CBC - Forestry Regulations Allow Huge Amounts Of Slash To Remain For Years, Boosting Western Fires

[hatrack]

After managing the fight against last summer's massive Shovel Lake fire, a member of the B.C. Wildfire Service had a major complaint about what he was seeing on the ground. He'd noticed large piles of logs and other woody debris lined up along roads in the wildfire zone near the northern community of Fraser Lake, west of Prince George, B.C. He suspected all that timber was helping the fire spread and intensify, and filed a complaint with B.C.'s forestry watchdog, the Forest Practices Board.

"The complainant told the board that he has worked throughout the province and has never seen the amount of debris that he saw at the Shovel Lake wildfire," an investigative report from the board says. But as it turns out, every logging company in the area had met their legal requirements under B.C.'s Wildfire Act for clearing out wood and debris.

That's a problem, the watchdog says. The current rules allow forestry firms to wait too long and leave too much wood on the ground, and the board is asking the province for changes. "If [the time frame] could be reduced, you'd basically improve your chances of fighting fires in those areas," the board's chair, Kevin Kriese, told CBC. "If they can reduce it even a little, that would be helpful."

EDIT

The Shovel Lake fire was sparked last July and eventually burned through 922 square kilometres, forcing evacuations, destroying buildings and threatening the Fort St. James National Historic Site. It was one of the biggest wildfires in B.C.'s worst season on record.
Forests in the area had been hit hard by the mountain pine beetle — trees killed during an infestation can fuel particularly intense wildfires. Combine that with the effects of climate change and the results are potentially catastrophic, according to the board. The annual allowable cut for the area around the Shovel Lake fire was increased in 2002 in an attempt to deal with beetle-killed trees and potentially head off the threat of fire. The impact of that plan was complicated in 2004 when the Wildfire Act came into force and extended the deadline for dealing with logging debris by almost a year from the previous limit of 19 months. The reasoning for the extra time was to give the pellet industry a chance to come in and collect the woody leftovers, according to the board's report.

EDIT

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-wildfire-logging-regulations-1.5087361

[IndyOp]

1. Hmm. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day?

We should all go out with rakes, shovels, and vacuums, huh?