U.S. ecologist’s megafires message timely for planning Cariboo Chilcotin’s future

Smokey Bear is in need of an upgrade, said Dr. Paul Hessburg as a photograph of the famous fire-prevention icon came up on the screen during his “era of the megafires,” presentation in Williams Lake Wednesday. He was referring to the fact that in his presentation Smokey was wielding a gas can and assisting with a prescribed burn, which the U.S. Forest Service ecologist said is one of the tools in the tool box that can help create fire-resilient landscapes. “If we don’t change a handful of our fire management habits we are going to lose many more of these landscapes and some of them are not going to recover in our lifetime, our kids’ lifetime or my grandkids lifetime, ” Hessburg said, noting as a father and a scientist, he’s deeply concerned about what he’s leaving behind.