Meanwhile, in BC:
B.C. Forest Practices Board says forestry changes could reduce wildfire risk
British Columbia’s Forest Practices Board says a two-year investigation has found “outdated rules and unclear responsibility” are stopping forestry from becoming a wildfire prevention tool.
The board — an independent body that audits B.C. forest practices — says it examined forestry operations between 2019 and 2022 in areas where communities and forests meet, including the Sea to Sky, Cariboo-Chilcotin and Peace districts.
It says fire hazard assessments are a “cornerstone of wildfire risk reduction,” and while the industry assessments met 70 per cent of the requirements, fewer than one-quarter were completed on time.
The board says municipalities are excluded from the definition of legal interface, a term used for fires burning close to homes, which means logging debris can remain for up to 30 months, even in high-risk areas.
The report makes five recommendations to the province that it says would help support “faster fuel cleanup, better co-ordination and more consistent protection for people and communities throughout B.C.”
The suggestions include encouraging forest operators to actively reduce fire risk, improve co-ordination between government and industry, update legal definitions to add municipalities in the interface, modernize hazard assessment guidelines and incentivize faster logging cleanup.
B.C.'s Forest Practices Board says an investigation has found outdated rules are stopping forestry from becoming a wildfire prevention tool.
vancouver.citynews.ca