Region Archives: Canada West

A new poll by EKOS Research reveals a large proportion of Canadians, 80%, agree that governments in Canada should do more to protect and restore the boreal forest, even if it means imposing limits on the logging companies.  …BC residents may not be familiar with the BC Forest Practices Board, an advisory agency, but they clearly are sensitive to the message in their report, “Forest and Fire Management in BC”.    .,..Provincial governments, and definitely the British Columbia government, tolerate activities in the forests which have proven extremely damaging.  …Landscape Fire Management is the board’s recommended response.  …The application of LFM has scarcely begun. Really, no risk reduction activity has occurred beyond the wildland urban interface, and insufficient reduction has happened within the interface.

The Alberta government has levied more than $11,000 in fines for wildfire-prevention violations this year.  Nineteen violation tickets, with fines totalling $11,520, were given out between April 1 and July 31, according to statistics provided by Alberta’s forestry and parks ministry.  Most of the tickets were for failing to extinguish an open outdoor fire during a fire ban, which comes with a $600 fine.   Tickets have also been issued this year for operating equipment or an off-highway vehicle during a restriction, burning without a permit, and breaking the conditions of a fire permit. All are violations of the Forest and Prairie Protection Act.  A small portion of the tickets were levied under other legislation.  More fines have been levied this year than last year, but in the past five years, 2020 saw the highest number handed out.

Where fires burn, floods often follow.  The environmental impacts of B.C.’s devastating wildfire season will be felt well beyond this summer, experts say, with numerous examples from past years where communities hit by fire found themselves facing another disaster months later.  Because burned slopes no longer effectively absorb and moderate rainfall and snowmelt, flooding and landslides are often part of the “cascading effects” of wildfires, said John Clague, an earth sciences professor at Simon Fraser University.  …Fire also causes a big risk of landslides and debris flows, particularly on steep slopes that have been logged in the past, he explained. …The risk can remain elevated for a long time, said Clague, as the needles, stems and branches of large trees that once intercepted precipitation and shaded snowy slopes don’t do that job anymore.

Representatives of the region’s lumber manufacturers are looking for closer relations and support from the West Kootenay’s local governments. The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) board meeting opened with a visit from the new president of the Interior Lumber Manufacturers’ Association (ILMA), Paul Rasmussen, and local business leader Ken Kalesnikoff. One of the most critical issues facing the industry, they said, is the fibre supply. Between cuts in annual harvest allowances, forest fires and economic uncertainty, supply lines that feed the mills are being threatened. …“I’ve never seen the supply as bad as it is now,” added Kalesnikoff, whose company now buys up to a quarter of its logs from the United States. “At this time, we have about two weeks of supply.” The men asked the RDCK to pass on their message to provincial leaders at next month’s Union of BC Municipalities conference.

On Friday, provincial officials said 131 structures, including homes, were razed in the Shuswap region. …If this were Australia, which relies on a massive army of volunteer “firies” to respond to brush fires across the country, locals like Mark Libera might be trained and contracted as volunteer firefighters. But instead, tensions flared between Shuswap residents who say they felt abandoned by the B.C. Wildfire Service and government officials. That’s led to calls for more wildfire resources… [but] no one can agree on what those resources should look like. Some have called for Ottawa to establish a national wildfire service with trained crews that can be sent wherever needed in the country. Premier David Eby said he’s more in favour of an Australia-style volunteer fire service. …Michael Flannigan, an expert on wildfire behaviour and landscape fire modelling, and NDP MP Richard Cannings are among the loudest voices calling for a national wildfire service.

The Northwest Territories government now has a budget of around $100 million dedicated to 2023 wildfire suppression as it deals with the ongoing crisis. During a sitting hosted in Inuvik on Monday, MLAs unanimously passed a bill allocating an additional $75 million to the wildfire suppression budget for the financial year. That budget originally contained around $21.8 million. …“The Department of Finance is taking steps to ensure that the government remains in compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy, as well as how best to mitigate the financial impacts of the wildfire season.” …The minister said based on current estimates, the new budget should be enough to address this year’s wildfire season. ….Wawzonek added the NWT government has “all but wiped out” its surplus and is facing a “litany of problems,” including not just wildfires but also low water levels affecting the power corporation and barges.

James Steidle

Our boreal forests are changing.  More intense fires following in greater frequency are occurring from Alaska clear through to Quebec.  This is giving deciduous species like aspen and birch the upper hand in our unmanaged northern forests. This is an undeniable fact, but what I want to zero in on is how Americans feel about this shift compared to Canadians. Last week, Toronto writer Hannah Hoag wrote an article in the Globe and Mail. The headline was ominous. “As Canada’s boreal forests burn again and again, they won’t grow back the same way,” it says, before noting this shift “threatens to recur across Canada’s boreal forest.” …Compare that to Nathanael Johnson who wrote about the same conifer-deciduous forest shift in the American publication Grist two years ago.  You couldn’t come up with a more contrary headline: “Rising from the ashes, Alaska’s forests come back stronger,” it says.

The events of this summer are a harbinger of things to come, and it’s time for serious discussion on the climate crisis. When the cost to Canada of the wildfires, the floods and the drought are tabulated, the bill will be enormous and it will be a continuing fact in the future. First Nations people live on the front lines and the cost of the forest fires has been especially hard on our people. Whether it was the loss of property or weeks spent in evacuation centres, our people suffered and, in some cases, disproportionately. Earlier this month the federal government provided the Prince Albert Grand Council with half a million dollars to train firefighters. This two-year pilot project will be delivered by the Grand Council’s emergency and protective services program and will provide both traditional knowledge and modern firefighting techniques. This type of approach should be repeated across the country.

A two-year pilot program in Saskatchewan aims to build a better understanding of the needs and requirements of First Nations in regions affected by wildfires. The federal government recently announced a program for fighting wildfires in the Prince Albert area specific to the region’s Indigenous communities. The two-year training initiative — billed as the Prince Albert Grand Council Indigenous wildfire stewards pilot program — looks to combine traditional and modern techniques for combating wildfire. At least one expert believes it will help to better mitigate devastation. “Individual communities require individual responses,” said Krystopher Chutko, an assistant geography and planning professor at the University of Saskatchewan. “What happens in (Saskatchewan) can be very different from what happens in any other community in Canada.” The program, receiving nearly $525,000 in federal funding, is scheduled to start in 2024.

The B.C. Wildfire Service has confirmed it temporarily reassigned crews fighting fires in the province’s Shuswap region after protesters showed up at an RCMP roadblock in what police say was an effort to “overwhelm” the blockade. Police say the protesters challenged officers at the blockade on the Trans-Canada Highway, after “threats of violence” against emergency workers prompted the Mounties to increase their presence there. Some residents of the Shuswap in B.C.’s Interior have been refusing to obey wildfire evacuation orders, prompting officials to warn that they are putting lives at risk and compromising firefighting strategies. …The tensions over the evacuation orders that cover about 11,000 people in the Shuswap. …The group dispersed after about an hour. RCMP say in a statement that officers de-escalated the situation safely, without incident.

In related coverage:

• Black Press: RCMP condemn convoy that wanted past wildfire blockade
• Global News: Shuswap residents “feel like criminals” over tensions with authorities

Bowinn Ma

North Shuswap resident Kyle Boppre offers a simple explanation when asked why he defied an evacuation order issued as a wildfire bore down on his neighbourhood. “It’s just, I guess, in my blood to fight,” he said. “We were able to save our home.” Boppre and others in the small communities that dot the Shuswap region’s waterfront felt like they were on their own, with no choice but to take the firefight into their own hands. But authorities say that their actions put their lives at risk and imperil firefighting strategies. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Wednesday the unwanted presence of evacuation scofflaws could prevent tactics such as water-bombing or controlled burns. …Trent Tucker, a professor at Thompson Rivers University, lost his home to the fires. He said it’s entirely irresponsible for people to stay back in evacuation zones, and he’s “extremely upset” by stories “lionizing” those who defy evacuation orders.

In wake of the most recent wildfire disasters, including the devastation the island of Maui and parts of B.C. continue to experience, it is high time to reflect on an ecological approach to forest management. …Nowhere is that argument clearer than in B.C., where government data shows forest sector emissions generated in the last decade are greater than all industry sectors combined. The province has taken that information one step further, stating in two recent government reports that B.C. must change forest management practices so they support prioritizing ecosystem health and resilience over timber. …Throughout history, priority has been placed on finding opportunities to log the last valuable trees in existence. …The only solution to this new wildfire reality is changing our perspective on forest sector carbon emissions and that starts with putting ecologically driven forest management policies into practice.

Canada’s current wildfire season is devastating evidence of the effects of climate change, scientists say, but for some conspiracy theorists, the thousands of square kilometres of burnt ground isn’t enough to convince them. Instead, space lasers, arsonists and government plots to restrict people’s movement are some of the causes of the fires, according to fringe online circles. …these theories are widely circulated and boosted by social media algorithms. …Kawser Ahmed, professor at University of Winnipeg, said almost all conspiracy theories have a spark of truth but are distorted to attract attention. Forest fires, he said, are spectacular events that draw attention before the full facts come to light, and conspiracy theories fill in the gaps. But such theories harm those who are fleeing the fires and those who are fighting the blazes, he noted. …Kennedy said conspiracy theories can cause diminishing trust among people, which could reduce compliance with evacuation orders.

Wildfires have already burned a hole through the wooden wallets of BC. …It is the practice of the provincial government to focus firefighting efforts on areas where homes and other structures are in danger of burning. In the past, that has meant that parcels held by First Nations for their future financial sustainability over decades have been erased in a matter of a couple of weeks. …“Unfortunately, the active wildfires in the Quesnel and Williams Lake regions are affecting several tenure holders, including a First Nation held tenure by the name of Yun Ka Whu’ten Development Limited Partnership, and Tolko. …The largest forest products manufacturing company in the region, West Fraser Timber, has also been affected. The cultural, ecological and recreational losses are virtually incalculable, as is the amount of greenhouse gases emitted without purpose.

Bruce Blackwell

Fire suppression in the areas where homes touch on wilderness has made tremendous progress since recommendations two decades ago in a seminal report sparked by a devastating wildfire season in B.C., according to experts who contributed to that report. But experts add that much more work is needed on the prevention side to protect communities, another key recommendation of the report, called Firestorm 2003. …Bruce Blackwell, a longtime forestry consultant, said that 20 years ago there was no co-operation and co-ordination between city fire departments that protect structures and the B.C. Wildfire Service. Now their operations are integrated. And he pointed to resources from other city fire departments from all over the province that poured into Kelowna in the past week… “On the suppression side, I would say what’s going on in Kelowna has been exceptional. From that perspective, we’ve certainly made tremendous progress,” said Blackwell, who contributed to the 2003 report.

Bruce Ralston

B.C. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston blamed local governments for slow progress on reducing wildfire risk in-and-around their communities. But experts have said there isn’t enough funding to make substantive progress. …Asked during a wildfire briefing about the slow pace of clearing wildfire fuel in communities where homes touch wilderness areas, Ralston pointed to “well-developed” provincial funding programs to which municipalities and First Nations can apply to carry out the work. They can be the difference between successfully extinguishing a fire and seeing a fire … do profound damage to a community, said Ralston. …Experts put the blame on the province for a lack of progress on fire prevention, saying funding available to communities in no way matches the need. A Postmedia investigation also showed local governments faced obstacles to access funding and an overwhelming bureaucratic process.