Region Archives: Canada West

A report from a United Nations body on environmental threats to Canada’s largest national park shows the urgency of the problems, says a spokesman for the First Nation that originally brought concerns about Wood Buffalo National Park to UNESCO. The document, released last week and the latest in series of examinations of the park on the Alberta-Northwest Territories boundary, reaffirms threats from dams, oilsands development and climate change. …The Mikisew Cree brought concerns about the World Heritage site, before UNESCO almost a decade ago. The park’s traditional users saw water levels dropping year after year because, they felt,of British Columbia’s upstream Bennett Dam. They also feared growing oilsands tailing ponds posed a risk to water quality. UNESCO responded in 2016, finding those fears well grounded. Ottawa developed an $87-million plan to better manage and monitor water in the park. The new report is an assessment of how well that plan is working. 

The City of Port Alberni has agreed to support a letter asking for the provincial and federal governments to create an official alternative access road into the community. The West Coast of Vancouver Island was mostly cut off after a wildfire forced the closure of Highway 4. A detour was opened up via Bamfield Main to Lake Cowichan, but this route was lengthy, with limited visibility, slow-moving traffic and lack of amenities. In response, Nuu-chah-nulth nations… drafted a letter calling on the Governments of Canada and B.C. to “make immediate investments” in securing a permanent second access road. …The letter also asks for more investments in wildfire resources, including a contract with the Port Alberni-based Coulson Aviation. …“Two large corporations not only control our access out into the forest, but now they control access in and out of our community,” said Douglas, referring to Mosaic Forest Management.

NELSON, BC — A significant piece of Nelson’s wildland urban interface has a moderate wildfire behaviour threat or higher, according to a new community wildfire resiliency plan written for the Heritage city. Around 15 per cent of the wildland — a one-kilometre wide section of the forest around the city — is subject to the threat of wildfire behaviour, the report by Bruce Blackwell and Associates and John Cathro warned. “This, along with other analyses presented and discussed throughout the document, indicate that wildfire is a real threat to Nelson and its wildland urban interface,” Blackwell wrote. Nelson has begun planning and preparing for a wildfire emergency, he added, but should refer to the community wildland resiliency plan (CWRP) on how to continue this process effectively. …Last year, changes to the format of the CWPP places more emphasis on resilience and preparedness.

VICTORIA — Strategy shifts are urgently needed to cut the risk of catastrophic wildfires in B.C. forests that threaten to decimate ecosystems and communities, says the B.C. Forests Practices Board. The board is calling on the provincial government to undertake a “paradigm shift” in how it manages forests, saying wildfire risk mitigation currently focuses on areas near communities, but leaves the wider forest landscape severely vulnerable. The report comes as the largest wildfire in the province’s history, the Donnie Creek wildfire, continues to burn out of control in the remote northeast. “The key is there’s an urgency to this,” board chair Keith Atkinson said. “We’re obviously experiencing, maybe, our most severe year in front of us.” The Donnie Creek fire, about 150 kilometres southeast of Fort Nelson, is an example of a catastrophic wildfire that impacts few people but will cause lasting damage, he said. …Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said in a statement the report was a call to action to prevent wildfires.

Additional coverage in Castanet by Colin Dacre: ‘No short-term fix’: B.C. forestry watchdog urges wildfire mitigation

Stanley Park’s trees are struggling as drought conditions and a looper moth outbreak have combined to wreak havoc on the population. The dead trees are spurring calls for the park board to start preparing for the worst. Even more concerning, the Vancouver Park Board hasn’t updated its forest fire risk mitigation plan for the park since 2009. The 2009 report predicted that the hemlock looper moth posed a substantial risk to the forest — a risk that has become a reality in the past three years. “About 20 per cent of the standing tree canopy is dead trees,” said Tom Digby, a Vancouver Park Board commissioner. “The whole city is anxious about what that could mean for possible combustibility and fire in the park.”

The BC Wildfire Service says drought conditions in the province are expected to get worse this summer as the weather continues to heat up. This week, temperatures in the Lower Mainland are expected to reach upward of the 30° C mark, with temperatures feeling like 35° in parts Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, the service notes that several regions in the province broke new records for “their driest Junes.” “Average temperatures were one-to-two degrees warmer than normal for the Interior of B.C., while coastal conditions were close to average,” the service says. “Not only was it warm, but it was dry,” Matt MacDonald, the lead forecaster with the BC Wildfire Service, added. …It’s unlikely that people will be able to have an open campfire anytime soon, as the service adds more widespread fire prohibitions will be coming. There are various bans in place, including a campfire ban that covers most of the Coastal Fire Centre.

BANFF NATIONAL PARK, AB – Climate change is causing wildfires to become more frequent and more severe across Canada, threatening our health, economies, and wildlife. Parks Canada announced the upgrading of a National Fire Equipment Cache in Banff National Park, through the construction of a new facility that will act as a central equipment storage location and augment equipment reserves across the country. Specialized fire management equipment will be maintained in a state of readiness where it can be quickly deployed to Parks Canada administered places across Canada or shared with provincial and territorial partners through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

Last week, I was out on the logging roads east of town with a local guide outfitter, checking out the cutblocks.  We went out, camera in hand, to illustrate for people how logging practices and reforestation needed to change to help wildlife.  There was a big area near the Bowron River that was intensively logged in the 1980s, a smaller sibling to the massive Bowron Clearcut further south, where we were headed.  They made some big cuts, planted mostly pine, then they sprayed it.  …We had come expecting to find the result: a 30-35 year old pine plantation that we could complain about. You know the ones — monoculture pine farms, weird ecological anomalies in what should be mixed spruce country. …But we were in for a surprise.  One of the cutblocks we had come for, logged in 1989, sprayed twice, the last time in 1998, had been recently “commercially thinned.”

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George exists in the middle of an enormous forest and this city’s mayor wants to act on that. He hopes to create a community forest. “I would like to see the community forest large enough to go along with the other community forestry around this area. McBride, Mackenzie, Burns Lake. What we should be doing is putting all our resources together, to be able to attract some secondary manufacturer to add more value to the forest,” said Mayor Simon Yu. McBride has had a 60-thousand-hectare community forest since 2007. Even the College of New Caledonia has a community forest. “I think the mayor has got the right idea of where you would locate a community forest in the Prince George region. I wouldn’t know offhand, but I think the strength of the community forest is they are linked, as the name implies, to the community,” says Bruce Ralston.

People responding to a survey asking about the impact of Canfor’s closure of it sawmill here say the wood under licence to the company should stay in the area, regardless of whether the company builds a new facility or not. “Respondents express concern over the transportation of logs to other communities, potentially providing employment elsewhere while their own community grapples with a short of job opportunities,” indicates comments in the survey conducted by the District of Houston this spring. The survey, which resulted in a needs assessment of the local industrial workforce, queried the impact of the mill’s closure on citizens and what people needed to gain new employment or otherwise adapt. There were 133 respondents with approximately 80 per cent of that total living within Houston.

B.C.’s largest recorded wildfire is burning through the traditional territory of three First Nations, destroying everything from graves to hunting grounds and culturally significant landmarks.  “It’s very heartbreaking. I’ve seen some of our people tear up and cry from that,” says Timber Bigfoot, a member of the Prophet River First Nation and the community’s land and environment manager.   He calls the Donnie Creek wildfire “catastrophic.” The fire is now bigger than Prince Edward Island.  It’s burning more than 100 kilometres away from the communities of both Fort St. John and Fort Nelson.  …The list of his community’s wildfire losses is long: Trappers’ cabins and trap lines. Hunting and fishing grounds. Archaeological sites and traditional trails. Rare diamond willow that’s gathered for ceremonial smudging. Cranberries, huckleberries and blueberries. Beaver, wolves, moose and elk.

Wildfires threaten almost half (45 per cent) of all public lands in B.C. and the direct cost of suppressing them averages $1 billion annually in Western Canada, with costs trending upward.  Those figures appear in a new report from the Forest Practices Board, B.C.’s independent watchdog for forest and range practices. The board audits forest and range practices on public lands and makes recommendations for one of the most important industries in the province, but one also facing threats from multiple directions.  Titled ‘Forest and Fire Management in BC: Toward Landscape Resilience’, the report calls for urgent changes to the management of forests.  Keith Atkinson, board chair, said fire prevention and suppression policies over the past century have led to a buildup of fuel in forests, contributing to the loss of natural firebreaks in some areas.

B.C.’s largest wildfire on record now eclipses the entire area of Prince Edward Island, and experts say after it’s done burning, there could be a commercial rush for burnt timber that could further change the landscape for the worse. The Donnie Creek wildfire is burning over 5,715 square kilometres as of July 2, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. Mike Flannigan, professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University, said …the Donnie Creek wildfire has charred enough land to count as the fifth-worst fire season of all time in the province all on its own. “It will continue to burn for weeks and probably until the end of the fire season. It may actually burn through winter, smouldering in deeper organic layers, and then pop up”. …Flannigan said that, for fires as large as Donnie Creek, it’s best to let it burn out and let “Mother Nature do her thing.”

In a new special report, the BC Forest Practices Board is calling for a “paradigm shift” in how forests are managed to deal with catastrophic wildfire. “The path forward relies on an immediate response from the provincial government involving acceptance, alignment, and action from multiple government ministries,” states the report. Ending the war on deciduous tree species like aspen is made clear throughout the report. “Another example is that aspen stands burn at a lower intensity than conifer stands, but reforestation obligations currently prioritize establishing conifer stands,” it states. …The report points out new legislative changes that allow for BC’s chief forester, Shane Berg, to “consider preventing, mitigating and adapting to impacts caused by significant disturbances to forests and forest health, including wildfire.” …“I’m thankful the Forest Practices Board is finally taking the failure of forest management seriously,” says Steidle. “The war on deciduous, all the spraying, must stop. 

Two years after protests against old growth logging in Fairy Creek, B.C., activists are battling court cases and companies are feeling economic impacts. Andrew Chang and CBC’s Kieran Oudshoorn discuss the protest’s legacy. 

The City of Quesnel has been testing a unique way to help prevent wildfires by enlisting the help of 132 cashmere goats to graze on vegetation in the Fire Management Trails area for about a month, until mid-July, to see how livestock might help mitigate fire hazards. In 2021, the city opened the three-kilometre Fire Management Trails within the fuel management demonstration forest, adjacent to the Quesnel Airport, to educate residents about wildfire prevention. The 31-hectare forest was categorized as a high-risk wildfire area when Quesnel established its community wildfire protection plan in 2019. The plan aimed to reduce the threat of wildfires by selectively removing trees and grass while ensuring the long-term health of the forests. Erin Robinson, Quesnel’s forestry initiatives manager, said it’s the first time the city has involved the goats, which are from the Vahana Nature Rehabilitation in Kimberley, about 585 kilometres to the southeast.

Alberta contractor Backwoods Forestry Solutions is switching gears, going from logging solely for the oil patch to logging for the forest industry. …Backwoods Forestry Solutions has taken on a logging contract with an Alberta forest company to supply 100,000 cubic metres of wood each year for five years, with the potential for another 50,000 cubic metres. According to Becker, the company is also in discussions with several other forest companies. Headquartered in Edmonton, this business endeavor is only one division of several operating under the Backwoods umbrella, and owned 100 per cent by the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation situated near Gunn, Alberta, about 60 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. For nearly two decades, Backwoods was a partnership between the Alexis Nation and a private investor, but in 2021 they bought out their partner.

VICTORIA – A new report by B.C.’s Forest Practices Board is calling for urgent action by the provincial government to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in British Columbia. The report, Forest and Fire Management in BC Toward Landscape Resilience, highlights an urgent need to change how B.C.’s forests and landscapes are managed. “Fire prevention and suppression policies over the past century have led to a buildup of fuel in our forests, and have contributed to the loss of natural firebreaks in some areas,” said Keith Atkinson, chair, Forest Practices Board. “These shifts, combined with forestry policies and climate-change effects greatly increase the risk of catastrophic wildfire. We’re already seeing the consequences this year, with its unusually early start and record-setting wildfires.” Provincial government data indicates that 45% of public land in BC is at high or extreme threat of wildfire. 

Additional coverage in the Ladysmith Chronicle, by Wolf Depner: Wildfires threaten almost half of all public lands in B.C: report

BRITISH COLUMBIA — Cutblock DL1313, locally known as the Reed Road Forest, won’t see any logging this year. …“It appears that we have a year’s reprieve from the logging of DL1313, but permanent protection of this valuable forest is yet to be secured,” Sunshine Coast Regional District Area E (Elphinstone) director Donna McMahon. “This parcel was part of a watershed reserve established in the 1940’s but was added to the BCTS Timber Supply Area in 2013 without public consultation. …Public input on the plan can be provided up to August 25. In the plan’s cover letter, it is stated that “site specific comments or concerns of potential impacts to your interests can help BCTS relate your comments to our operations so we are better able to assess them and, where appropriate, manage for these values in our final plans”.

T’Sou-ke First Nation Chief Gordon Planes… has seen how industry and now climate change are affecting the animals, fish, marine life, trees and plants — and human beings. So his nation is supporting a new initiative by Parks Canada and an Indigenous-led partnership that will see local knowledge used to conserve ecological corridors on the coast from Victoria to Tofino that link up with parks and protected areas to stem the loss of biodiversity and key species at risk. …Steven Guilbeault announced $525,000 in funding to support a pilot project by the Indigenous-led Westcoast Stewardship Corridor, a group formed in 2020 to brainstorm the big picture of healthier ecosystems. …“We’ve seen the changes over the years and we know it’s going to be a big project to change a forest because of logging practices over the decades,” said Planes.