12 hours ago
B.C. logging industry needs to do more to cut wildfire risk, report finds
British Columbia's forestry industry isn't doing enough to help prevent cut the risk of wildfires, a new report has found.
The report, released Thursday, caps a two-year investigation by B.C.'s Forest Practices Board, and concluded that much of the problem is based on outdated rules and unclear responsibilities.
The probe looked at forestry activities between 2019 and 2022 in the Sea to Sky, Chicotin and Peace regions, specifically in interface areas deemed 'high' or 'extreme' wildfire threats.
The wildland-urban interface is a roughly two-kilometre area where human development, such as homes and infrastructure, meets or intermingles with wildland vegetation.
'It's been a well-known area of concern in the province for making communities safe from wildfire,' Keith Atkinson, chair of the Forest Practices Board, told Global News.
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'Is our work helping or hurting risk reduction in the wildland-urban interface?'
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Among the report's key findings was that important fire hazard assessments at forestry sites were often late or incomplete.
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Fewer than a quarter of such assessments were completed on time, while 30 per cent didn't meet legal content standards, according to the report.
The report also raised concerns about fire abatement work at logging sites, a process that includes chipping, piling and burning debris to reduce fire risks.
It found that while a majority of operators are meeting their obligations, about one-third of the cutblocks the board reviewed failed to meet their legal requirements or else needed more work to comply on time.
It also raised concerns about the current Wildfire Regulation, which allows companies to leave logging debris on sites for up to 30 months, meaning flammable debris can be on the ground through multiple fire seasons.
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'In today's environment, we know the risks are high, we know the climate, the drought conditions really bring attention to that risk as being too high, and we think that should change,' Atkinson said.
'Policies should change to require them to abate that problem as soon as possible.'
Municipalities, meanwhile, are not currently included in the province's legal definition of interface zones.
'This omission undermines risk reduction and can contribute to fuel hazards sitting unabated near communities for multiple fire seasons,' the report concludes.
'Fuel hazards closer to the interface must be assessed and abated sooner.'
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It also notes that maps of legally defined interface areas, which lay out how and when forestry companies must do fire hazard assessment and abatement, aren't available to the public, making it hard to verify and enforce compliance.
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Forest Practices Board is making five recommendations it says would encourage the forestry industry to more actively reduce wildfire risk, modernize guidelines and improve coordination.
Those include setting new proactive fire management objectives for the interface zone, rather than simply preventing new hazards, and speeding up fire hazard abatement timelines to 'as soon as practicable' rather than the current 30 months.
'Right now, a licensee can operate but just don't increase the risk of hazard,' Atkinson said. 'We're really saying you need to reduce that risk… If you are going to go in there and do work, part of the result should be a reduction in risk, not just the status quo.'
The board is also calling on the province to update the legal definition of the wildland-urban interface to include municipalities and other high-risk populated areas, and make those maps public.
The province should also create a publicly accessible hub of wildfire risk reduction plans, and revise and update its 2012 fuel hazard abatement guidelines, the board says.
