In the wake of successive devastating wildfire seasons, the British Columbia is proposing major changes to the way the province’s forests are managed.
Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said B.C.’s rules and practices need to be updated in the face of climate change and the growing frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
“The primary value has been timber values — and that has not, I don’t think really enjoys full public support anymore,” Ralston said.
Proposed amendments to B.C.’s Forest Act, Forest and Range Practices Act and Wildfire Act will change how road-building and logging permits are issued, while giving prescribed burns a “legal standing.”
Prescribed burning is the planned and controlled use of fire to designated land areas to clear it of potential fuels that could exacerbate a w wildfire.
The province is pledging to work more closely with First Nations to increase the use of the technique Indigenous communities have used for centuries, tool to reduce wildfire risk.
“People took the time to understand cultural burning,” Spô’zêm First Nation Chief James Hobart said.
“It was a way of managing the forests and it was a lot less of this, you know, these pop-up forest fires happening out in the wild.”
Other proposed changes to the act include stiffening penalties for individuals and organizations that break forest regulation rules, as well as giving decision-makers discretion when giving out cutting and road-building permits.
“That will enable them to take into account community objections, First Nations considerations that they weren’t previously able to do — the simple default position was not to make a decision and that was not helping,” Ralston said.
The province says the amendments are the latest step in fulfilling promises in its 2021 Modernizing Forest Policy in British Columbia intentions paper, aimed at protecting the ecosystem while supporting the forestry sector.
The proposed amendments are now making their way through the B.C. legislature.