and they are now working the fire line — paid employees alongside regular BCWS crew members. “Climate-related emergency hazards are on the rise in B.C., and with it we need to be willing to adjust, willing to evolve and willing to learn from the things that we’re experiencing right now,” Chapman said.

Jean-Ann Debreceni, Sandra Haley & Lisa Barnes

The Cranbrook Community Forest Society (CCFS) will receive annual grants from the Community Foundation of the Kootenay Rockies (CFKR) thanks to a newly established legacy fund. This comes as the Cranbrook Community Forest Society Legacy Fund surpassed its $20,000 goal and raised over $30,000 for the permanent endowment. “The annual grant from this fund will support our ongoing work to maintain and enhance the Cranbrook Community Forest, which is such an important recreational, educational, and environmental resource in our community,” said Joseph Cross, CCFS Board Chair. CFKR officials said the campaign was kicked off in the spring of 2022 with a $500 donation from Jean-Ann Debreceni, a long-time user of the Community Forest, along with her husband, Joe.

VANCOUVER — B.C. conservation groups have launched a new campaign to pressure government on protecting old-growth forests on the anniversary of the seminal 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests. The blockade won some protections for Clayoquot Sound, but the Sierra Club of B.C. argues logging in Vancouver Island’s remaining ancient stands hasn’t slowed. Since 1993, according to a Sierra Club mapping project, some 35 per cent of the old-growth forest that stood at that time has been logged. …“A breakthrough to reverse this pattern and safeguard our best ally in the fight against the climate emergency will require much greater support from the provincial and federal governments to overcome deeply entrenched industrial logging interests,” said Wieting, a forest and climate campaigner. …Logging deferrals have been controversial for B.C.’s forest industry, which has argued that the province has already protected significant swaths of old-growth forests, and reducing access to valuable timber would come at the expense of existing forestry jobs.