B.C. wildfire plan responds to record burning year

The 2017 fire season smashed records in British Columbia, triggering a forest policy discussion that has some intriguing divergence from the parallel debate in the United States. “If they accept this, we’re going to see more smoke in the air,” Robert Gray said of a megafire response plan sent to B.C. Premier John Horgan on Sept. 26. “We got together and said, ‘There’s our window.’ We can really change the way things are going — make transformational change — or do the same things and face the consequences.” “We” includes nine mayors, 20 professors, and five research center managers from Victoria to Cranbrook to the First Peoples’ Ktunaxa Nation. Gray was one of the co-authors, and has a career as a fire ecologist in Chilliwack, B.C. The plan includes 46 recommendations… While it assumes extensive timber industry participation, it also features a big boost in government spending.