Largest investment in history announced for BC Wildfire Service

The largest investment ever into the BC Wildfire Service was announced Friday morning.

An investment of $359 million of new funding to support wildfire prevention and preparedness was announced by B.C.’s Minister of Forestry Katrine Conroy.

“We know that prevention works and must be supported at the local level, and that is why we are more than doubling annual funding available for wildfire prevention,” Conroy said.

The BC Wildfire Service and Emergency Management BC will receive $145 million to transition into a year-round service and will focus on “all four pillars of wildfire management: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.”

Matt MacDonald, BC Wildfires’ lead forecaster gave insight on the coming wildfire season, pointing at a relatively cool spring.

“We are looking at temperatures that were two to three degrees cooler than average across the vast majority of the province,” MacDonald said.

“That has favoured a slower start to the wildfire season.”

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So far, B.C. has experienced 137 wildfires, which is around 60 per cent of the 10-year average for the province.

Within those 137 wildfires, 601 hectares have been burned, which is five per cent of the 25-year average.

While the lead forecaster acknowledged the wet winter and spring is good for the start of the wildfire season, projections say the back-end of the summer could see fire activity.

“As we round the corner into July and August, we could see fire activity grow over the latter half of the summer,” MacDonald said.

He added that more than half of wildfires are caused by lightning strikes and the “big factor” will be if the strikes are accompanied by rain, which is too hard to forecast.

There have been a total of 2989 lightning strikes in B.C. in May.

The 10-year average for May is 16,000 lightning strikes.

MacDonald also said special weather events, like last year’s heat dome, are hard to predict and may not be detected until two weeks prior to such an event.

In addition, funding for the new partnership between the province and indigenous communities was announced.

The Community Resiliency Investment program will see local governments and First Nations work collaboratively to increase wildfire protection by undertaking community-based FireSmart activities.

This program will receive $90 million in funding.

“First Nations’ Emergency Services Society of B.C. is looking forward to the opportunity to continue serving First Nation communities in B.C., working with our program partners to deliver FireSmart community funding and support,” Quentin Nelson said, First Nations’ Emergency Services Society’s mitigation manager.

“These programs increase community resilience, reduce risk from wildfire, and build capacity to support these initiatives.”

The B.C. government has made an emphasis on providing more ongoing funding to the First Nation’s Emergency Services of B.C. to include traditional knowledge.

Funding of $98 million over three years is also being provided to fund wildfire prevention work and to maintain forest service roads.

More than $26 million in funding has been provided to increase capacity, address maintenance needs, and equip firebases for future wildfire seasons.

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