CALGARY —Beginning now, running through the end of October, permits will now be required for any debris burning in the province. With the evaporation of snow through the early part of spring brings extremely low moisture which can fuel fires early in the wildfire season. …Last year, Alberta saw 704 wildfires burn just over 3,269 hectares. That’s less than one per cent of total area burned when compared to the five-year average. Eighty-eight per cent of last season’s wildfires were human-caused. Alberta Wildfire will be deploying some new technology this season to help in the firefight, including: Exploring remote camera, drone and satellite technologies for wildfire detection and data collection; and implementing modern remote automated weather stations that provide real-time or hourly data rather than once or twice per day. …Alberta Wildfire also is putting together FireSmart Alberta … giving users information on nearby fires, fire bans, fire dangers, and more.

The Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society has raised the $400,000 necessary to purchase 40 hectares of forest from the Nelson Land Corporation. The goal has been to save the land from logging. …The campaign has had more than 1,000 donors, board member Andrew McBurney says, with an average donation of $350. The largest was $10,000 from a business in the region, with several other businesses donating more than 1,000 each. A recent art auction on Instagram raised $9,000. …The next step is for the society to transfer the money to the Regional District of Central Kootenay, which will gain title to the land and then transfer it to an established national conservation organization that is reluctant to have its name used until the ink is dry on all documents.

The Regional District of Nanaimo has been approved for a grant of $384,960 for Electoral Area Community Wildfire Resiliency Planning. The Community Resiliency Investment FireSmart grant, funded by the British Columbia government and administered by the Union of BC Municipalities, will enable the RDN to develop new Community Wildfire Resiliency Plans for each of the seven Electoral Areas within the RDN to reduce the risk and impact of wildfires. …Multiple community stakeholder groups will be engaged including First Nation communities, municipal partners, Electoral Area fire departments, BC Wildfire, Mosaic Forest Management, Islands Trust and others. Collaboration with key representatives will ensure that the plan reflects local knowledge and expertise and includes achievable actions that can be implemented under a common vision to reduce the intensity and impacts of wildfires and increase community resiliency.

Columbia Basin Trust is providing $1.35 million to three new, large-scale projects that will improve ecosystems in the Elk Valley and Lower Columbia sub-regions, benefitting locally significant species including northern rubber boas, bull trout and Rocky Mountain elk among others, and their habitats. The Ecosystem Enhancement Program is a five-year initiative that aims to maintain and improve ecological health and native biodiversity in the region through large-scale, on-the-ground projects with significant and measurable impacts. “This program is a model for how we can focus on local priorities by working together with First Nations, regional environmental groups and community champions that have the knowledge and solutions to local ecological challenges in the Basin,” said Johnny Strilaeff, Columbia Basin Trust President and Chief Executive Officer.

New research that focuses on the temperate rainforest stretching from California through B.C. to Alaska is helping scientists to understand how coastal environments will be influenced by our changing climate. Research … takes an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating land-sea interactions in the northeast Pacific coastal temperate rainforest (NPCTR) and evaluates the land-to-ocean flow of carbon and nutrients in the NPCTR, their influence on nearshore marine ecosystems, and how these connections are altered by climate change. …”Ecosystems don’t recognize borders,” says SFU forest ecologist Ken Lertzman, professor emeritus, who is part of the research team, along with …scientists from university, federal and provincial research agencies in Canada and the United States. “This is one of the first papers looking at how climate change affects the NPCTR as a whole and asking the big questions about how processes connecting and driving ecosystems will be changed.”

The ‘Namgis First Nation have signed an agreement to partner with the Province of B.C. on a modernized land use planning approach to manage the integrity of the ecosystems and natural resources in ‘Namgis territory. …Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests and Don Svanvik, ‘Namgis Chief Councillor, signed a government-to-government memorandum of understanding designed to help sustain the lands, waters, resources and wildlife “in a manner consistent with implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.” The agreement “will guide land use planning to protect and manage the integrity of the ecosystems”. …The Gwa’ni Project area encompasses more than 166,000 hectares, including the majority of the Upper and Lower Nimpkish Landscape units. Most of the area is within Tree Farm Licence 37, which is held by Western Forest Products.