Fighting wildfires—at the community level

Local governments in B.C. are doing what they can to reduce the devastating effects wildfires can have on forests—and the communities within those forests.

By Jim Stirling

Containing wildfires in the British Columbia Interior has become a year ‘round preoccupation. Spring, summer and fall have become characterized in many regions by wildfire fighting, smoke concentrations and evacuation alerts and orders.

In the winter, when the fires are finally subdued, the work shifts to designing systems on a landscape level, to help prevent fires from spreading and reducing their impacts on people, communities and infrastructure.

It can be a daunting process, as the wildfires have become larger and more unpredictable in their behaviours. Before the end of August 2018, wildfires had burned about 13,000 square kilometres of forest land in B.C., eclipsing the previous record set just one year earlier. Just how many of those square kilometres represent losses from the working forests inventory varies from region to region. But on the heels of the mountain pine beetle epidemic and with the warming climate stimulating insect populations endemic to other species, the fires are creating significant negative impacts on the forest industry’s near and mid-term timber supply prospects.

Local governments on several levels are taking on increasing responsibilities to do what they can to mitigate the often devastating effects wildfires have on the landscape. The governments work in concert with the province and the forest industry which in most areas in the interior is a major employer and key contributor to the local and regional economies.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) has adopted a planned and co-ordinated approach toward wildfire mitigation.

Nora Hannon (left), wildfire mitigation supervisor for the Regional District of Central Kootenay in southeastern B.C., says wildfires have always been an issue in this part of the province, but not on the level of the last couple of record-setting years.

“The Regional District of Central Kootenay is located in southeastern B.C. and is a very mountainous area,” outlined Nora Hannon, wildfire mitigation supervisor for the RDCK, based in Nelson. There are long, deep lakes between the mountains and the area is heavily forested with mixed timber stands of fir, cedar and pine. Wildfires have always been an issue in this part of the Kootenays but not on the level of the last couple of record-setting years, explained Hannon. “It’s definitely a concern.”

She pointed out that historically the regional district concentrated on small operational treatments to retard forest fire spread and its potential effects on regional communities. “Then more recently elected officials mandated wildfire mitigation measures on the landscape.” It has resulted in more regional co-ordination with creation of wildfire protection plans.

The RDCK has been successful in applying for and receiving funding for wildfire mitigation projects from the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. The agency was formed by the B.C. government in February 2016 with the objective of enhancing forest resilience to wildfire and climate change. The Forest Enhancement Society began with an $85 million funding allowance.

The trend now is toward prescriptions and treatments on a larger scale, continued Hannon. The process involves considerable consultation with other groups and government agencies including the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operation and Rural Development, forest licencees, utilities and first nations. “We’re building off that collaborative planning process through pilot projects with district licencees for on site level prescriptions in 2019,” she added.

With so many parts of the B.C. Interior smoke-filled for often weeks at a time during the last two summers, the public is urging governments at all levels to define and mandate a cohesive policy toward wildfire mitigation. The issue was the subject for several resolutions presented by local governments to the 2018 Union of B.C. Municipalities’ annual conference. The resolutions ranged from calling on the province to fund rural and First Nations fire departments—often the first responders to fire risks—to urging the provincial government to re-assume its responsibilities for managing Crown land. The present situation has the offloading of responsibilities to local governments ill-equipped and underfunded to handle them.

It was the Elephant Hill wildfire of 2017 that traumatized the community of Clinton, located in the Thompson-Nicola Region, and led to the creation of a blueprint for wildfire recovery. The Elephant Hill fire originated near Ashcroft and travelled north and up and on to the south Cariboo plateau and the village of Clinton. For about 49 days, Highway 97, the main route north, was subject to closures and its residents directed by evacuation alerts and orders. The wildfire took about 84 days to contain, by which time it had consumed about 192,000 hectares.

The Village of Clinton hired two consulting firms to help it form a Wildfire Recovery Plan for the village after assessing the economic, environmental and social impacts the fire caused: Iverson & Mackenzie Biological Consultants, Lac La Hache, B.C. and R.W. Gray Consulting Ltd., of Chilliwack, B.C.

Economic drivers impacted by the fire included West Fraser’s Chasm sawmill and the Clinton & District Community Forest. Both sustained substantial fibre supply losses. The community forest sustained an estimated 15 per cent reduction in timber supply.

The recovery plan’s first recommendation for the short and medium term was to: “Implement wildfire protection strategies within the Village of Clinton, bylaws and policies to protect and safeguard property in the village boundary from urban interface wildfire.”