An Impact Of Wildfires In British Columbia
On July 7th in British Columbia (B.C.), there were 56 new wildfires that started close to some neighboring communities to large cities. Some of the fires started close to the cities of Kamloops, Prince George, Kelowna, Banff, and Vancouver Island, B.C. In July, the fires in British Columbia were originally assigned a high Danger classed rating. This rating means that there is a serious fire risk, that forest fuels (such as trees, grass, twigs) are extremely dry, and that new fires can easily start, will burn strongly, and will be challenging to extinguish. The B.C. wildfires have continued to burn for two months. As of September 12th 2018, about 3,200 residents have been removed from their homes. According to Global News, on September 17, 2018, almost 1.349 million hectares of the province of B.C. had been burned by the forest fires. This square footage of burnt forest exceeds the record set in 2017. On Monday, September 17, 2018, there are 11 large, serious fires burning in the province. On September 7, 2018, B.C. cancelled the province wide state of emergency which had been place since August 15, 2018. B.C.’s main industries that are affected by the forest fires include the forestry industry (lumber, pulp and paper, tree cutting/forestry.), mining, tourism, and agriculture/farming. “Our main industry is really tourism, you know, mountain biking and hiking,” said Scott Sommerville, chief administrative officer at Kimberley, which issued an evacuation alert late Thursday that remained in place on Friday afternoon.
Relative to the rest of the Canadian provinces, British Columbia (B.C.) has a lot of trees. B.C. has a lot of old trees. Some of the trees are as old as 250 years old. The lodge pole pine can live lives of about 125-150 years. Western red cedar, yellow cedar and mountain hemlock can live up to 1,500 years. A birch or poplar tree live a much shorter life of about 50-60 years. A subalpine fir and white spruce can live from 200-300 years. The Douglas-fir can live 300-500 years. According to the CBC, “There are hot and dry conditions, as well as occasional thunderstorms, have created perfect conditions for wildfires in the province [British Columbia].”
When there were no European people in North America, forest fires were not as common as they are today. The fire removed small seedlings and dead plants, while allowing more fire resistant mature trees to grow. When these forest fires stopped occurring, the trees in the B.C. forests started to become drier, the forests became denser, and plants competed for the scarce water supply. The high cost of living in large urban centers such as Vancouver, B.C. has caused, housing developments to form in forested areas which are more likely to be affected by forest fires. It is believed, that before the 1600s, forest fires occurred every two to 15 years depending on the year. In the past few centuries forest fires have been more frequent in North America. According to a firefighter from the Kamloops Fire Center, some of the fires in the area were believed to have been caused by humans. “The fire is believed to be a result of some sort of human activity, so they’ll be completing an investigation out there.” In addition, climate change is responsible for creating fire seasons that are longer, drier and at more of a risk due to lightning strikes.
Between 1984 and 2015, increasing temperatures, have resulted in the occurrence of forest fires in 4.2 million hectares of forest in the United States. Climate change has also resulted in earlier spring seasons. As a result, vegetation begins to regrow earlier and dry out earlier in the year. Water sources also dry out easily and create a perfect condition for a forest fire to occur. The B.C. wildfires have created significant smoke, which has affected the air quality in some parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and even in Manitoba. The presence of smoke and particulate in the makes it difficult for people who have respiratory issues and who are young and old to breathe. Many animals such as bears, caribou, wolves, etc. are forced to move away from their habitats and ecosystems to new habitats and ecosystems. This creates a problem or an imbalance in the ecosystem, because there could be other animals in the same ecosystem that will fight for dominance. When, a bear is forced out of its territory because of a wildfire the bear will move in search of a new home. That new area may previously be occupied, if the land is already taken the bears will fight over the territory. Usually the weaker bear will need to find another territory that is further away from its home and the bear will be in search of food. The new area may not have food sources available for the animal to eat, so the animal starves.
Angelika Langen is a woman who treats hurt and injured bears wounded by forest fires and other factors and she nurses them back to health. If the animals are not cared for they may die which will result in the extinction or a species or fewer number of a species living in an ecosystem. There have been 2,050 fires reported since April 1st, the fires have cost B.C. $450 Million CAD. These funds come from Provincial and Federal tax funds and from Not for Profit Originations such as The Red Cross. While it is important to help, it is important for governments to address the damage from a natural disaster that could be used for other causes and programs. On September 12th 534 fires were burning across the province. 3,200 people have been removed from their homes due to the wildfires. 21,800 people are on high alert, but they have not been asked to leave their homes.
During the past six months, there were 1,024 fires started by lightning. This year there were 443 forest fires that have been started by humans. In total, there were 1,467 fires this year. In the small community of Telegraph Creek in B.C., 30-40% of their buildings in their community have been destroyed by the fires. Wildfires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of trees and filled the sky with thick smoke have put companies in B.C.’s resource and tourism industries on high alert. The RCMP said a 30-year-old Calgary woman has died of injuries she suffered in a fall while hiking Saturday afternoon. The friends say visibility in the area was poor at the time due to heavy smoke from wildfires raging in British Columbia. A man has died in the wildfire fight on Vancouver Island. WorkSafeBC confirms the man was found dead in a vehicle south of Nanaimo on Monday night. He was not a firefighter but it is believed he died while making a delivery to the firefighters battling the blaze. While emergency services are working overtime to battle flames and safely evacuate people from dangerous areas, many other sectors feel the effects of the fires. The transportation sector has had to re-route many of its regular lines and in some cases, has had to stop running in some parts of the province. "It's a very big impact and it's much greater than that. There's four sawmills that are shut down because of the wildfires." While 30 jobs at DCT are affected, even more are impacted at the sawmills where people aren't working because they're busy evacuating their homes. "And then there's the loggers that can't log because it's too dry in the forest to operate now and too risky to bring logs in." He added that the loggers are often off longer, waiting for rain to saturate the overly dry conditions. "And the ripple effect of loggers not working means that the sawmills are at risk of running out of logs and shutting down because they don't have any logs to process, which means then we're back off work again when they're not running," he said. "CN is working closely with Emergency Management BC, and other parties engaged in fighting the wildfires to protect people and rail infrastructure," stated Kate Fenske, with CN Rail.
