B.C. needs to develop a new relationship with rural communities, especially First Nations

The UBC paper coauthored by Daniels, Gray and Burton about the 2017 mega-fires has an extensive section on integrated wildland-urban, interface-zoning and proactive landscape planning which is a good starting point for any community wanting to reduce the impact of wildfires. The introduction starts with relationships. In order to reduce the threat of wildfires, B.C. needs to develop a new relationship with rural communities, especially First Nations. It stresses that the primary land management objective in the vicinity of rural communities should be long-term maintenance of low fire hazard condition. It then lists a number of existing policies that must be changed or abolished in the vicinity (in some cases as far out as 15 kilometres) of rural communities.