Region Archives: Canada West

B.C. has announced a new $300-million fund to protect threatened ecosystems in the province. …The funds will be managed by the foundation and will be overseen independently from government by a special committee made up of experts, half of whom will be from First Nations. …”Conservation financing is a core tool that can help us to preserve options for the future and to advance our ability to properly manage, maintain and conserve ecosystem health, biodiversity and our oldest and rarest trees,” said Garry Merkel, co-author of the Old Growth Strategic Review. …Conservationists said Thursday they were pleased to see funding materialize. …Ralston also announced new forest landscape planning that replaces existing stewardship plans, devised under the Old Growth Strategic Review and in partnership with local First Nations. They establish objectives for the long-term management of old growth, biodiversity, climate change and wildfire risk, the government said.

In related coverage:

• Province of BC: Made-in-BC tool takes further action on old-growth forest
• Council of Forest Industries: Financing mechanism represents a new and innovative approach
• Sierra Club: This is the beginning of a huge shift toward conserving forests
• The Narwhal: Old-growth fund poised to grow with federal, philanthropic donations

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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. …If B.C. really wants to get serious about involving rural communities in fire management, it should dedicate funding to a First Nations and rural fire corps. Science cannot always pick up on all the subtleties of the land; this is where traditional and local knowledge becomes invaluable. …Before wildfires got this extreme, it arguably made economic sense — from a timber production standpoint — to transform the landscape into fully stocked conifer tree farms. …Broadleaved trees provide natural fire breaks that are much needed around communities and across the commercial forest. Since deciduous and mixed forests are of little interest to the forest industry, serious government incentives are needed for commercial forest practices to become climate-smart.

Erika Dort

Global trade, tourism and other forms of human movement are accelerating the spread of tree and plant pathogens between continents. …Climate change compounds this problem … trees have less resistance to disease—particularly infections from foreign regions to which they have no natural immunity. What if we could detect emerging diseases at ports and borders before they have a chance to spread? By using genomics and machine learning, UBC researchers have developed a method that can identify known tree pathogens, as well as assess the potential harm of a new, as-yet-unnamed fungus based solely on its genetic traits. This process can be completed in as little as a few hours, in contrast to other sample-analysis techniques that can take days. …With this predictive tool, we can help prevent potentially invasive plant pathogens from causing severe disease outbreaks,” says study author Erika Dort, a PhD candidate at UBC’s faculty of forestry.

James Steidle

This is part two of my firesmart musings. One thing we as a society have to watch out for is how bureaucracies will use a crisis like wildfire and its mitigation to spend more tax dollars on bloated government programs doing something that could be done for free. A great example is Forests for Tomorrow, a $50 million a year program ostensibly tasked with rebuilding our forests in the wake of wildfires and the mountain pine beetle infestation. But it is actively making the problem worse by brushing out the aspen and broadleaf on their “rehabilitated” plantations around town, including in the Bobtail Burn west of Prince George, a place where the aspen stood up to the blaze. …Maybe it’s not about forests or safety. Maybe it’s about spending $90 million on firesmart programs around communities, which according to the Union of BC Municipalities, could cost up to $11,225 a hectare.

Drax today announced a three-year partnership with Science World, which will bring STEAM education programs to rural British Columbia (BC) elementary schools, in alignment with Drax’s community funding to improve equitable access to STEM education and skills development in and around the communities where we operate. Science World is the leading science centre in British Columbia that engages learners across the province in STEAM education. Through the interactive hands-on exhibits as well as the organizations’ outreach programs, students, teachers and families across BC are inspired to be the next generation of problem solvers and world changers. …Drax’s partnership with Science World will focus on On The Road – the in-school community program that Science World develops and implements province wide. Through the On The Road program, students across the province have their curiosity of science piqued. The program also boosts science literacy and inspires future science and technology leaders.  

The BC Community Forest Association (BCCFA) and the Ministry of Forests have deepened their partnership to support the efforts of community forests in long-term wildfire resiliency activities and expansion of cultural and prescribed fire. New funding in the amount of $300,000 will leverage the work of the BCCFA and the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) accomplished in the 2021 BCCFA Economic Recovery Initiative. Through the initiative, 15 community forests received funding for various wildfire risk reduction focused projects and activities throughout the province.  “Over the past several years we have seen the disastrous effects wildfires had in our province,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “Now with this new partnership with the BCCFA, we are strengthening the defences of our communities against future wildfires.” The new funding will be directed at activities focused on the community forests’ engagement in wildfire mitigation and climate change adaptation. 

Woodlot licensees and forestry stakeholders from across the province will be meeting in ʔaq̓am this weekend, October 26-28, at St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino for the annual joint conference of the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations and the Woodlot Product Development Council. This conference comes on the heels of the worst fire season on record in B.C., at a time when the forest industry is at a crossroads, and when learning about engagement with First Nations is more important than ever. This year’s theme is ‘Engaging for Success, Striving for Resilience.’ Keynote speaker Paul Hessburg, a renowned forest ecologist from Washington and TED-talk speaker, opens the conference sessions on Thursday night, with a welcome by Nasuʔkin (Chief) Joe Pierre Jr. of ʔaq̓am, a member community of the Ktunaxa Nation.

The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia is entering a new phase in forestry education, thanks to the dedicated commitment of Mosaic Forest Management. A generous, multi-year commitment – marks an extraordinary step towards nurturing the future of forestry and underscores the pivotal role local industry plays in ensuring the vitality of British Columbia’s forests. In recognition of Mosaic’s commitment to forestry education and its profound impact on the future of the profession, the University of British Columbia honoured this partnership by renaming the main lecture theatre in the Forest Sciences Centre the Mosaic Forest Management Lecture Theatre (formerly the Fletcher Challenge Theatre). Mosaic’s contribution is a testament to their unwavering commitment to fostering the future stewards of our forests. These funds will provide hands-on learning opportunities for students, increasing public access, and engaging youth and kids in the natural environment.

An investigation by the Forest Practices Board into public complaints about livestock grazing in protected areas in the South Okanagan has found non-compliance issues and damage to the environment.  In January and July 2021, the board said it received two public complaints about grazing practices in the South Okanagan and White Lake Grasslands Protected Areas.  The complainants were concerned that legal requirements for range use and the construction of range developments were not followed, resulting in damage to the environment. The complainant also listed concerns about the government not enforcing legal requirements.  …For the grazing tenure area held by 69 Ranch Partnership, investigators found livestock caused damage to riparian areas around Blue Lake. However, the livestock causing the damage were in trespass and did not belong to the range holder. …n the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area, the board found the Ministry of Forests did not obtain the required authorization to construct 19 kilometres of barbed-wire fence and two water diversions.

The province-wide old-growth rally on Sept. 28 brought attention to the 14 recommendations the provincial government committed to implementing in 2020 to protect old-growth forests. …Shortly before the rally, Sierra Club BC, a provincial environmental advocacy group, issued a review of B.C.’s old-growth logging stating it had increased between 2020 and 2021, instead of decreased, as the government had previously announced.  The Discourse followed up with the B.C. Ministry of Forests about the number of old-growth logged, and the ministry responded with the same number released by Sierra Club.  “The most updated data shows that 45,700 hectares or 0.4% of the 11.1 million hectares of old growth in B.C. were logged in 2021 province-wide,” the ministry said in an email.  The province had earlier stated that the number logged was 38,000 hectares in 2021.  …The email stated that the main reason for their 2021 update was because it can take harvesting under permits one to two years to be completed.

David Eby

VICTORIA — A limited partnership between four Vancouver Island First Nations and one of British Columbia’s major forest companies [Western Forest Products] is being hailed as a path forward for the industry in the province. The Campbell River area First Nations are acquiring a 34 per cent ownership stake in the new partnership with Western Forest for $35.9 million, with part of the funding coming from treaty agreements with the province. Premier David Eby said “It’s a landmark agreement,” he said at a news conference. “What it’s really about is increasing the role of First Nations as stewards of their territories and driving stronger communities and greater economic development on northern Vancouver Island.” …Western Forest Products president Stephen Hofer said the partnership represents a new era for forestry in B.C.

Additional coverage in the National Observer (subscription required), by Rochelle Baker: New coastal First Nations deal maps ‘future’ of forestry in B.C.

…An atmospheric river brought much-needed rain to parts of southern B.C. last week, and seasonal cool weather has also arrived, along with some early snow. Prince George has dropped to below-freezing temperatures, and snow has been falling further north. As drought dries up B.C. rivers, conservationists turn to beavers for help But experts say the province has yet to escape the repercussions of hot, dry weather in spring, summer and fall. …The B.C. Wildfire Service says about 280 active wildfires are still burning across the province. Karley Desrosiers, an information officer with the service said the extended drought would probably see some large fires smoulder underground until more rain eventually puts them out. Desrosiers said in Prince George and further north, it will take longer for fires to be fully extinguished because the layer of fuel between the surface and mineral soil can be thicker there.

Predicting wildfires is a hot topic in the wake of this summer’s destructive season and UBC Okanagan researchers are at the forefront. For example, John Braun, a professor with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, suggests that today’s wildfire modelling technology could have helped reduce the impact of Canada’s most costly natural disaster, the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. He found that officials used a deterministic model to estimate that flames could reach Fort McMurray city limits by 11 p.m. on May 3, 2016, shifting resources too late to prevent the fire from forcing 88,000 people to flee for their lives and destroying 2,400 homes. …His research focuses on fire spread models and stochastic model that consider uncertainty, as opposed to deterministic models that only offer one likely conclusion. He argues that satellite data, drones and heightened consideration of topography can significantly improve fire models and help determine fire spread rates.

Alberta is investing in artificial intelligence in an effort to predict where a wildfire may ignite before it happens, a move its tech partners say could save up to $5 million a year. Ed Trenchard, a provincial wildfire management specialist, does long-term planning with communities and industry on how to mitigate risk, and also works on the ground. …Alberta’s wildfire agency has partnered with software company AltaML to try to predict where fires are going to start the day before they happen so they can better plan resources. The partnership is part of a larger grants program called GovLab, which was founded as a collaboration between AltaML, the Alberta government and Mitacs, a non-profit innovation hub. “It’s a next-day fire-likelihood forecast,” said Graham Erickson, senior lead machine learning developer with AltaML, which uses Microsoft’s Azure AI technology to build its own software.

West Moberly First Nations have filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition to protect the Anzac and Table River area from logging proposed by Canfor, claiming Treaty 8 rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have been breached. Specifically, West Moberly are challenging a cutting permit and road permit amendment issued September 26, stating they weren’t notified that Canfor had applied for the permits or that the province was considering issuing them, even after prior concerns that had already been raised to 133 other forestry-related permits. …West Moberly says the region would be significantly impacted by industrial activity. …According to the petition, Chief Roland Willson sent a June 13 letter to the province advising that West Moberly would impose a moratorium over all current or proposed forestry activities within the Chuu Xaadeslii region due to concerns with Canfor reports shared in January and October 2022.

KAMLOOPS — A research institute at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) that focuses on wildfires is coming closer to fruition. In a news release, TRU announced its senate endorsed an Institute for Wildfire Science, Adaptation and Resiliency during its Oct. 23 meeting. If established, TRU says the wildfire institute would spearhead studies and innovations aimed at preventing, mitigating, responding to and recovering from wildfires. Currently, TRU is home to B.C.’s first fire science research chair as funded by the province, a Canada Research Chair in Fire Ecology and an Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Chair in Ecosystem Reclamation. …TRU’s potential wildfire institute now moves into a final consideration stage by its Board of Governors at a future meeting.

VICTORIA – An investigation into public complaints about livestock grazing in protected areas in the South Okanagan has found issues including non-compliance with legal requirements and damage to the environment. In January and July 2021, the Forest Practices Board received two public complaints about grazing practices in the South Okanagan and White Lake Grasslands Protected Areas. The complainants were concerned that legal requirements for range use and the construction of range developments were not followed, resulting in damage to the environment. The complainant also listed concerns about government not enforcing legal requirements. The South Okanagan and White Lake Grasslands Protected Areas were established in 2001 to safeguard rare and endangered plants, wildlife habitat, and other ecological and cultural values. 

In the Woodland Almanac, the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations features:

• Swedish Woodlot Owners tour BC woodlots
• General Manager, Gord Chipman looks back on his first 9 months with the Association
• A look at LiDAR, GeoBC tree height data and the ‘new’ RESULTS interface by Tom Bradley
• Tips on streamlining government reporting for woodlot owners by experts Jaya Freeman and Heidi Walsh
• Update on the 2023 Woodlot Conference and AGM by Sarah Sutton
• Forest Investment Program (formerly known as Forests for Tomorrow) update by Samantha Charlton

Thirty years after the War in the Woods in Clayoquot Sound, career tree faller Bruce Hornidge’s memoir of events, Loggerheads, has hit the shelves. …In 1967 Hornidge joined MacMillan Bloedel’s Kennedy Lake logging division at Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He was still working as a logger when the “War in the Woods” hit Clayoquot Sound: a series of blockades and protests against clearcutting that drew worldwide mass media attention. …After more than two decades harvesting, Hornidge says he was “loggershamed” as a “tree-killer” and faced soul-searing losses of identity and livelihood, part of the human fallout of the inevitable move away from a resource-based economy. “My goal was a story that is truthful, personal, and encompasses many of the issues in this complex problem,” Hornidge says.“Three decades after The War of the Woods, we know what happened, and we’ve been told why. There’s a lot we were never told.”

Regulatory orders confirm transfers of natural-resource responsibilities between ministries to align with government priorities of reconciliation, resource stewardship and strong, sustainable economic development for people and communities.  Following the creation of the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship in April 2022, and in line with more recent updates to the focus of the ministry in December 2022, complete and/or sections of the following legislative acts are being transferred from the Ministry of Forests to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship:   Water Sustainability Act, Land Act, Wildlife Act,24 additional acts.  …Regulatory orders confirm transfers of natural-resource responsibilities between ministries to align with government priorities of reconciliation, resource stewardship and strong, sustainable economic development for people and communities.

After 20 years of discussions, and 145 years of displacement, the Tla’amin First Nation and Government of Canada have agreed to land negotiations.  Hegus John Hackett says today in a statement that seven generations of Tla’amin people have fought to restore their responsibility to the big river, and now they are the generation that has the chance to correct this historic wrong.  The centre of negotiations is tis’kwat, the nation’s historic village site near the river mouth. By 1880, the site had been illegally sold and Indigenous residents forced to live elsewhere. In 1912 Western Canada’s first newsprint mill was built on the site along with a hydro dam to power it.  The mill was permanently closed earlier this year, prompting a new opportunity for negotiations over the historic site.  Tla’amin Executive Council signed an Executive Order on October 18 accepting Canada’s offer to negotiate.

City of Powell River Council has approved more than $500,000 in Powell River Community Forest grants in the fall 2023 issue. At the October 19 city council meeting, council approved seven grants as recommended by the community forest. …Community forest funds allocated to these projects totals $524,732.81. Council voted unanimously in favour of the grants from the Powell River Community Forest reserve fund. …Councillor Jim Palm said that over 15 years, and with $25 million in contributions, Powell River Community Forest has provided significant benefit to the community. “Thanks to the community forest,” added Palm, “and thanks to the organizations for all the fine work they are doing.”

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.