Wildfires Across the Nation
A national look at what happened this year, new advancements in communication and firefighting techniques – and how forestry is shaping the overall Canadian wildfire picture.
by Treena Hein
Although many wouldn’t think so, it’s been a fairly good year for forest fires across Canada this year. “In Ontario and Alberta, 2011 was very busy and very costly, [but] for the rest of the Canadian agencies,” notes Dick Bon, “2011 was generally a below-average season in terms of the number of fires and the hectares burned.” Bon is a duty officer at the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg, Man.
This year’s extreme blaze at Slave Lake, Alta., put wildfire into the national headlines, and for good reason. Although the total fire number in that province has been very low (934 by the last week of August, 35% below the five-year average), more than 940,000 hectares had burned by that point in the season. “That's more than 12 times more area than the five-year average,” notes Alberta forestry information officer Rob Harris. This vast amount of burned land can be directly attributed to unusual spring weather. Harris says that during mid-May, several consecutive days of extremely low humidity hampered suppression efforts, and very strong sustained winds allowed many of the fires sparked during that period to grow very quickly. During May, Alberta borrowed 1,500 firefighters and equipment from seven provinces as well as Mexico.
Neighbouring British Columbia saw unusual weather as well, but in its case, it led to minimal fire activity. “[We had] unseasonably wet weather – late melt and heavy snow pack, most lightning storms accompanied by moisture, and an unusually rainy July,” says fire information officer Radha Fisher. By late August, B.C. had seen only 500 fires and under 12,000 hectares burned compared to an average of 1,600 fires and more than 85,000 hectares burned. This allowed the province to lend almost 2,000 personnel to Alberta, Ontario and Alaska. Provinces such as Quebec and New Brunswick also had a very light wildfire season. As of Aug. 24, Quebec had seen only 246 fires over 2,393 hectares, compared to an average on that date of 592 fires over 116,067 hectares, says information officer Marie-Louise Harvey. Like B.C., Quebec had a really humid spring, and lent both firefighters and equipment to Ontario and Alberta. In late August, New Brunswick had experienced only 59 fires over 38 hectares, compared to an average of 200 fires over 300-400 hectares.
It was an average wildfire season in Ontario, with almost 1,100 wildfires by late August, approaching the mean of 1,300 per year. A springtime drought that lasted until the start of August in the areas north of those managed for harvesting meant a lot of fuel was available, says fire behaviour specialist Al O’Connor. More than 570 firefighters assisted from other provinces.
Managing Fires Today
The capacities and operational strategies of all provincial fire agencies continue to evolve each year. They are all at various stages of integrating the Incident Command System (ICS), created by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Resource Management Working Group. The ICS is designed to aid in both day-to-day resource management and management of very large fires, placing all facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications within a common organizational structure.
In early October, Alberta hosted the “Wildland Fire Canada” conference where fire managers from across the country discussed solutions to emerging issues and challenges. Among these solutions is prescribed burns, which are planned, controlled burns used to mitigate future fire risk; one was just carried out near Kananaskis Village, Alta. A popular topic of discussion at conferences includes identifying the conditions under which it’s appropriate and inappropriate to try and control a wildfire. Of fires north of the managed forest in Northern Ontario, O’Connor says personnel are moving towards “letting nature take its course” if the fire is not going to put communities or infrastructure at risk – while monitoring it closely by air to determine spread and rate of spread. Provincial agencies are also likely to share with each other how they’re improving co-ordination with regional, municipal and First Nation governments.
Equipment used to fight fire has stayed basically the same over the last few years (although water- and equipment- carrying capacity is greater), but several new technologies are now being used to provide agencies with more information for better decision-making. For example, where smoke from fires prevents planes from getting into the air or getting useful views of fires, satellite imagery is being used to detect hot spots. Fire agencies are also improving in their ability to forecast projected fire load and complexity, which assists them with both allocating resources for themselves and determining on an ongoing basis what assistance they can provide to other jurisdictions. For example, in B.C. the rate of wildfire spread in stands killed by mountain pine beetle is currently being analyzed.
Ontario’s average wildfire season was a positive event in terms of the way it provided solid experience for many who needed it. “During the last decade, we have had a series of below-average fire seasons, which . . . means that many new staff had yet to be ‘tested’ during an escalated fire season,” says Darren McLarty, a planning and information co-ordinator at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. “This season provided an opportunity for new staff to develop the field skills where training alone can’t. It also provided opportunities for staff who had been recently promoted into new roles to build capacity.” He adds “Nationally, firefighting agencies are all struggling to deal with the loss of experienced staff as the age of the workforce nears retirement, and competing job markets attract existing staff.”
Also in terms of the national picture, McLarty notes that aviation, forest fire and emergency services across Canada have been paying a great deal of attention to subtle changes in the boreal forest. “Climate change models point to a likely increase in the frequency and severity of bad fire seasons,” he says. Warmer, drier, longer summers are likely, as is increased frequency of severe weather, including increased lightning activity and more extreme wind events. The overall financial outlook in Canada and beyond will also play a significant role in how wildfires will play out each year. “While I’m certainly not telling the forest industry anything it didn’t already know, tough economic times have had a negative impact on the area being harvested and replanted every year,” McLarty says. “In some cases, the success of fire suppression efforts, combined with a reduction in harvesting, is beginning to show negative effects.” He says some research is now being focused on the likelihood that ‘artificially old forests’ (over-mature stands) will be less resilient to the negative anticipated impacts of climate change – that is, more prone to insects, disease and wind damage. “These affected stands create an increased fire hazard as they burn more intensely under moderate conditions,” McLarty notes, “and are more difficult to fight due to the dangerous fuel buildup and reduced access for fire crews.”
This spring, B.C. released an updated “Interpretive Bulletin on the Application of the Wildfire Regulation for the Forest Industry,” a document that provides guidance about how appropriate fire prevention and suppression responses are determined. Fisher says the Regulation was amended this spring to (among other things) allow “qualified holders” to employ a forest professional to specify alternatives to those set out in the legislation. “This approach continues to strengthen the partnership with the forestry industry in managing the land,” she notes. Along with other responsibilities, qualified tenure holders must also assess degree of fire hazard on the land after the timber has been harvested, and have hazards such as debris abated so that there is no or a low risk of a fire starting or spreading.
