CRD is ignoring lessons of wildfires
Re: “Reduce damage from wildfires,” editorial, Sept. 6. The Times Colonist editor does a great public service in bringing to the attention of Victorians the very clear warnings made in Firestorm 2003, the provincial review by former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon on the firestorm that put the city of Kelowna in great peril.
Pages 29 and 30 quote this statement from the book Firestorm — The Summer B.C. Burned: “Professional foresters had predicted that a catastrophic fire would engulf Okanagan Mountain Park. The 10,000 hectares of forest had been left in their natural state untouched by fire for almost 50 years. The forest floor was covered by tinder. Blocks of standing dead trees grew bigger because falling them in B.C. parks is forbidden.”
Capital Regional District parks (yes, the CRD that is bringing taxpayers the costly sewage fiasco) has in its public documents proudly stated it intends to continue to impose the same proven-to-have-failed preservationist policy that created the Kelowna firestorm, as Filmon makes clear.
With one far greater danger: The fuel volume per acre is 10 times the volume per acre of Okanagan Mountain Park.
Old government and logging roads have been blocked and bridges deliberately destroyed in the Sooke Hills. Lack of road access meant that three pilots were killed trying to fight the Kelowna fire.
The Sooke Hills park is now a very real threat to the Victoria watershed and to all the western communities. Imagine trying to evacuate the Sooke area. Ian M. Sherwin Victoria