Late last month, the new documentary film, B.C. Is Burning!, was shown in Kelowna and Vernon.

In B.C., five of the last eight years have seen the most land burned by forest fires in the recorded history of the province. That can be attributed, in part, to climate change which has caused hotter, drier summers in western Canada and the trend is accelerating. Forests, in bad fire years, emit twice as many greenhouse gases as all other sources of emissions the provincial government reports on, thereby further contributing to climate change.

The solutions proposed by the film include prescribed burns to reduce fuel load. By burning forested lands when conditions are not conducive to forest fires, the fires will be more controllable and cooler and not overly damaging to trees and soil, as can be the catastrophic fires we are now seeing. The other solution offered is thinning tree stands so fires spread less rapidly through the forest.

Around the world, the forest industry is promoting this kind of “active management” rhetoric. In fact, the current B.C. forests minister, Ravi Parmar, has stated repeatedly in the last few months, we have to manage even our protected forests. More forest management is a convenient solution for, and promoted by, the forest industry in response to increasing forest fire........

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