Dalhousie professor calls for ‘controlled, prescribed burns’ after Nova Scotia wildfires

The majority of Nova Scotia is once again under burn restrictions as the dry weather creeps back in.

A Dalhousie University professor says the province should be more proactive when it comes to preventing wildfires.

“I think we need some controlled, prescribed burns to decrease fuel load in areas where it built up too much,” Karen Beazley, professor at the School for Resource and Environment Studies, said.

Firefighters battled more than a dozen wildfires throughout Nova Scotia in the last few weeks.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia firefighting budget up in smoke after recent wildfires

Beazley says controlled burning would help to minimize the volume of fuel accumulating in the understory.

“It’s better to have fires that are low intensity more frequently, to keep forests from building up large fuel supplies,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's better to have fires that are low intensity more frequently, to keep forests from building up large fuel supplies," she said.

“Historically, before Euro American settlement in this part of Nova Scotia, there were taller white pine trees, there was a thicker soil that had developed over thousands of years,” she explained. “With human habitation and clearing the land for settlements, fires were purposely set.”

Beazley said the trees that grew back, such as the black spruce, are more fire resistant. The soil has also become drier because organic matter was burnt out of it. She said this means that when fires start now they’re more likely to be higher intensity burns that are difficult to control.

“We need to really think about how we address fire in areas because we have suppressed fires for so long that the fuel in the forest is more than it should be,” she said.

However the Department of Natural Resources says controlled burning is not feasible for Nova Scotia.

“The province does not do prescribed wildfires for fire prevention,” Jim Rudderham, supervisor of fire management, said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The province does not do prescribed wildfires for fire prevention," Jim Rudderham, supervisor of fire management, said.

“We don’t have policies regarding that. We’ve never done it in the past. We don’t plan to do it in the future, but it doesn’t mean we never will.”

READ MORE: Seven Mile Lake wildfire burning near Kejimkujik Park fully contained

Rudderham says controlled burning wouldn’t work for Nova Scotia forests because there is not one continuous type of tree. That means it would be difficult to ensure only the understory would catch fire.

“We have a broken up province of smaller land holdings. It would be very labour-intensive and hard to do something like that,” he said.

He says while the province does have fire prevention measures in place, a lot of the responsibility falls on the public, adding it’s important to pay attention to imposed burn restrictions.

“Our fires are started mostly by people. If we don’t get the fires to start that’s obviously a good thing,” he said, adding there are programs in place to better inform the public.

He said up to 70 per cent of Nova Scotia forests are private property and it’s important for landowners to keep their woodlots safe as a way of preventing fires.