Archie MacDonald

Murray Wilson

Retired foresters Archie MacDonald and Murray Wilson presented at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board meeting in Salmon Arm. The two retired foresters, with more than 35 years experience in the forest sector, said British Columbia’s forests are in poor health and in dire need of a new management prescription to reduce future frequency and intensity. “We have become increasingly frustrated about the misinformation and doom and gloom being spread about wildfires and are equally concerned about the lack of any meaningful measures being put forward by the provincial government to combat wildfires,” said MacDonald. “This is concerning because 95 per cent of the province is Crown land and the vast majority falls within the jurisdiction of the provincial government.” While frustrated with the province’s management, MacDonald said he and Wilson are encouraged by the programs in place at the community level designed to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.

Mike Flannigan

KAMLOOPS, BC — A wildfire expert at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops is tipping his hand on a national wildfire response. Mike Flannigan says he can see the BC Wildfire Service working together with a National Wildfire Service to help speed up the deployment of crews and resources from other parts of the province, during extreme wildfire situations. Flannigan says this as he points to a recent poll, suggesting 75 per cent of Canadians support a wildfire fighting effort. “I could see a national one working in those extreme periods and be hand and glove with the BC Wildfire Service. …“BC does not have enough crews to deal with 100 new fire starts in 24 hours, but calling in help, ahead of time would hopefully let us deal with it.” …Additionally, Flannigan suggests a national response would also reduce the need to call in international crews to help.

BURNS LAKE, BC — The province has initiated a wolf cull near Burns Lake as part of a predator reduction activity to protect the endangered Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd. …Confirming the wolf cull activity in the area, Octavian Lacatusu, Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship public affairs officer spokesperson, said the Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd is located in west-central B.C., approximately 50 kilometres southwest of Burns Lake. He said that the herd is designated as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, which was why the wolf cull was initiated. …He said that the decline of southern mountain caribou across B.C. has been attributed to extensive habitat change leading to a shift in the predator-prey dynamics of caribou. In the Tweedmuir range, he added that the mountain pine beetle epidemic, associated salvage logging, and large wildfires have contributed to significant landscape disturbance.

• The BCCFA 2024 Conference & AGM will take place in Mackenzie, BC on June 11 – 13. Registration will open March 18, sponsorship opportunities are available now. 
• Climate Change Adaptation Project The Harrop Procter Community Forest (HPCF) now has a real climate action plan with clear management priorities and site-specific treatments. They want to collaborate with other interested Community Forests to do the same in order to scale up and refine methods.
• A series of educational wildfire risk managment films To reach and interest a broad audience on it’s wildfire risk reduction work, HP partnered with the Province of BC and Columbia Basin Trust to produce a series of short films.
• Landscape Resiliency and Wildfire: A Primer for Collaborative Dialogue In November 2023, the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative (MWI) at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue organized a two-day workshop in Williams Lake.
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