Tag Archives: Wildfires

Forests, Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Peoples are more protective of forests and biodiversity, study finds

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A new UBC led study of 111 peer-reviewed papers found that forests and biodiversity are better, or at least equally, protected if they are managed by Indigenous peoples. Between 2005 and 2012, vegetation loss in native areas of the Brazilian Amazon was 17 times lower. In Australia, 60% of the nation’s 1,574 threatened species were found on Indigenous lands. In the United States, Indigenous lands harbour more mature trees and higher tree volume. Close to two-thirds of the articles noted that Indigenous peoples were themselves threatened, and some offered suggestions to either provide resources or strengthen their tenure over the land. While little of the material dealt with British Columbia, lead author William Nikolakis has worked with First Nations in the Interior and was prepared to comment.   

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Forests

Dr Teresa Ryan: How the Forest Protects us and why we should preserve it

Dr Teresa Ryan is a Tsimshian woman who combines the ancestral knowledge of her people with the cutting edge research coming out of the Mother Tree Project. Her association with Dr Suzanne Simard began when she applied for a postdoctoral fellowship in what is now UBC’s faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship. Simard was one of her four instructors and suggested, “We have to talk. I read your dissertation.” 

Ryan responded, “You did what?”

Reflecting back on that today, she added, “Who would do that? It’s 435 pages, but what she found was that I demonstrated how our Indigenous social institutions are connected to our heterogeneous mosaic landscapes.” 

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Disaster, Forests, Indigenous Nations

Amid climate impacts, leading Secwépemc firekeeper shares ‘a better way of looking after the land’

By Aaron Hemens, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Growing up in Nlakaʼpamux and syilx territories in the 1970s, Joe Gilchrist can’t remember a single summer when wildfire smoke ever trapped him indoors. 

The Merritt, B.C., region’s semi-arid landscape still saw scorching summer temperatures back then, he recalled, but not the record-breaking fire seasons of recent years. 

“That was thanks to our work that the Indigenous ancestors did on the land,” said Gilchrist, a Secwépemc Nation member who now lives on Skeetchsn Indian Band’s reserve with his daughter.

“Then, everything was still fairly spaced out; the fires were easier to handle.”

Although settlers’ wildfire suppression efforts had become the dominant form of land stewardship when he was young, Indigenous communities in the Nicola Valley were still using fire to “cleanse” the land, Gilchrist said.

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Cost of Climate Change

Billions in federal buildings, roads and other assets at risk from climate change

By Natasha Bulowski – with files from Rochelle Baker, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

Canada’s auditor general wants to know whether the federal government is doing a good job protecting its assets — including dams, buildings, vehicles and more — from the increasingly severe impacts of climate change.

The Department of National Defence received a notification letter — obtained by Canada’s National Observer through an access to information request — that the auditor general is launching a performance audit of “Protecting Federal Assets From Climate Change.”

The audit is for the government-wide Greening Government Strategy but pays special attention to three key departments — Fisheries and Oceans Canada, National Defence and Public Services and Procurement Canada — to assess their progress on protecting their assets, services and activities from climate change.

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Cost of Climate Change, Disaster

Driving through Canadian Wildfires: A Cross-Country Journey Amid the Smoke

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As of August 7, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported that wildfires have consumed more than 7.1 million hectares. There is a broad belt of fires stretching from Northern Alberta to Western Ontario (image below). 

Driving across Canada in mid to late May, we played tag with the smoke and its acrid scent all the way from the Saskatchewan border to Newfoundland. It wasn’t as bad as the news sometimes made it sound. There were days of bright, clear skies, as well as others when a fog-like haze settled across the landscape. The flames may have come within three kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Kenora, but we didn’t see them. The road remained open, although several side roads were blocked. The smoke, however, spread much farther. We saw a pink sun as far east as Corner Brook, Newfoundland, on May 28.

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