Horrific scenes of the wildfires savaging the Los Angeles area are familiar to British Columbians, reminding us of similar sights in West Kelowna in 2023 and Jasper National Park last year.
B.C. and Quebec are among the provinces that have sent water bombers, helicopters and other equipment along with skilled and experienced fire fighters to help our Californian friends.
But as we look at these scenes of destruction in Pacific Palisades, we should be mindful of the upcoming 2025 wildfire season here at home, and what can be done to prevent or dial down the effects of wildfires in B.C.
The provincial government has dramatically increased spending on wildfire fighting, making the service a year-round effort. In 2023, B.C. spent nearly $1 billion fighting wildfires.
What if a small portion of these expenditures—say 10 per cent—were redirected to forest management practices that prevent fires?
One proven practice is “fire guarding” communities, big and small. This common-sense strategy removes much of the brush and small trees that fuel the big wildfires we have seen in recent years.
Creating these fuel-free zones around communities and neighbourhoods stops a fire in its tracks because there is little or nothing to accelerate their rapid and enormous growth.
In 2024, a delegation of professional foresters from B.C. toured Finland to see what we could learn from how others manage their forests. Finland is a good comparison: It is roughly the size of the B.C. Interior, has a similar climate and geography, and has many of the same tree species.
Over the last 10 years, Finland has lost an annual average of 323 hectares of land to wildfires. Over the same period, B.C. has lost an annual average of 407,000 hectares.
Why this vast difference? Finland has practised intensive forestry for decades. Foresters regularly enter stands to remove weak or damaged trees and much of the scrub and brush that covers so much of the forest floor here at home. This fibre is then directed to nearby pulp and paper mills or community bio-energy plants. No fibre is wasted.
The result is a forest stand comprised mainly of healthy, green, growing trees that are fire-resistant. The stand is also spacious, allowing fire-fighting crews to enter to quickly access fires and knock them down. Our B.C. forest stands are so dense and thick with brush that access is tough and slow, giving too many fires time to consume fuel and gain size and strength.
Another Finnish practice is to maintain logging roads, which are broken down and “put to bed” here after harvesting in an area is complete.
Maintaining those roads provides natural fire guards and allows crews and equipment to quickly and readily access areas where fires have started, once again saving time that otherwise sees fires gain strong and growing footholds.
Intensive forestry, Finnish style, is practised in a few places in B.C., and there is certainly growing awareness in Victoria of the tremendous role this can play in stopping wildfires before they get going. What is also important is the economic benefit such a system could provide to one of B.C.’s keystone industries: Pulp and paper production and export.
Access to a sustainable and secure source of fibre is the No. 1 challenge facing B.C.’s forest industry and the largest cost item to pulp and paper operators, which comprise one of our biggest and most successful export industries.
The fibre from the regular thinning of stands around our communities can fill this shortfall while reducing and even eliminating the need to harvest “green” trees to make up a mill’s fibre supply.
Community groups, First Nations and entrepreneurs can all find opportunities to protect their communities and support a vital local industry. Intensive forest practices like thinning and brush removal ticks all the boxes, providing jobs and economic benefits, and creates forests that are more healthy and fire resistant.
We should acknowledge what we can all do to prevent wildfires through the adoption of proven forestry practices that others have shown can make a remarkable difference.
Joe Nemeth is general manager of the BC Pulp & Paper Coalition, which represents the province’s pulp sector and its 20,000 workers.
