New Wildfire Strategy Released

By 250 News

Victoria, B.C. The wildfire season of 2010 consumed about 338,000 hectares of forest and grasslands, and as of Monday , had eaten up a little more than $200 million dollars in costs. 

This morning, Minister of Forests and Range, Pat Bell, unveiled a new wildfire strategy which he says will help the province strike a balance between “proactive fire management and suppression, and focus our firefighting efforts in key areas, while capitalizing on the ecological benefits of naturally occurring fire." 

Historically, wildfires burned about 500,000 hectares of land in B.C.  each year, but that area has shrunk to an average of less than 100,000 hectares in recent years.  Bell says that has altered the natural fire cycle and contributed to fuel buildup as forests age.

 The 22-page strategy aims to create a more fire-resilient landscape in British Columbia by meeting five key goals: 

1.  Further reducing the wildfire risk around communities and public  infrastructure through proactive fuel management.
2.  Planning and implementing controlled burns to encourage healthy ecosystems and manage fuel build-up.
3.  Where appropriate, managing some fires for natural processes and focusing suppression response on high-priority wildfires.
4.  Encouraging land, natural resource and community planning to incorporate wildland fire management.
5.  Improving public awareness about wildland fire management.

 "We are already implementing many of the strategy's recommendations through our Strategic Wildfire Prevention Program, Community Wildfire Protection Plan initiative and Bioenergy Strategy, but there's always room for innovation," said Bell. "A key component of that will be collaborating more with industry stakeholders, local governments, First Nations and other provincial and federal agencies to ensure wildfire management is considered at all levels of planning."

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