By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
British Columbia’s forests are in poor health and in dire need of a new management prescription.
This was the message Archie MacDonald and Murray Wilson presented to Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) directors at the February board meeting in Salmon Arm.
The two retired foresters have more than 35 years experience in the forest sector in many roles and capacities. Their message to the board was primarily to present their solutions to wildfires, specifically about reducing their future frequency and intensity.
“We have become increasingly frustrated about the misinformation and doom and gloom being spread about wildfires and are equally concerned about the lack of any meaningful measures being put forward by the provincial government to combat wildfires,” said MacDonald. “This is concerning because 95 per cent of the province is Crown land and the vast majority falls within the jurisdiction of the provincial government.”
While frustrated with the province’s management, MacDonald said he and Wilson are encouraged by the programs in place at the community level designed to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.
“If we can’t influence the government to change their ways, all that good work will be for naught and we will end up with more and more ‘mega wildfires’ as they are now being called, and the associated smoke that goes with it.”
Macdonald reminded directors that 2.84 million hectares in the province burned in 2023, with wildfire suppression costs coming it at a reported $1 billion. But, he pointed out that total is for fire suppression only and does not include the cost of damage to property, infrastructure, loss of business revenue, loss of taxes, deaths or having to relocate people, and the mental health issues that come with wildfires.
MacDonald said that over the past 150 years, the province has become too good at preventing wildfires, with the effect that the forests have aged, become too dense and provide a huge amount of fuel which is easily ignited in extreme heat.
As well as providing too much fuel for wildfires, old forests offer less diversity and are more susceptible to disease, pests and drought, he added.
The solution, he said, is the creation of forest management practices that create younger and healthier forests that are less dense, include more diversity and allow openings and meadows to develop.
“As we will always have wildfires, if we can reduce the amount of fuel, we will have less intense fires, they will be easier to suppress and there will be less smoke going forward,” he said, noting the province seems to be single-issue focused on protecting old growth and creating more protected areas. “Unfortunately, this is contributing to our problem and, in fact, making it worse because it’s making our forests older.”
A retired research biologist with close to 20 years of working with ungulates in B.C.’s forests, Area D director Dean Trumbley was enthusiastic in his support for MacDonald’s presentation.
“We did a lot of work on forest fires and the role within the ecosystems, and you nailed it on the head,” he told MacDonald and Wilson, noting wildfires in the 1930s through ’60s used to be lot larger but burned slower, were less intense and reset the successional clock of the forests.
Because forests have been allowed to grow too old and dense, seeds that would normally be produced by a wildfire are being sterilized by the intense heat, there is less food at lower levels and ungulates such as moose, deer and elk numbers are at an all-time low.
Revelstoke Mayor Gary Sulz spoke of the great work being undertaken by the members of his local community forest but addressed the public demand to protect “old growth” forests.
“There is an incredible movement with lots of money behind it to protect all these things,” he said. “We’re not talking about how we actually keep fires at bay and managing things. It’s about protecting at all costs.”
Trumbley was quick to point out that old trees don’t equal “old growth” and that old-growth forests take thousands of years to grow.
“We need to understand that 90 per cent of our forests were not designed to become old growth, they were designed to burn on a 25-year cycle,” he said, noting his support for protecting actual pockets of “old growth” forest. “That’s the message we need to change - old trees are not old growth, it’s a very fundamentally different thing.”
CSRD Board chair and Salmon Arm rep Kevin Flynn called for scientific and expert-based solutions rather than those based on public opinion.
“This has been an issue through multiple governments and I have never seen a government ignore science and cater to special interests and the loudest voice,” he said, noting mill closures due to a lack of available fibre and the resistance when Salmon Arm attempted FireSmart efforts. “We have tried to clean up some of our parks and the outcry that we would would dare take down trees strategically and thin our parks is amazing. It’s almost scary and that’s what we’re fighting; it’s not about facts.”
The presentation concluded with the board directing staff to create a resolution to bring the matter to the Southern Interior Local Government Association, which meets this year in Kamloops in May.