Wildfire season is here. Dozens of fires have already sparked in British Columbia this season — and many more are expected to ignite as spring turns to summer, and drought conditions persist. The province says it’s been preparing for this summer for months, purchasing new firefighting equipment and recruiting firefighters in advance of what’s expected to be a “challenging” season. “We’re taking action earlier than ever,” provincial Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma said in a news release. …Meanwhile, the Ministry of Forests said it has upgraded its fleet of planes and helicopters, using $56 million allocated in the 2024 budget. B.C. doesn’t own aircraft, but instead contracts them out. The ministry says it has access to 40 aircraft, including airtankers, skimmers and heavy lift helicopters, on an ongoing basis. When short-term contracts are utilized during periods of greater need, they can have access to up to 100 aircraft. 

Jade Richardson

Fire departments along with local governments attended a summit that the province says will help prepare municipalities for the upcoming wildfire season. The summit was put together to build on recommendations from the premier’s expert task force on emergencies, the FireSmart Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit. This year’s summit was held in Prince George and minister of forests Bruce Ralston says the insight offered from all services after a devastating summer last year will help provide preventative measures this year. “Communities bring critical knowledge, skills and relationships to the table, and we’re growing their role in wildfire preparedness,” he says. “The summit is a valuable opportunity for hundreds of leaders and first responders from across BC to delve into the insights gained from last year.”  …ire information officer Jade Richardson of the Coastal Wildfire Service says so far the shortage of rain, and snowpack could mean an eventful season. 

Garnet Mierau and Alan Waters

In B.C., woody debris from timber harvesting was recognized as a very serious cause of wildfires dating back to the Bloedel Fire, (a.k.a. Sayward Fire or the Great Fire), which burned wildly out of control for more than a month and destroyed millions of dollars of decked and standing timber… For the next seven decades, the BC Forest Service made prompt and excellent fire hazard abatement a priority on Crown and private land alike, where logging occurred. …That all changed when the Wildfire Act and the BC Wildfire Service were created. …Many private landowners are not aware of the legal requirements for fire hazard abatement after harvesting because neither the Ministry of Forests nor BC Wildfire Service informs the landowner when they apply for a timber mark to harvest timber on private land. …How is this unacceptable situation allowed to exist when we are repeatedly facing more extreme wildfire catastrophes, year after year?

On a bright, mid-March morning Raymond James’s booming voice resonates through the crisp, spring air as he rallies his team for the day — two dozen men and women gathered in a field near the small community of Xwisten, also known as the Bridge River Indian Band. “Safety is the No. 1 thing for today,” James explains to the group of community members, volunteer firefighters, and crew members from the B.C. Wildfire Service. This use of fire is called prescribed burning, or cultural burning when it is harnessed by Indigenous communities to also meet ecological objectives, like restoring and enhancing traditional foods or medicinal plants. The land management practice was widely used by Indigenous peoples before colonization. In 1874, British Columbia became the first province in Canada to ban the use of fire in this way. The Bush Fire Act outlawed cultural burning and its knowledge was almost lost.

Three First Nations seek to protect treaty forest land and may take a logging company and the province to court. The Pine Creek, Wuskwi Sipihk, and Sapotaweyak Cree nations allege that the logging company Louisiana-Pacific did not have an approved forest management plan in place during their activity on Treaty 4 territory. These actions could violate the Manitoba Forest Act if the allegations prove correct. Chief Derek Nepinak of Pine Creek noted in a press release that “In 2012 Manitoba agreed to consider other logging practices to protect moose habitat, More than 12 years later Manitoba is still without a viable plan”.

For months, officials in Western Canada have been warning that this year could be a dangerous wildfire season, after a warm, dry winter and a lower than usual snowpack left conditions primed for ignition. This week, it appears the predictions may be coming true. In Alberta, the government officially declared the start of wildfire season 10 days early… allowing the province to issue fire bans to limit the risk. There have been five emergency alerts about wildfires already this year. BC’s first evacuation order of the season was issued this week as a fast-growing blaze, fanned by strong winds, posed an immediate danger to life near the District of Chetwynd. …The orders were all swiftly downgraded to evacuation alerts, but they represented the first in what wildfire officials know will be many more this year. [to access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]

Clear-cut logging of a heavily-used recreational area west of Bragg Creek will happen unless a public outcry forces the province to cancel it, say opponents of the plan. Starting in the fall of 2026, West Fraser plans on clear-cutting nearly 900 hectares of forest in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas that are laced with hiking, biking and skiing trails. Conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts say maps provided by West Fraser showing the overlapping of logging areas over numerous trails signals the final phase in the lead-up to the logging. …A PowerPoint presentation provided by the company lays out a timeline for public consultations, planning, and from October 2026 to April the following year “road and watercourse crossing construction, timber harvest, timber removal, log haul” with reforestation to follow. …An open house on the plan is being hosted by West Fraser on May 8. …Woodgate said it’s imperative for clear-cutting opponents to make their voices heard.

The Swampy Cree have met with all branches of government. There are three signatory tribes, Swampy Cree Tribe, The Pas Mountain, and Moose Lake. There are quite a few newly formed bands like IR20, IR21, that try to take over lands that belong to the long-established Swampy Cree Tribes. The government used the Indian Act to amalgamate. It called Indigenous treaties, it says we are not Indigenous. We are not Indian Act. We are the signatory treaties. Nation to nation as long as the sun shines, river flows, and grass grows. Why is the Saskatchewan government giving and signing off lots of acres of land for deforestation that belongs to the Swampy Cree Nation? No conciliation mean while crown corporations are selling the land to companies for logging, mining, and peatmoss processing. These activities are doing damages to the environment.

As the climate changes, animals are doing what they can to adapt. Researchers from UBC Okanagan—which includes partners from Biodiversity Pathways’ Wildlife Science Centre, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, the University of Alberta, and Environment and Climate Change Canada—wanted to evaluate why deer densities in the boreal forest are rapidly increasing. Over the past century, white-tailed deer have greatly expanded their range in North America, explains Melanie Dickie, a doctoral student with UBC Okanagan’s Wildlife Restoration Ecology Lab. In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther north. …As they conclude their study, researchers caution that what is good for the deer isn’t necessarily suitable for other species, such as the threatened woodland caribou.