Region Archives: Canada West

In the forests of BC a series of studies from the past 30 years contends that large, old trees send resources and messages to the seedlings around them. The “mothering” can, hypothetically, help burned landscapes recover faster, boost the amount of carbon dioxide stores in soil, and improve the resiliency of natural systems overall. The idea seems to borrow from bedtime tales about ancient trees and the enchanted forests they foster. …But two papers have recently called into question the evidence. …A paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution in February reviewed 26 studies that look at the ability of underground fungal networks to transfer resources and if mother trees send resources to young plants. …Justine Karst, a professor at the University of Alberta… “This sort of popularized idea of their role and how they work with these fungi as these passive conduits in the soil doing things under the direction of trees, there’s just not really evidence for that.”

Jennifer Gunter

The provincial government recently announced that immediate steps are being taken to help protect rare forest habitats, as well as expand forest management and planning through public engagement. The changes come after extensive consultation with First Nations, professional associations, and other stakeholders. Most notably, forest licence holders will be required to publish forest operations maps the public has access to. A digital version is currently being tested, with full functionality expected by 2024. “Providing people with an easy, user-friendly tool to view maps of local forest operations will help to promote transparency and information sharing,” said Jennifer Gunter, executive director of the BC Community Forest Association. “Forest operations maps have the potential to improve public confidence in our sector across the province.” While no date has been given, the requirement for licence holders to publish forest operations maps will go into effect soon, giving the public insight into proposed cutblocks and roads.

RCMP suspect a series of wildfires near Sayward on northern Vancouver Island were intentionally lit and investigators are seeking public assistance. Sayward RCMP said they became aware in June that a series of wildfires near Sayward were human-caused and may have been intentionally lit. The most significant of these fires are the Newcastle Creek Fire, which is currently 230 hectares but is being held, and the recently-discovered Browning Creek Fire, which is much closer to town and, as of 4 p.m. on July 4, is out of control. Other fires, since suppressed, were along the Memekay, White River and Big Tree Mainlines logging roads. RCMP Island District General Investigations Section has taken conduct of the investigation. …Anyone with any information about any of the burning or suppressed wildfires in the Sayward area are asked to call the Island District General Investigations Section at 250-331-6010.

…As wildfire season persists, ongoing debates about the leading cause of the fires is sparking tension among the already embattled Alberta, with some claiming arson while others saying climate change, researchers are pointing to weather and sharpening forestry management as a key to combating future wildfires. …Devon Earl, a conservation specialist at Alberta Wilderness Association said that the provincial government and forestry companies have said the solution to managing wildfires is to cut down older forests because they are more susceptible to burning, but she disagrees. “Old forests and mature forests are actually more resilient to wildfires than younger forests,” Earl said. …But with the amount of industrial clear cutting that is happening, there are more young forests regenerating that tend to be more dry than older forests, making them more susceptible to an intense wildfire. …She said more prescribed burns would help mitigate the intensity of the wildfire seasons.

KAMLOOPS — With the two hottest months of the year still ahead, British Columbia has already lost more than 1-million hectares of forests to wildfires this year. That figure puts BC in the third worst wildfire season to date in terms of land lost. Despite the loss of forest, the fire season has not been as devastating for properties and communities as those prior. The fire danger rating in the Kamloops Fire Centre is currently listed at high, as temperatures across the region are expecting to rise through the weekend. …To assist with the fire danger, 160 firefighters from the United States and Mexico are expected to arrive in B.C. this week and be deployed to the Prince George Fire Centre. The units will be sent elsewhere in the province if the need arises. With the anticipation of fire starts, the Kamloops and Cariboo Fire Centres are re-enacting a campfire bans.

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.