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The Dunster Community Forest Society, which also manages the Dunster Wildfire Brigade, has released a new wildfire dashboard for Dunster and the surrounding area, spanning through McBride and Cedarside. The dashboard will update alongside the BC Wildfire Service dashboard, but also includes links to the Regional District’s emergency alerts and a colour-coded legend showing thermal hotspots, volunteer firefighting boundaries, and local government properties, among other features. Dunster Community Forest Society administrator Marie Hyde said she made the dashboard to give residents an interactive database with more information than what the BC Wildfire Service dashboard offers on its own. She has previously made similar maps for the Dunster Community Forest using her experience as a geographic information systems analyst, which she says was useful for building the wildfire dashboard. “BC Wildfire Service, they usually just have a static map… And I thought, why not create an interactive one?” Hyde said.

BANFF – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s statements that it is federal mismanagement that is putting Banff under threat of wildlife were quickly disputed by Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno as “completely unsubstantiated.” Smith had a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Edmonton Thursday morning (March 20) and came out of the meeting with several demands, including energy demands, but also took a swipe at Parks Canada’s management of fires. “I made it clear that federal mismanagement of Jasper and Banff national parks resulted in last year’s tragic wildfire in Jasper and is endangering Banff, and the situation must be rectified immediately,” she said in a press release. DiManno said Smith’s characterization of federal forest and land management in Banff National Park is “completely unsubstantiated.”

Old-growth forest advocates rallied outside the office of Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar March 26, hoping to send a message of change. “We’re gathering to show the minister of forests that people need to seek an investment in an Indigenous-led, just transition to sustainable jobs, instead of continuing to stand by as industry giants abandon communities and log dwindling old-growth forests,” said Tobyn Neame, forest campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “In 2021, on average, 726 hockey-rink-sized swaths of old-growth were logged every single day, and there is no evidence that has dwindled,” Neame said… Awi’nakola Foundation, the Wilderness Committee and Stand.earth hosted the rally, which gathered upwards of 50 advocates. …“We are trying to directly engage with Minister Ravi Parmar. Unfortunately, the minister closed his office today – to not be here during the rally, and I think that’s a real missed opportunity for him,” said Tegan Hansen, senior forest campaigner at Stand.earth. 

A draft co-management framework and plan to manage North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve likely won’t be presented until sometime in 2026. The municipality and the Quw’utsun Nation (which consists of Cowichan Tribes, Halalt First Nation, Lyackson First Nation, Penelakut Tribe, and Stz’uminus First Nation) agreed in April, 2024, that they would work together to establish a co-management framework and plan for the forest reserve, and that work is still ongoing. North Cowichan’s communications director Barb Floden said the municipality and the Quw’utsun Nation issued a joint request for proposals to support the development of the co-management plan in February, which will be closing soon, and it is expected that the draft framework and plan will be ready next year. “The public will be kept informed of the process through joint statements and updates at council meetings,” Floden said.

28 students from Burnaby-based British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), all clad in hiking boots and high-vis vests, listen intently to the Squamish River Watershed Society’s Edith Tobe. Squamish’s Justin Perry stands nearby. He is an instructor with BCIT’s Forest and Natural Areas Management program. On this day, Squamish is their classroom. …These 28 students are about to graduate from the two-year diploma program that focuses on forestry, vegetation management and arboriculture to support sustainable community development. …Squamish isn’t the only stop for the students. They were in the Sea to Sky Corridor all week. …Julia Allards-Tomalin, BCIT program head in Forest and Natural Areas Management, notes that forestry attracts a diverse group of students. The program is usually half women and half men, she said.

Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar headed up Highway 5 on Friday, March 21 into the North Thompson. He visited with Clearwater’s mayor and council,  followed by a meeting hosted by Simpcw First Nation’s Kukpi7 George Lampreau and band council in the Village of Chu Chua near Barriere. The North Thompson Valley is predicted to be facing another critical wildfire season and according to an AI-driven data analytics company, AISIX Solutions Inc. Clearwater has been identified as one of the top ten Canadian “most at risk of wildfires given historical conditions”. …Minister Parmar had a number of stops scheduled in the Kamloops-North Thompson riding held by newly elected MLA Ward Stamer who is also the Opposition Forestry Critic in B.C. The ‘get stuff done tour’ also stopped in the Okanagan, Kamloops and Merritt on what is being labelled a ‘listen and learn tour’.