Results from the watershed studies show loss of healthy tree cover increases erosion, sediment loads and water temperatures along local streams and rivers.

More than 790,000 hectares of forests in B.C. have burned so far this year. Last year, 1.2 million hectares burned. Floods in the Interior followed the 2017 fire season. The connections between forests, fire and floods are clear, but we’re now beginning to understand that the kind of intense wildfires we’ve been seeing threaten far more less-obvious resources. …Most British Columbia communities rely on water from the province’s forests. …When forests are burned intensely and extensively, a landscape’s relationship with precipitation changes. Trees soften the impact of rain or hail on the ground. …These services reduce erosion, slow the release of water into creeks and rivers, and help dampen the extremes of seasonal and extreme weather-event flooding. …Results from the watershed studies showed that the loss of healthy tree cover by the beetle would increase erosion, sediment loads and water temperatures along local streams and rivers.