In the News – Wildfire

New Page, Dec 11, 2024

Related webpage: Ecol. forestry & Conservation/Fire Management

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Jan 7, 2024:
‘Fire Weather’ Is Hitting the North the Hardest, Study Says
Amanda Follett Hosgood in The Tyee. “Canada’s northern regions have seen increasingly longer wildfire seasons in recent decades, with the number of days conducive to severe burning rising most steeply in B.C.’s far north, according to a recent study.The findings, published last week in Science, are from a University of British Columbia study led by Weiwei Wang, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada’s Northern Forestry Centre…Countrywide, regions with the most high or moderate burn severity days “were primarily located in the areas dominated by coniferous forests in the northwestern uplands and northeastern region.Areas containing many low burn severity days were “mainly in the southern broadleaf and mixed-wood forests and in the southwestern mountain forests,” the report found.”

Dec 17, 2024:
– Aspen is a natural fire guard. Why has B.C. spent decades killing it off with glyphosate?
Ainslie Cruickshank in the Narwhal “The BC NDP government promised to phase out its use in forestry, but decades of herbicide spraying has reduced biodiversity and the potential for wildfire mitigation”

Dec 16, 2024:
– How ‘Thirsty’ Trees May Make Forests More Vulnerable to Climate Change
“In www.morningagclips.com “The southern Appalachian Mountains feature large, intact forests with frequent precipitation. This kind of area would not typically be a place to look for the effects of climate change, but the emergence of more “thirsty” trees like maples shifts that dynamic. Maples are an example of “diffuse-porous” trees, which require more water to grow than “ring-porous” trees like oaks…Previous models did not account for the different water needs of various tree species, Martin said. This led to a potential underestimation of the threat posed by climate change in areas with increasing diffuse-porous tree populations.”

Dec 12, 2024:
– Government of Canada provides disaster recovery funding to Nova Scotia for wildfires, flooding and storm Dorian
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada. ” OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 12, 2024 /CNW/ – In 2023, Nova Scotia experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons, leading to extensive damage to residences, small businesses, farms, municipalities, and provincial sites, and the evacuation of more than 16,000 people. Just over a month later, the province experienced extreme rainfall that led to the worst flooding the province has experienced in 50 years. This follows the significant damage to public and private infrastructure and prolonged power outages caused by storm Dorian across the province in 2019. Today, the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced payments of almost $67 million to Nova Scotia through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program, to assist with response and recovery costs associated with the wildfires in 2023, the extreme rainfall and flooding in summer 2023, and storm Dorian in 2019.”

Dec 5, 2024:
– Forests will burn but then logging them right after delays recovery
Casey Kulla in Oregon Capital Chronicle “The fires that burned down the Santiam Canyon over Labor Day weekend in 2020 were a disaster for the communities from Idanha all the way to Stayton. Recovery started right away, but rebuilding homes and public infrastructure has been tragically slow, delaying the healing of the community. Likewise in the burned forests; healing started right away, but logging those burned forests delayed healing…Oregon forests — from the coast to high desert — need fire to be healthy.We even try to stop the fires. But the forest will burn. It is what happens in the forest afterwards that’s up to us. A post-fire forest is still a forest; it still does stuff. And it can and will regrow as the forest that it needs to be, if we let the forest be. That means not logging it.”

Nov 20, 2024:
– Serious lack of rain leads to underground fires in parts of N.S (Audio)
Interview with Fire chief Brett Tetanish of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department on CBC’s InfoAM “On top of making people’s wells go dry, the lack of rain this fall is resulting in underground fires. It’s something the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department had to deal with recently. Fire chief Brett Tetanish shares some tips for fire smarting your property.”  Related: CBC News Zombie fires? Why Nova Scotia’s dry fall could cause blazes to spark back up next spring Also view CTV News: Wells running dry as drought conditions persist in Nova Scotia, by Jonathan MacInnis Nov 18, 2024.

Nov 14, 2024:
– Nova Scotia leaders on climate action (News Video)
CBC “From floods to wildfires to hurricanes: Nova Scotia’s been hard hit by a number of disasters attributed to climate change. Leaders are asked how they would keep Nova Scotians safe from the effects of climate change.”

Oct 20, 2024:
Nova Scotia saw its least active wildfire season on record in 2024
Aly Thomson · CBC News “Natural Resources Department says increased awareness of burn ban restrictions played a part…In an effort to prevent wildfires, Nova Scotia increased the fine amount for violating those restrictions to $25,000. Natural Resources took a zero-tolerance approach to enforcement. The department issued 19 fines of $25,000. The RCMP also issued at least two fines equivalent to that amount…John Lowe, district chief of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, said he believes new artificial intelligence cameras that were installed earlier this year around the municipality were a valuable asset to the department this season.”

Oct 11, 2024:
– Sharp divide in Oregon over bill to step up logging to prevent wildfires
Alex Baumhardt for oregoncapitalchronicle.com “Republicans are backing a proposal to scale back environmental regulations to “thin” forests while Democrats and environmentalists want to fund community preparedness”

Sep 27, 2024:
– Wildfire risk from Fiona debris has lessened in P.E.I.’s forests, says official
CBC News ·”Over 1,200 hectares have been salvaged to date, says P.E.I.’s forestry director”

Sep 25, 2024:
Forest fire size amplifies postfire land surface warming
Jie Zhao et al., in Nature “Climate warming has caused a widespread increase in extreme fire weather, making forest fires longer-lived and larger. The average forest fire size in Canada, the USA and Australia has doubled or even tripled in recent decades. In return, forest fires feed back to climate by modulating land–atmospheric carbon, nitrogen, aerosol, energy and water fluxes. However, the surface climate impacts of increasingly large fires and their implications for land management remain to be established. Here we use satellite observations to show that in temperate and boreal forests in the Northern Hemisphere, fire size persistently amplified decade-long postfire land surface warming in summer per unit burnt area. Both warming and its amplification with fire size were found to diminish with an increasing abundance of broadleaf trees, consistent with their lower fire vulnerability compared with coniferous species. Fire-size-enhanced warming may affect the success and composition of postfire stand regeneration as well as permafrost degradation13, presenting previously overlooked, additional feedback effects to future climate and fire dynamics. Given the projected increase in fire size in northern forests, climate-smart forestry should aim to mitigate the climate risks of large fires, possibly by increasing the share of broadleaf trees, where appropriate, and avoiding active pyrophytes.“ Tip of the Hat to Rob B. for flagging this item

– Sep 4, 2024:
FPAC’s Derek Nighbor says Canada’s passive approach fuelling wildfires
By Derek Nighbor in Canadian Biomass “…Even some of our national parks, those enduring icons of conservation, are turning into net carbon emitters due to drought and wildfires, according to recent findings from the Parks Canada Carbon Atlas Series…What does proactive management mean? It means hands-on intervention into our forest ecosystems. For example, making deliberate efforts to remove flammable materials in high fire risk zones, particularly forests that are older, denser and drying out. These forests are prime for combustion from a lightning strike or a spark from an off-road vehicle.”
Comment (DP): Big Forestry has the solutions to it all. Carbon capture, stopping the fires; no recognition of Bif Forestry’s high emissions and practices that contribute to bigger fires (herbicides etc), and even start them (sparks from machinery operatng during very dry periods). The comments by Nighbor expose the real objective… continued access to Old Growth, and they want access to Parks and Protected Areas, all to feed thethirst for biomass. For the Nova Scotia version, see Forest NS on wildfires, and some comments on versicolor.ca/nstriad. Also available as a PDF

Aug 29, 2024:
– 5 things to know about B.C.’s lucrative salvage logging industry
By Zoë Yunker, Photography by Taylor Roades in The Narwhal “Despite the ecological risks, it’s cheaper and easier than ever to clear cut the last living trees in wildfire-impacted forests”
Nanoplastics found to interfere with tree photosynthesis

Aug 28m 2024:
– Robots Are Starting (Good) Fires in California
By Coco Liu in Bloomberg “BurnBot’s tank-like robot helps manage wildfire risk by conducting controlled burns with no open flames, minimal smoke and much less manpower.”
– Wildsight’s Eddie Petryshen discusses impacts of salvage logging
Paul Rodgers in Kimberley Bulletin “Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen says the impacts of post-disturbance salvage logging outweigh the short-term benefits to the timber supply…In addition to damaging nitrogen-fixing plants that sprout soon after fires, Petryshen said another impact is on water. He cited a recent study from the southern Rockies in Alberta that found that sediment was nine times greater in burnt watersheds than in unburnt, but 37 times greater in salvage-log watersheds. ”
– Nova Scotia shelter village opens in time for peak of hurricane season
The Weather Network “Nova Scotia has purchased 200 shelters, just in time for the peak of hurricane season, and they’re now being placed around the province to support people experiencing homelessness.”

Aug 21, 2024
– Largest study of 2023 wildfires finds extreme weather fuelled flames
By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press ON halifax.citynews.ca. References: Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada. P. Jain et al., Aug 2021 in Nature Communications.“Standardized anomalies of the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System’s Drought Code (DC), show similar trends, with severe drought conditions in some northern and western areas in May, and new-onset drought conditions in Quebec and Nova Scotia in June (Fig. 3d, e). Early-season drought is a common occurrence in western Canada26, due to persistent drought carried over from the previous year and exacerbated by a low winter snowpack27 (Fig. S1). In contrast, the 2023 fire season started with near-average levels of soil moisture following snowmelt in the eastern provinces, but above-average temperatures and rapid drying caused what could be described as a ‘flash drought’, an emerging phenomenon that we are only beginning to understand.”

– Climate change is pushing wildfires closer to urban areas. Firefighters say they’re not prepared
By Nicola Seguin CBC News “A new report from Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency sheds light on what firefighters faced over the nearly three-week operation to put out the fire that broke out on May 28, 2023, in Upper Tantallon, 30 kilometres from downtown Halifax (and burned more than 900 hectares, forcing more than 16,000 people to evacuate and destroying 151 homes), and points out how the urban, structural firefighters didn’t have the training, experience or equipment to deal with a wildfire.” Related on halifax.ca: HRFE Post Incident Analysis Wildland Urban Interface Fire May 2023, and this doc: HRFE Post Incident Analysis Wildland Urban Interface Fire: May 2023 FINAL REPORT July 3, 2024.

Aug 14, 2024:
– Canada’s 2023 wildfires released almost 10 years worth of carbon dioxide in one of the world’s worst fire seasons, report finds
By Kate Helmore, The Globe and Mail (Subscription Required),  Summary from Tree Frog Forestru News: “An international report published Wednesday found that Canada’s 2023 wildfire season burned six times more area than usual and released nine times the usual amount of carbon, ranking it as one of the worst across the globe. These wildfires, which raged from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, emitted almost a decade’s worth of carbon dioxide, compared to the average for the area, said the inaugural State of Wildfires report, published in the journal Earth System Science Data which included expert panels from continents across the globe. “Whatever statistic you look at for Canada last year is absolutely striking,” said Dr. Matthew Jones, lead author of the report and research fellow at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in Britain. “If you look at the number of fires, the area burned, emissions, the size of the fires … pretty much every record was smashed.” Cites this paper: State of Wildfires 2023–2024 by MW Jones et al., in Earth System Science Data
– Logging after wildfires is a hot industry in B.C. Could it do more harm than good?
By Zoë Yunker in The Narwhal “This story is part of In the Line of Fire, a series from The Narwhal digging into what is being done to prepare for — and survive — wildfires…Forestry companies get a slew of profitable perks to harvest areas burned by B.C. wildfires. They’re also allowed to log living trees that could be key to species and ecosystem recovery in burn zones”
– Will logging more in healthy forests reduce wildfire risk?
On www.davidsuzuki.org “…There is no one-treatment-fits-all approach to address wildfires; we are likely to have failures along the way and we must learn to adapt. But increased wildfire activity should not be used as a Trojan horse to give the forestry industry even more power over decisions that affect forests in Canada under the guise of “fixing” a problem. Expanding industrial logging into remaining unlogged forests is not the solution; more comprehensive forest management is.”

Aug 12, 2024:
– Logging industry’s wildfire claims are misleading the public
Chad Hanson in The Hill. “The Park Fire in northern California has reached approximately 400,000 acres in size, and already logging industry advocates are pushing out misinformation about the fire in an attempt to promote their deceptively-named Fix Our Forests Act logging bill. The timber industry’s political apologists tell us that the Park Fire grew so big, so fast ostensibly because public forestlands are “overgrown” and in need of “thinning…The truth is that this “overgrown forests” narrative, which is being spun by the logging industry and its political apologists, is a new and insidious type of climate change denialism.”
Chad Hanson, Ph.D., is a forest and fire ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, and is the author of the book, “Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate.”

Aug 9, 2024:
– Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report
By Jillian Ambrose for The Guardian UK. “UK — The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.”

Jul 25, 2024
– Insurance claims from last year’s floods, wildfires in Nova Scotia total $490 million
Michael MacDonald · The Canadian Press on cbc.ca “Canada isn’t ready to deal with more severe weather from climate change, Insurance Bureau VP says”

Jul 23, 2024:
– Conservation North conference talks negative impacts of salvage forestry
Staff at www.princegeorgecitizen.com “Some scientists are calling for a drastic change to the way B.C. deals with forests burned by fire and affected by insects. The remarks came as the scientists took part in a webinar organized by the volunteer group Conservation North and virtually attended by more than 200 people on Monday, July 22. During the meeting, they said “salvage” logging after a fire usually causes more damage to a forest than the fire itself, and explained that logging reduces biodiversity, contributes to climate change, increases the vulnerability of the forest to further fires, and often causes soil degradation and erosion…The webinar recording is available on the Conservation North YouTube channel” – See Gaming the ecosystem: the truth about salvage logging “Have you ever wondered what “salvage” logging is, and how it affects communities, ecosystems and the climate? This webinar, held on July 15th, 2024, answers these questions. The session featured Seraphine Munroe (Maiyoo Keyoh Society), Dr. Karen Price (independent ecologist), Dr. Phil Burton (emeritus University of Northern BC professor), Dr. Diana Six (University of Montana) and Dr. Dominick DellaSala (Wild Heritage).”

– Climate change likely influenced forest fires in Labrador, says ecologist
Abby Cole · CBC News “Anthony Taylor says forest fires will likely become more common…”Newfoundland and Labrador as a whole has warmed by more than two degrees Celsius since the … late 1800s,” he said. “And in fact, Labrador itself has warmed more than a degree since the 1960s.” Although there has been close to normal amounts of rainfall in Labrador, he said, higher temperatures cause increased evaporation and drier forests, likely contributing to conditions that are conducive to fire…”While large fires do occur in Labrador from time to time, I don’t want to undersell the influence of human-caused climate change on this because it is very likely that these fires we’re seeing this year are influenced by climate change,” he said. “We just haven’t been as a society taking our role in preventing and slowing climate change enough.… And that’s primarily by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and reducing those greenhouse gas emissions.””

Jun 20, 2024:
How long will it take to put out P.E.I.’s peat fire?
CBC News (Video) “The fire at a peat harvesting operation in Foxley River, P.E.I., has been burning for several days. Mike Montigny and Nick Thompson from the province’s forest, fish and wildlife division explain why this type of fire is so hard to extinguish, and how the department is managing its resources.”

May 26, 2024:
Burnt trees, new life
By Aly Thomson, CBC News “Thousands of trees were destroyed in a wildfire outside Halifax last year. Now some of them are returning in a very different form…”“If you can imagine that you had a garden that was growing and you didn’t weed your garden and all the weeds were coming up and it was very thick, if a fire went through that, there’s a lot more fuel there and the fire would be a lot more intense,” he says.” It’s a claim disputed by Donna Crossland, who has dedicated her life to forest ecology. She works with the Healthy Forest Coalition, a group that protests clearcutting of Nova Scotia’s forests…”

Feb 9, 2024:
Georgia’s Fire Management at a Crossroads: Balancing Prescribed Burns and Climate Change
By Momen Zellmi BNN Breaking “Georgia’s delicate balance of fire and land management, crucial for ecosystem health and wildfire prevention, is threatened by climate change. Fewer ‘good burn days’ and environmental regulations pose challenges for land managers, demanding innovative solutions to protect both nature and human wellbeing.”

Feb 1, 2024:
Effects of clear-cut logging on forest fires
By Eli Pivnick, North Okanagan Climate Action Now/The Similkameen Spotlight “The idea that clear-cuts help stop forest fires is a myth. That is the conclusion of a number of recent studies in the western U.S. Clear-cuts provide an area hotter and drier than the surrounding forests in fire season. Without trees, clear-cuts have no wind breaks, which allow wind speeds to increase. Clear-cut logging tends to spread invasive grasses, which are flammable. In the first several years after logging, fires in a clear cut will burn hotter and travel faster than in the surrounding forest. In the western U.S., forested areas around a community are some times clear-cut to reduce fire risk. This is termed “thinning.” However, this actually increases risk. One example is the Camp Fire which destroyed the town of Paradise, CA., in 2018. The forested area around Paradise had previously been “thinned.” No forest treatment more than 30 metres from a dwelling has been shown to reduce fire risk.”

Dec 28, 2023:
Wall Street Journal Gets Carbon Storage Wrong
George Wuerthner in Wildlife News “The Wall Street Journal’s December 21, 2023, editorial board wrote that Biden’s New Forest Plan will “lead to more uncontrolled fires—and won’t help the climate.” The WSJ is upset that the Biden Administration plans to ban logging of old-growth forests on national forest lands, a proposal they characterize as a “land grab.The WSJ disputes the assertion made by the Biden Administration and many scientists that old-growth forests capture and store CO2, thus slowing climate warming. The editorial is full of the usual timber industry rhetoric that national forests are “overgrown” and need to be logged to be “healthy.”…”

Dec 11, 2023:
– In Halifax, a call to promote old-growth forests as a guard against future wildfires
By Michael Tutton Canadian Press in CBC. “As he stands near a Nova Scotia forest with soaring 150-year-old trees, Mike Lancaster sees a natural, long-term solution to the threat wildfires pose to city dwellers…The director of the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association said much of the 1,000 hectares that ignited in May — destroying 151 homes and businesses in Halifax’s western suburbs — was young, dense, coniferous woodland that had grown after decades of intensive logging. Pointing to the canopy of older-growth trees just three kilometres from lands scarred by wildfire, Lancaster describes how the space between the trees, the mixture of species and the higher branches decrease flammability. ..After a historic wildfire season across Canada, experts are turning their eyes to Nova Scotia as a harbinger of the growing risk facing cities on the forest’s edge. “If Halifax can burn, any place can burn, and that blows all our minds,” says John Vaillant, author of the award-winning “Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast,” which tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray forest fire. Vaillant said in an interview that Nova Scotia’s urban wildfires were a shock to fire experts across Canada, making the province’s next steps a matter of national interest…what — if any — changes will be made to Nova Scotia’s forestry practices in 2024 is unclear, as the department has yet to release initial findings on how the Halifax-area blaze ignited and what might prevent a recurrence. ..When it comes to leaving forests to regenerate, Steenberg says poor soil and other conditions that limit growth mean that about a quarter of the province’s forest will yield shorter-lived trees that are susceptible to frequent fires…“Old-growth (forests) aren’t necessarily more or less susceptible to fires,” he says. “It depends on the conditions. Old-growths are complex and often have different-aged woods in them and may have coarse, woody materials that can be fuels.”…Eric Rapaport, a Dalhousie University professor of planning who has studied fire risks in the Halifax area since 2012, says the time may have come for the province and city to approach landowners to ask them to consider accepting “a good fire break” between woodlands and homes.Rapaport is also an advocate for creating the equivalent of floodplain mapping for fires, where publicly available maps would provide tree-by-tree detail of fire dangers…For Vaillant, the author, better preparation is key to minimizing future destruction.”

 

Nov 16, 2023:
The Crucial Role of Forestry in Preventing Devastating Wildfires
Blog post on forestns.ca “Many people say that we just need to plant more hardwood. It’s not that simple. Nova Scotia’s wildfires this summer completely burnt multiple hardwood stands. Yes, hardwood is more resilient to wildfires, but it is not fireproof. With massive amounts of forest fire fuel on the ground, hardwood will burn, too. And hardwood doesn’t create lumber to build homes…Our push to protect more and more of the forest will add to wildfire risk and result in our forests becoming net emitters of carbon…We are facing increased wildfire risk because our forests are not as actively managed as they should be, and fewer women and men work in the woods.” COMMENT: See Would “thinning areas where harvesting isn’t allowed” as advocated by Forest Nova Scotia reduce wildfire risk? 23Nov2023

Nov 9, 2023:
Concern rising over increasing carbon emissions from Canada’s forest fires
By Doyle Potenteau Global News “…Wieting says the impacts are so high that “carbon emissions connected to forests are close to three times higher compared to all our other emissions from burning fossil fuels.” He says those wildfire emission totals are hidden in B.C.’s accounting, “and it’s a major problem because we cannot continue to ignore these emissions.””

Oct 30, 2023:
Nova Scotia saw its most devastating wildfire season on record in 2023
CBC News “According to the provincial government, a total of 220 wildfires impacted approximately 25,096 hectares this season, which typically runs from April to mid-October. More than 150 homes were lost in a wildfire that started in Upper Tantallon, N.S., just outside Halifax on May 28. On the province’s southwestern tip, about 60 homes and other structures burned in the province’s largest wildfire on record, which broke out that same weekend and affected 23,525 hectares.”

Oct 29, 2023:
‘It gives them hope’: Volunteers plant trees on land devastated by N.S. wildfire
By Ella MacDonald Global News “..Carter says they plan to plant hardwood trees — in this case, sugar maples — around the edge of the block, due to their slower burn rates. “And as you come in, it will be the pine and the spruce, with the idea being that if there was a fire, the rate of spread would be less in the hardwood, near the edge.””

Oct 28, 2023:
Future of wildfires: What will happen to Canada’s scorched forests as fires worsen?
By Katherine Cheng Global News

Oct 16, 2023:
Halifax’s emergency system caused confusion, frustration, wildfire report finds
Suzanne Rent in the Hfx Examiner. Intro in Morning File References a new report: Upper Tantallon Wildfire Lessons Learned (HRM doc for discussion at Oct 17, 2023 Regional Council)

Sep 24, 2023:
From the ashes: Research road trip maps regeneration after wildfires
Tavor Gaster in ubyssey.com “…Members of the UBC Integrated Remote Sensing Studio, including Smith-Tripp, took a two-week remote sensing fieldwork road trip across the country. From the Acadian broadleaf forests of New Brunswick to BC’s temperate rainforests, they used drones to scan landscapes from timber plantations to bare ash. The researchers call themselves the “Scantiques Roadshow.” The Scantiques Roadshow is a part of a Canada-wide study that focuses on developing new methods to monitor how forests respond to disturbances like wildfires, droughts and pests. …Part of the Scantiques Roadshow team’s job is to find out why some forests grow back relatively quickly while others falter. “Understanding what forests look like after a disturbance occurs is really important, “said Smith-Tripp. “We also should plan for that sort of resiliency within forests because we know that our forests are operating under greater stresses.” (Extract as cited in TreeFrog Forestry News for Sep 25, 2023)

Sep 13, 2023:
Learning to live with wildfire
By UBC Okanagan News, The University of British Columbia. “UBC Okanagan researchers take an interdisciplinary approach to wildfire management…While it sounds unorthodox, carefully planned, small-scale controlled burns in strategic areas can yield a variety of benefits, says Dr. Bourbonnais. They remove accumulated dry fuel for future fires, make breaks in massive expanses of forest and even help regenerate entire ecosystems that can restart and thrive in burned-out areas.It’s an idea the general public may be hesitant to embrace.”

Sep 8, 2023:
Forest blackened by Saint Andrews-area fire sprouts signs of life
Mia Urquhart · CBC News. “Homeowner sees renewal, UNB tree expert says fire a normal part of forest regeneration”

Aug 24, 2023:
– Canadians unified on forest protection although wildfire cause divisive: poll
Canadian Press on rdnnewsnow.com

Aug 23, 2023:
– Halifax councillors hope to make Tantallon wildfire ‘a catalyst for change
Zane Woodford in the Halifax Examiner (subscription required; intro. in Morning File)

Aug 10, 2023:
Historical Fire Regimes and Recent Wildfire Trends in Canada and Nova Scotia
YpuTube Webinar on MTRI channel
The 2023 fire season in Canada has drawn widespread attention due to the exceptional area burned and the number of people affected. Our Summer Seminar with Ellen Whitman, Forest Fire Research Scientist at Natural Resources Canada, on Aug. 10, 7-8 p.m. will help viewers contextualize this year with an understanding of historical fire activity and the natural role wildfires play in our forests, both nationally and provincially. We will conclude by discussing how modern climate change and fire suppression have contributed to recent and ongoing changes to Canadian fire activity and the associated ecological impacts of shifting fire regimes.

July 31, 2023:
Swedish study shows secondary forests more sensitive to drought than primary forests
by Lund University in phys.org

July 25, 2023:
– Climate change: Correlation between wildfires, flooding in Nova Scotia
By Hina Alam The Canadian Press in the Toronto Star “The fingerprints of climate change are all over the supercharged weather witnessed this year in Nova Scotia — and the rest of the country — from raging wildfires to devastating flooding.”
– Commercial building codes lack strong wildfire-management provisions, indoor air quality controls, says expert
M Lewis for Globe & Mail

July 18, 2023:
What’s happening to the many trees charred by the N.S. wildfire?
Heidi Petracek for CTV News. Charred wood can still be sawed and helps pay for clearn-up

July, 6, 2023:
Biodiversity, better forest management key to combat wildfire: experts
Cindy Tran for Edmonton Journal. “Old forests and mature forests are actually more resilient to wildfires than younger forests.”

July 4, 2023:
One extreme to the next: June completely erased Nova Scotia’s rain deficits of early spring
Ryan Snoddon · CBC News “April and May of this year were unusually dry, compared to the 30-year average…[but since June 1] Rainfall totals are way up in most areas of Nova Scotia, compared to the 30-year average.”

July 3, 2023:
As California fire season begins, debate over wildfire retardant heats up
By Hayley Smith Los Angeles Times (Also used in Canada)

June 29, 2023:
‘It burns wild and free up there’: Canada fires force US crews to shift strategy
By Gabrielle Canon& Leyland Cecco in The Guardian/ Pertinent to NS as our recently out-of-control fires occurred in areas of significant settlement (as in much of the US area where there are regular wildfires), versus many wildfires in Canada which are in very remote areas and are allowed to burn,”While there’s been a slow shift to bring healthy fires back to the forests – experts have criticized US agencies with causing more devastation by not letting enough land burn.”

June 19, 2023:
Here’s how you can help protect your property from wildfire, say safety experts
ances Willick · CBC News

June 17, 2023:
Wildfire in southern N.S. occurred amid some of driest recorded conditions: scientist
Michael Tutton for The Canadian Press, in the Penticton Herald “Driest woods since 1944 key to N.S. wildfire” Article cites AR Taylor on recent stats, climate warming; and Donna Crossland on historical forests fires

June 16, 2023
Officials knew of wildfire risk in Upper Tantallon for years but did nothing, say residents
Haley Ryan · CBC News “Earlier reports warned of wildfire risks in Upper Tantallon, where wildland meets urban space…In 2016, wildfire prevention officer Kara McCurdy determined the northern end of Westwood Hills was at “extreme” risk, with southern parts at high and moderate risk.Her protection plan made a number of recommendations, including creating a gated emergency road through to Wright Lake Run, installing dry fire hydrants since there are none, and creating a community buffer of thinned trees around the subdivision. Dry hydrants allow for a water supply when there is no municipal system available…Halifax received a 2013 study from Dalhousie University that was partially funded by the Halifax municipality and developed a model to identify the future forest risk of forest fires in the area.”We found very high risks in some of the places where the forest kind of interfaces directly with residential homes,” said Eric Rapaport, report co-author and professor with Dalhousie University’s School of Planning.

The report suggested the city create bylaws to clear space around residential homes, limit ongoing development in wildland-urban interface areas, educate private citizens in high-risk areas, and to “manage WUI areas for fire risk.”

“It is a bit frustrating when we don’t see things change and then we run into problems,” Rapaport said.

Rapaport said he was surprised to see the Upper Tantallon wildfire spread so quickly. But in the aftermath, he has used data to see there were large swaths of quick-burning trees in most of the affected subdivisions — which McCurdy’s assessment also noted.

‘The evidence was there’
“We could have identified those trees and we could have started … 10 years ago in trying to remove some of that risk,” Rapaport said.

June 15, 2023
Are forest fires in Canada becoming more frequent and larger – or not?
An op-ed type of article in the Financial Post by Prof Ross McKitrick (University of Guelph and the Fraser Institute) has ellicted some critical discussion of fire stats around the issue of whether forest fires are becoming more frequent, larger — or not. I will try to keep track of this important debate – See http://versicolor.ca/nstriad/hrm-forest-fire/on-cndn-forest-fire-stats/

June 13, 2023:
Barrington Lake Wildfire Under Control
NRR. “The Barrington Lake wildfire in Shelburne County is now under control. The final size of the fire is 23,525 hectares (about 235 square kilometres). It is not expected to spread.

June 12, 2023:
– Retired Halifax firefighter Paul Irving says he urged that the FireSmart program be adopted in 2004, but was ignored
Jennifer henderson in the Halifax Examiner
– Is Eastern Canada doomed to follow the West into harsher wildfire seasons?
Matthew McLearn in https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
– Over 1% of Canada’s forests burned the past few weeks, officials say aging trees big factor
ByMo Fahim in www.mymuskokanow.com/
– The NS wildfires are not ‘natural’ disasters: climate change, forest management, and human folly are all to blame
Joan Baxter in the Halifax Examiner
– N.S. government must help communities prepare for more wildfires: climate experts
By Michael TuttonThe Canadian Press/Toronto Star

June 11. 2023:
139 firefighters from Canada, U.S. battling Nova Scotia’s Barrington Lake blaze
The Canadian Press/CTV Atlantic News. “..The Barrington Lake fire in Shelburne County has grown to about 235 square kilometres since it first broke out on May 27. Provincial officials say it remains out of control, but it has stopped spreading.”

June 9, 2023:
In the wake of wildfires, forests’ ability to trap carbon ‘goes up in smoke’
Doug Johnson for the Weather network. Interview with Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. Useful Link in article: CCA nature Based Climate Solutions: Forests

June 8, 2023:

– An expert explains the science of wildfires
Suzanne Rent in the Hfx Examiner., interview with Ellen Whitman. Of note:

HE: What are the differences between the fires in Nova Scotia and say the fires happening in Ontario and Quebec right now?

EW: A major difference there is the forest type, for one thing. You do have a patchier landscape in Nova Scotia in terms of the availability of those continuous conifer fuels. Those fires burned in conifer-dominated areas and created some of the biggest fires Nova Scotia ever experienced. However, the fires that are happening in other parts of eastern Canada right now are in the boreal forests. It’s a much more conifer-dominated landscape. There’s lots of continuous fuel available.

– Nova Scotia’s fiery past — and potential future — with an environmental advocate (audio)
CBC Mainstreet “Donna Crossland started her career researching the history of fire in the Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick. Now the vice-president of Nature Nova Scotia, Crossland has written an essay called “Nova Scotia’s Fiery Past.” She spoke with Mainstreet’s Alex Mason about that history, and what we can learn from it.”
Related:
– Essay: Nova Scotia’s Fiery Past
– Ecologist’s perspective on the Keji-area fires (Post on nsforestnotes.ca, Aug 17, 2016).

June 7, 2023:
– Canada marks Clean Air Day with worst air quality in the world, as feds consider disaster response agency
By Mia Rabson Canadian Press in CTV News

– From British Columbia to Nova Scotia, Wildfires Spread Across Canada
By Dan Bilefsky and Vjosa Isai in the NY Times June 7, 2023 “In a country known for its picturesque landscapes and orderliness, the out-of-control wildfires have stoked unease and underlined the perils of global warming…Until now, he said, many on the east coast had not been exposed, firsthand, to the health risks of air pollution caused by wildfires that have gripped the western provinces over recent years. “There’s essentially a disconnect,” he said. “They haven’t had this experience.” Comment: This not completely correct. I remember, admittedly prob 40 yrs ago, when we had an extended period of grey skies and smokey air from forest fires in Quebec. More frequently and according to atmospheric conditions, the air is that of the industrial heartland of US & Canada; we are the tail pipe.

June 6, 2023:
– Update on Wildfires, June 6
NS Gov. “The Barrington Lake wildfire in Shelburne County is still out of control. In total, there are five active wildfires in the province today, June 6”

– Fire update and emergency alerts
Tim Bousquet in MorningFile (Halifax Examiner).”Firefighting efforts in Nova Scotia have been greatly helped by a change in the weather — more than 90 millimetres of rain fell on the southwest part of the province Sunday and Monday, with some areas receiving 120 millimetres… worry is about alert fatigue”

June 5, 2023:
– Wildfire risk for most of Nova Scotia expected to remain unusually high this summer
Skye Bryden-Blom Global News. ““There are just places we shouldn’t be putting housing,” says assistant Dalhousie professor Alana Westwood. “There are certain kinds of forest ecosystems that are literally meant to burn, for example, ecosystems that are dominated by species called Jack Pine, their cones are opened by fire.”

June 4, 2023:
Update on Wildfires, June 4 (morning)
NRR. “Barrington Lake, Shelburne County: fire is still out of control, covering 24,980 hectares (249.8 square kilometres); Lake Road, Municipality of the District of Shelburne:
fire is being held at an estimated 114 hectares; Pubnico, Yarmouth County: fire is being held at 138 hectares; Westwood Hills, Tantallon: fire is under control at an estimated 950 hectares and is 100 per cent contained; Hammonds Plains: fire is under control at four hectares and is 100 per cent contained

June 3, 2023:
– Rain brings much-needed relief to firefighters battling Nova Scotia wildfires
By The Associated Press on npr.org

June 2, 2023:
– Urban sprawl on wooded lands presents unique challenges when fires spread: experts
Hina Alam The Canadian Press. “Halifax blaze shows complexity of urban wildfires”

– About that rain in the forecast…
By Kyle Shaw in the Coast.  “Nova Scotia needs wet weather to fight wildfires, and to catch up after a historically dry spring.”


June 1, 2023:
– Tantallon wildfire 50% contained; new fire in Shelburne County, while others out of control
Suzanne Rent and Tim Bousquet in Halifax Examiner Morning File. A set of items about the fire situation in NS.

May 30, 2023:
– How climate change is fuelling fires in Eastern Canada
By Cloe Logan in the National Observer.

– A timeline of the Upper Tantallon wildfire
In The Coast

May 29, 2023:
– Raging Fires in Nova Scotia
NASA Earth Observatory.Amazing Satellite Imagery

– Forestry expert discusses wildfire situation in the Maritimes
Global News.

May 28, 2023:
– Tracking forest fires across Nova Scotia
CTV News. “Hot, dry and windy conditions on Sunday helped cause a series of wildfires in Atlantic Canada, with at least 10 reported in Nova Scotia…So far, Nova Scotia has reported 176 wildfires this season, compared to 70 at this time in 2022”

2017
Wildland Urban Interface Community Wildfire Protection Plan Prepared for: Hammonds Plains Road, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia
By: Kara McCurdy – Wildfire Prevention Office 2017 PDF doc Posted by CBC