Forest fires are expected to get worse but what can we do? The leading idea seems to be spend more money removing fuel from our forests. While this may be practical in some urban interface areas, on a landscape level this idea is completely impractical if not laughable. As Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson recently said, "That's long past gone as a strategy and we need a whole new forest management regime." We couldn't agree more.
For decades our forest management regime has revolved around managing for climax tree species, those being mainly lodgepole pine and to a lesser degree white spruce and Douglas fir. To get there, we've become dependent on glyphosate-based formulas like VisionMax which we spray from helicopters to wipe out the so-called weeds, those being the broadleaf deciduous trees like trembling aspen, birch and cottonwood, and shrubs like willow and alder.
This has been backed up with decades of research showing this strategy will increase forest yields of tomorrow justifying quicker cutting today. Much of our AAC calculations are based on yield models presuming broadleaf suppression.
This seductive allure of "vegetation management" has become enshrined in Canadian forestry, taught in our universities, and entrenched in the professional forester's way of doing things, not to mention the reams of red tape created by Forest Ministry planners to codify the parameters of broadleaf elimination.
On average we spray around 15,000 hectares of broadleaf a year, much of it in the Prince George Forest District, and as of 2017 we've sprayed 1,800 square kilometers in the Prince George Forest District alone, not including manual brushing, which is also significant.
But nature is never so simple. What our forest managers and planners seem to have overlooked is that broadleaf is nature's fire break, and by eliminating the trees and plants that can counter forest fires, we've inadvertently created flammable landscapes of conifer monocultures whose combustion will likely limit optimistic yield models not to mention impose costs on our society's mental and physical health, as well as incur greater expenses fighting fires and losing property.
Perhaps we are exaggerating the effectiveness of aspen and broadleaf to counteract fires. But when you review the evidence, it becomes hard to oversell it.
According to a 2001 study by Steve Cummings et al, pine forests are 8.4 times, or 840 per cent, more likely to burn compared to deciduous forests based on historical data. Black spruce stands were even more flammable while white spruce were slightly less.
In any case, these are exponential terms. A more sophisticated modelling exercise carried out by Canadian Forest Service scientists shows that the low flammability of broadleaf forests remains static, even as drought conditions grow more severe. Another federal government study showed aspen stopping dead a raging conifer crown fire in extreme fire conditions. We have these studies on our website www.stopthespraybc.com.
Of course every tree, being wood, can burn, and aspen is no exception, especially in early spring when dry grass and undergrowth can burn intensely, as the Fort MacMurray fire demonstrated. But once the leaves are out and the undergrowth is greened up, the absence of pitch and high moisture content gives aspen and the other broadleaves serious fire-stopping or slowing power. That's why firefighters tie their firebreaks into deciduous stands.
Given the reality of worsening forest fires and the predictions this will only grow worse, we need practical solutions and having a patchwork of fire-retardant tree species spread across the landscape is the best if only practical solution available to us.
Better yet, not only is this idea free, but actually saves us money by not requiring us to spend it spraying and contaminating our forests with a probable carcinogen that does not break down the way we've been told it would.
But government regulations remain incredibly restrictive. The most broadleaf you are allowed is five per cent in a reforested block.
It is these restrictive and ridiculous rules that need to change.
James Steidle
Stop The Spray B.C.
