Interior politicians call on B.C. to step up fire prevention
Municipalities want more controlled burns and clearing of old growth forests
Municipal politicians from B.C.’s Interior are appealing for more help from the provincial government to prevent wildfires from threatening their communities.
From prescribed burns to legislative changes to allow clearing in old-growth forest areas, they expressed their concerns to representatives from the B.C. Wildfire Service at a panel hosted by the Union of B.C. Municipalities on Thursday.
Since the start of April, about 1,200 fires have burned 1.2 million hectares of land in B.C., creating the worst fire season on record. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage was done across the province.
“The scale caught everyone by surprise,” said Cariboo Regional District vice-chair John Massier, whose region was hit hard by this year’s fire season.
Massier said there is a movement in favour of returning fire to the landscape in the form of prescribed burns. He said they work because areas that were burned 20 to 25 years ago were spared from fire this year.
“You can have a bit of smoke at an inconvenient time or a lot of smoke at a really inconvenient time,” he said.
Village of Granisle councillor Jim O’Farrell said prescribed burns conducted by the province would relieve pressure on small communities like his that don’t have big budgets to clear fuel from the forests. He wondered if the province had any plans to increase prescribed burns.
Madeline Maley, executive director of the B.C. Wildfire Service, said prescribed burning is a great tool and the B.C. Wildfire Service is exploring expanding its use.
“We would absolutely support using that in places that are right when the time is right,” she said.
After the panel discussion, Maley said there are areas that do prescribed burns with great success, such as Cranbrook and the Boundary region, which includes Grand Forks and Trail.
District of 100 Mile House councillor Bill Hadden said changes to legislation around clearing oldgrowth areas of fire fuel are necessary to successfully defend his community.
“It is an extremely important item for us,” he said.
Ian Meier, director of wildfire operations with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said it’s been a topic of conversation throughout the summer and it’s on the radar of the chief forester.
Meier said a B.C. FireSmart Committee was formed this spring with members of the wildfire service, Office of the Fire Commissioner, UBCM, Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C., Emergency Management B.C. and Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.
“This is the first time we’ve actually sat down and started to pull together and say we need to do this in a co-ordinated fashion,” he said. “We need to be really coordinated and we only have so much resources to get something done and we need to leverage our skills and expertise.”
Nelson councillor Robin Cherbo said his city has done fire mitigation but struggled with the number of different organizations and governments with which it had to negotiate.
Cache Creek councillor Wendy Coomber reminded the panel it’s not just about forest fires — her community has no trees to speak of, but the grassy hills around the village burned this summer.
“We can talk about mitigating trees and whatnot, but that’s not where it starts,” she said.