Region Archives: Canada

A Parksville-area helicopter company is off to fight forest fires at night in Alberta, which will be a Canadian first. The crew from Ascent Helicopters arrived in Alberta on Sunday to do some initial training with personnel there, according to Trent Lemke, owner of Ascent Helicopters. Ascent has experience doing search and rescue and air ambulance operations at night, but this will be the first night-time firefighting contract, he added. “Alberta will be the first province to do so,” Lemke said. “No one has fought fire at night in Canada, in the U.S. they do it quite a bit.” Ascent’s purpose-built tanks on the bottom of their helicopters, combined with night vision use will bolster forest fire fighting efforts by allowing crews to “action” a blaze throughout the night, Lemke said. “If it’s a high-priority fire you can stay with it, where traditionally we’re pulling off just before dark,” he said.

Barb Thomas

A research team at the University of Alberta is looking into why some trees in Alberta are more resilient when faced with drought, disease and the risk of wildfires by sequencing tree genomes. …The genome Alberta resilient forests project, led by U of A professor Barb Thomas are using the genetic makeup of trees to map out the genome for pine and spruce trees. “We measure populations and make assessments and measurements … to produce progeny that could then be used for reforestation,” Thomas said. …The Genome Alberta Resilient Forests project is already getting a lot of attention from the province and timber industry. “We are working to understand the impacts of the changing climate on the forest and are supporting research into the genetics of trees that appear to be better adapted to the future climate,” wrote Richard Briand, chief forester for West Fraser’s Alberta branch. 

Two special videos are coming from the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN) — “a 2-part documentary focused on the unique stories of Indigenous forestry workers.” Part One launches May 9 on IRN’s YouTube channel. …The BC government has committed to a policy of encouraging and enabling greater First Nations participation and more Indigenous partnerships in the industry. …We hope the IRN video tells us more. Because, sadly, the policy has become yet one more factor in the uncertainties affecting the sector. And at this point, the outlook of BC’s forest sector is a full of red ink and red flags. …BC has been implementing bans on, or deferrals of, much old-growth logging, with consequent impact on the industry. And the province has been pushing for more “value-added forestry” — more “high-value product lines…”  But that will be, at best, a painfully slow advancement. And if there is less wood cut, does that not mean more challenge for value-added forestry? 

UBC Forestry and the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence are excited to announce the Wildfire Coexistence in BC: Solutions Symposium, in partnership with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science at UBC Okanagan! This Symposium will bring together British Columbia’s leading wildfire experts and practitioners to highlight the urgent need to develop a transformative vision and implementation strategy for wildfires before it is too late. We will shed light on the profound impacts of wildfires and tremendous costs to the BC population, emphasizing that the 2017‒2023 fire seasons were not an anomaly but a new and escalating reality fueled by climate change. Join us June 3-5, 2024 at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna and learn about the stark realities of the societal, health, cultural, environmental, and economic costs of wildfires across British Columbia and the actions needed now.

ALBERTA — Impending clear-cutting of treasured hiking and biking areas near Bragg Creek will be done responsibly, Alberta’s minister of environment and protected areas said Tuesday. But conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts say they have their doubts, and insist logging two large blocks in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas is also economically dubious. Forestry company West Fraser said it’s going ahead in the fall of 2026 with logging what could be nearly 900 hectares of forest in a recreation zone less than an hour from Calgary. They have provincial government sanction to do so under a 20-year forestry management plan, but only under sustainable conditions, said Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz. “My department is concerned with ensuring we are protecting the environment, that environment standards are upheld, that we’re looking at impacts to water, wildlife, air and biodiversity — so those are the kinds of things we look at before projects move forward,” she said. 

Related coverage in CBC: West Fraser to host open house on contentious logging plans

The reservoir at Mountain Station, which feeds all the water pipes in Nelson, is not really a reservoir. …“Our reservoir is actually the snowpack, along with Five Mile Creek and the other creeks,” Chris Johnson, the city’s manager of community planning, climate and infrastructure says. The West Kootenay snowpack is only at 72 per cent of normal this year. But a low snowpack is not necessarily a threat to Nelson’s water supply, says Johnson. “We could still have a spring and summer such that enough precipitation falls that ensures the creeks continue to run strongly throughout the dry season.” Should Nelson be worried about its drinking water supply over the long term, in light of the lower snowpacks caused by climate change? It depends on the interactions of a multitude of factors including snow, rain, temperature, the aspect (north or south facing) of the watershed and how much forest cover it has.

The Sunshine Coast Streamkeepers Society, the Roberts Creek Official Community Plan Committee and Elphinstone Logging Focus and individuals have contacted BC Timber Sales (BCTS) with concerns about the agency’s plans within the Sunshine Coast business area over the next three years. Those who have not yet submitted comments have until May 4 to do so. A public BCTS notice provides links to mapping and details on proposed cutblocks, tree retention areas and road sections. Just over 1,200 hectares are slated to be included in 64 cutblocks within BCTS’s map area 1214 (which includes areas on the upper and lower Sunshine Coast) from May 2024 to May 2027. …Streamkeepers pointed out, “logging the Roberts Creek headwaters will change the natural hydrology of the ecosystem of both the forest and the numerous upper main tributaries.”

The decision on whether to list, further delay or forego the auction of logging rights for TA0521 (Joe Smith Creek cutblock) “will be coming in the next few weeks” according to an April 24 email from the Ministry of Forests to Coast Reporter. Documents posted on BC Timber Sales’s (BCTS) website had the auction listed to occur by March 31. In the email the Ministry stated “initial timelines for cutblock decisions were estimates only. The Ministry will take as long as is necessary to ensure the proper reviews are conducted before decisions are released.”  On April 25, Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) ended an over three-week protest presence in opposition to logging the site at road access to the cutblock, just off the B & K logging road in the Roberts Creek area. Spokesperson Hans Penner told Coast Reporter the group would stand down “for now,” while it would be “keeping a close eye on BCTS’s sales list.

Summer is just around the corner and for much of British Columbia that now means dealing with the looming threat of wildfires. But for one Abbotsford company it is their time to shine. Conair Aerial Firefighting, located on the Abbotsford International Airport grounds, is a global leader in the battle against wildfires and continues to grow. The company boasts the third-largest fleet of any company in Canada, with 70 aircraft taking on challenging situations all across the planet. They have been used for years in places like B.C., Alaska, Alberta, Australia, France and Washington State. Conair also recently announced a new deal to work with the Saskatchewan provincial government to battle fires in that area. Conair invited the media and government officials to tour their facility on April 26 and learn more about both the production and training aspects of the company.

The Skattebo Education Forest is located on the east shore of the Kootenay River between Nelson and Castlegar, just south of the community of Glade. Classes from natural resource diploma programs visit Skattebo to participate in field trips where they collect forest, fisheries and ecosystem data and learn to interpret this information. Skattebo also provides Selkirk Innovates researchers with the perfect location to test new technology and techniques in projects that benefit local communities, industry, and the environment. Principal investigator Dr. Brendan Wilson leads this suite of forestry intelligence research. “We’re very excited about the work we’re doing in Skattebo,” says Wilson, “because it connects learning with real-world applied research.” Skattebo research projects are currently testing methods to identify individual trees in the forest, quantify common forest stand metrics, determine canopy heights, determine tree health status, identify cones for seedstock, assess understory fuels and more.

B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has launched a new tool to engage the public during environmental assessments, empowering people to have a more meaningful impact on the decision-making process for major projects proposed throughout the province. EPIC.engage is a new engagement platform designed to improve the overall experience for people providing feedback during the public comment periods of an environmental assessment. …“Public engagement is a critical part of our environmental assessment process and of transparency. It provides valuable information about proposed major projects in BC,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. “EPIC.engage makes it easier for the public to provide information that is both helpful and might otherwise be missed during the technical process of an environmental assessment.” Providing feedback is anonymous. The platform protects the identity of commentors while verifying that are not “bots” or people seeking to undermine a project or the assessment process.

The April newsletter includes:

• 2024 BCCFA Conference & AGM, June 11 – 13 in Mackenzie, BC: Conference sessions, accommodations, field trip, and carpooling.
• Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit review and report.
• BC works with communities to boost wildfire prevention, preparedness
• Updates from the Forest Investment and Reporting Branch
• Commercial Thinning  – A Practical Guide for Woodlot Licensees in the North-Central Interior of British Columbia 
• Fire is medicine –  Westbank First Nation’s Ntityix Resources – Home of the Westbank Community Forest 
• Kootenay Community Forest Seeking a Mill Manager

Climate change, not habitat loss, may be the biggest threat to the survival of threatened caribou herds, new research suggests. “We might need to do additional management actions if our goal is to conserve caribou,” said Melanie Dickie, lead author of the study. For years, biologists have pointed to sustained industry-caused damage to the old-growth forests preferred by caribou as the reason the species is now threatened. …But climate change has also been at work in the forests. Slowly warming temperatures have greatly expanded the range in which whitetail deer can thrive. …Using an extensive network of camera traps that captured tens of thousands of images of whitetail deer, the researchers concluded that the north-south temperature gradient made a much larger difference to deer density than the east-west differences in human disturbance. …If Dickie’s paper is correct, no amount of tree-planting and cutline remediation will be enough.

In a historic victory for the Nuchatlaht First Nation, the Supreme Court of BC has recognized the aboriginal title to more than 4 square miles of land on Nootka Island, including a pristine salmon lake, salmon stream and forest that had been threatened by industrial logging off the west side of Vancouver Island. The ruling by Justice Elliott Myers recognized Nuchatlaht’s title to the remote coastal strip of land. With the ruling, the Nuchatlaht Nation of just 160 people has become the second-largest aboriginal titleholder in B.C. And the Nation is just getting started: Nuchatlaht is weighing going back to court on appeal for acknowledgment of a far larger claim. …Nuchatlaht’s victory marks the first time a B.C. trial court has recognized a First Nation’s aboriginal title of its ancestral territory.

Central Okanagan Public Schools offers alternate learning options that extend beyond sitting on a chair behind a desk. One such different learning path is the school forestry program offered at Rutland Senior Secondary under the instructional leadership of teacher Marshall Corbett. Jayden Shkrabuik and Nova Kidder, both enrolled in the program, appeared before the Okanagan Board of Education on April 24 to illustrate how their participation in the program has forged new career paths they never previously envisioned. Both talked about the learning excitement that comes from being outdoors four days a week and the lessons in life they are exposed to while learning about trees. …Local forest companies like Gorman Bros. and Tolko have also been partners to the program, providing logs for students to develop their chainsaw operation and equipment maintenance skills on at the RSS wood compound, a familiar site to school visitors at the southeast corner of RSS.

Angela Davidson

British Columbia’s highest court has ordered the Green Party of Canada’s deputy leader to be released from custody pending her appeal of a 60-day jail sentence (issued April 24) for her role in old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island. Angela Davidson, also known as Rainbow Eyes, was convicted earlier this year of seven counts of criminal contempt for breaching a court injunction blocking protesters from disrupting logging activities in the Fairy Creek watershed. …Davidson filed an appeal of her sentence two days later, and was ordered released on bail Monday pending the appeal hearing, according to the B.C. Appeal Court and the B.C. Prosecution Service. A spokesperson for the court said the Crown did not oppose granting Davidson leave for appeal, nor did it oppose granting her release from custody pending the appeal hearing. Davidson said her efforts to “braid the laws” of the Crown and Indigenous communities will continue.

I am not against saving old-growth trees — but I am against the ridiculous statements that keep getting thrown out there. Every tree planted is on its way to be an old-growth forest. The existing old-growth forests don’t last forever, as some would like you to believe. Some trees last a long time and others not so much. The end game is not years, but hundreds of years. Take large areas of new forests and plan to make them old-growth forests. …Compensate the owners and get on with it. All you keep hearing is how the old growth will never come back. How the biodiversity will be destroyed and never come back. Well, think about it. Fires have, since the dawn of time, destroyed the forests and the biodiversity. They came back. At one time, there was 1,200 metres of ice covering all B.C. …That probably lasted thousands of years. It all came back, didn’t it?

Todd Loewen

Two additional air tankers and two-night vision-equipped helicopters are being added to the province’s list of equipment to be prepared for wildfire season 2024. These pieces of equipment are contracted out. Alberta now has three-night vision helicopters on hand. As wildfire behaviour is usually subdued at nighttime with lower temperatures and higher humidity, Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen says the two additional helicopters will help with overnight operations. An additional $14 million will be going to the Community Fireguard Program administered by the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta. The program is in place for communities so they can clear areas to make fire breaks by cutting off fuel sources that could potentially drive towards infrastructure, properties, or other values at risk. There is now $19 million in place for the Community Fireguard Program.