In 2003, British Columbia suffered a season of severe wildfire.
The provincial government thus commissioned an investigation, which resulted in the “Firestorm 2003 Provincial Review.”
A key recommendation in Firestorm was for communities to create wildfire protection plans to reduce risk in and around their communities.
Risk reduction includes thinning timber, cutting underbrush and low tree limbs, and removing debris from the forest floor.
Such treatment is designed to keep fire on the ground and away from the tree canopy, which helps leave larger trees intact in the event of a fire.
But since Firestorm dropped, less than 10% of treatment projects have been completed, a Postmedia investigation recently exposed.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation has some ideas as to why this may be.
Reversing BC’s Firestorm
“As a proportion of the provincial budget, funding for renewable resource management is just a fraction of its historical level, declining by 75% between 1993 and today,” laments the BCWF, whose mission is preserving and enhancing the natural beauty and biodiversity of British Columbia’s wildlife and habitats. “We cannot conserve our land, water, air, and wildlife on a shoestring budget.”
The Wildlife Federation is therefore calling on the provincial government to better manage our forests to order to prevent excessive wildfire.
“At least 90 families are being forced to rebuild their homes and their lives,” the nonprofit wrote in a recent blog post, referring to the August fires in the Okanagan. “Could things have gone differently? The answer is yes.”
If the provincial government “reverses its short-sighted decision to defund controlled burns,” the BCWF believes that “future fire seasons could look very different.”
According to the organization, artificial fire suppression occurs in order to “protect merchantable timber.” This practice leads to unsafe fuel loads in the forest, “which result in wildfires that are more severe, more intense, and more difficult to control.”
Decades of this excessive suppression have resulted in huge amounts of fuel littering the forest floor, crowding out biodiversity and putting people at risk, the BCWF says.
“By putting out every fire on the landscape, we are creating forests that are bristling with fuel just waiting for a spark,” the blog post reads.
Fire is Good
Occurring naturally every five to to 30 years throughout much of BC, fire is good “under the right circumstances.”
“Fire is part of a natural process that rejuvenates grasslands and promotes biodiversity,” The BCWF explains. “Fire is an integral component of functioning and productive habitat for grizzly bears, moose, elk, mule deer, and sheep, and all those that share the landscape. Burns create food for wildlife by regenerating the soil and letting in sunlight, which creates ideal conditions for new plants and berries to grow.”
Using fire under expert management to rejuvenate the land poses “little risk to people and property,” the nonprofit posits.
“Wouldn’t you prefer a few days of smoke in April to the hellscape of uncontrolled wildfires that have become a sad routine for British Columbians?” the organization asks.
According to BCWF, “Prevention is always less costly than rebuilding after a catastrophe.”
“With proper funding and the commitment of our government to controlled burns and fuel treatment, future fire seasons need not be the ruinous events that have marred the last six years,” the organization affirms.
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