Region Archives: Canada West

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.

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