Some experts are calling for more “beneficial fire” on the landscape, including cultural burns, such as one led by Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs in northern B.C. last year.
Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal
Fighting flames, sparking compassionManitoba and Saskatchewan have already declared wildfire emergencies, and experts are calling for a new relationship with fire.
Depending on where you live, it’s likely that wildfire season is either not even on your radar — or extremely top of mind. That’s the thing about wildfires; it’s easy to forget about them, until they’re absolutely impossible to ignore. And sometimes it’s hard to predict when conditions will shift in your neck of the woods.
Take Manitoba, for example — a province that has been relatively unscathed in recent years, particularly in the south, but is emerging this year as the early epicentre of Canadian wildfires. Tragically, two people died in a fire near Lac du Bonnet earlier this month. Yesterday, Manitoba declared a state of emergency as evacuations continue in various parts of the province. (Neighbouring Saskatchewan faces a similar situation; just today Premier Scott Moe declared a state of emergency and said wildfire conditions are “unlike anything we have faced in quite some time, if not ever.”)
Why Manitoba? Why now? Reporter Julia-Simone Rutgers asked experts those questions, and heard how climate change is fuelling a “perfect storm” of wildfire conditions. And the longer an area goes without fire, the higher the risk gets: more intense and destructive fires become increasingly likely.
Suppressing wildfires today can lead to worse fires down the line — which is why some experts are making the seemingly counterintuitive case for more burning in a world already on fire.
Northwest B.C. reporter Matt Simmons spoke with researchers who say we need to learn to embrace “beneficial fire” — wildfires that provide ecosystem benefits without unacceptable risks to communities — and let them burn more freely.
The thing is, wildfires are not simply natural disasters. People interact with fire in complicated ways, and building a better relationship between the two means taking both fire behaviour and human behaviour into account.
Sometimes that means getting out ahead of wildfire misinformation, which can have deadly consequences in emergencies. This week, video producer Manuel Baechlin and Prairies reporter Drew Anderson collaborated to publish a short video on our YouTube and TikTok channels to help separate fiction from fact. (Yes, a lot of wildfires are sparked by humans; no, that usually doesn’t mean arson. And yes, aggressively suppressing fires to protect logging industry interests contributes to the problem.)
I hope you’ll keep the link to the video handy for the next time you spot a piece of wildfire misinformation that threatens to spread!
And if you do take on the fight against false narratives, you won’t be alone. Last week, Matt reported on new efforts by the BC Wildfire Service to engage with misinformation on social media, leading with kindness, compassion and, of course, facts.
Learning how to live with fire, and even sometimes embrace it, is complicated — but possible. We can do it if we work together. The Narwhal will be keeping a close watch on wildfires across the country through the summer and beyond. Bookmark this page to check out our latest coverage.
“Canadian politicians are in a schoolyard-style bragging competition about shortening approval times.” That’s how Ontario bureau chief Elaine Anselmi summed up the political moment, as Ontario and B.C. both make moves to fast-track major projects, and Prime Minister Mark Carney promises national legislation to the same end.
In B.C., Bill 15 was just passed, and Ontario is moving forward on Bill 5. Both are hugely significant bills that give the provincial governments new and expanded powers to speed up industry, and both have been dogged by criticism and concern over how they could impact ecosystems, endangered species and Indigenous Rights.
We’ve heard from many of our readers wondering about these bills — and the broader national picture — and we want to help you find answers. Got questions?Send them to us, and we’ll do our best to answer them in our upcoming coverage!
This week in The Narwhal
Bill 15 is now law. B.C. First Nations leaders say it’s a step back for reconciliation By Shannon Waters
Premier David Eby insists the law to fast-track major projects will be good for B.C. — but Indigenous leaders are promising lawsuits.
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Some experts are calling for more “beneficial fire” on the landscape, including cultural burns, such as one led by Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs in northern B.C. last year.
The land just outside the powwow arbour is filled with overgrown prairie grasses, patches of invasive plants and soil along the riverbank that is just...
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