Green Mountain fire could bring threat to habitat of rare marmot

A wildfire adjacent to an important habitat for Vancouver Island marmots was 40 per cent contained on Monday.

The blaze on Green Mountain, southwest of Nanaimo, began with a suspected lightning strike on Friday. It grew to 16 hectares and was attacked by 45 firefighters and four helicopters with the B.C. Wildfire Service. “While the fire is still listed as out of control, crews are making very good progress on it,” said Dorthe Jakobsen, a fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre in Parksville. She said that the difficult terrain around the site of the fire makes progress slow for crews on the ground. She doesn’t expect the situation to change much for the next few days.

The blaze has concerned the Marmot Recover Foundation, as the location is adjacent to a wildlife management area that is home to the Vancouver Island Marmot, a critically endangered herbivore. According to the foundation, they were told Monday afternoon that although the fire had intruded half a hectare into the management area, fire crews were confident that it would not spread further.

Cheyney Jackson, the foundation’s field co-ordinator, said the potential loss of forage is a major concern. “We’re now in August and marmots start to prepare their bodies for hibernation at the end of this month to start hibernating potentially in September, October,” she said.

“So they have this really narrow window to sort of prepare their bodies to gain enough weight to be able to survive their next hibernation. So we’re obviously wanting to confirm that they’re going to do well, that there’s still forage available for them at that location and, if not, that there’s somewhere for them to go.”

In the long-term, the fire could actually have a positive impact by restoring marmot habitat, Jackson said. The animals need open spaces so they can spot predators and hide from them. But with climate change, trees are encroaching into areas where they might have been unable to survive previously due to heavy snow and avalanches.