A New Wildland — Fire Strategy For Canada

On October 4, 2005, federal, provincial and territorial forest ministers unveiled the Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy (CWFS) Declaration and committed to a shared vision and common set of principles for wildland fire management in Canada. They also agreed to begin immediate development of joint, cost-shared, proposaldriven initiatives that could represent significant investments over the next 10 years. The funding would facilitate the implementation of a comprehensive and integrated suite of activities necessary to increase public safety, enhance the health and productivity of Canada’s forests, and foster innovative approaches to interagency cooperation and risk management.

Developed under the auspices of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM), the CWFS is one of the most comprehensive reviews on forest fire management in Canada in many decades. It is the result of several years of extensive analysis, intense discussions, and a strong commitment among the leaders of Canada’s wildland fire management agencies to cooperate on this common issue.

Recent severe fire seasons in all parts of Canada have illustrated that the vulnerability of people, property and vital forests has reached an unprecedented level, and this trend is projected to grow. The reasons for the increased vulnerability include more frequent and intense fires resulting from climate change; insect infestations that leave dead, and thus, highly flammable trees in their wake; and the rising number of homes, cottages and businesses being built in or near flammable forests. "It is likely not a matter of if, but when, another major disaster like the devastating fires in B.C. in 2003 will occur somewhere else in Canada," says Brian Emmett, Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service. "Our greatest concern is that, next time, the tragic consequences of such an event will go beyond the destruction of property and prime woodlands to include the loss of human lives."

Emmett, Co-chair of the CWFS ADM Working Group, along with Tim Sheldan, Assistant Deputy Minister of B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, says the gap is growing between what must be done to manage forest fires effectively and the ability to do so. Across Canada, there is growing recognition that it is neither economically possible nor ecologically desirable to eliminate all fires from our wildlands and, therefore, the complex challenge of managing a myriad of risks to people, the economy and the environment must be faced.

"Wildfires pose a sizeable threat to public safety, which is the responsibility of all levels of government in Canada," says Emmett. "More than 700,000 people and over 250 communities—many of which are inhabited by Aboriginal peoples—have been threatened by wildfires in the past ten years. The issues of today and of the future cannot be solved by simply using the methods of the past; therefore, new and innovative approaches are needed." Canada’s reputation among the forested nations of the world is second to none when it comes to wildland fire knowledge and experience, says Kelvin Hirsch, Fire Research Manager at the CFS in Edmonton.

"One of the major reasons for this is because fire drives the boreal and the boreal makes up 77 percent of Canada’s forest, so we have been working with this reality for the past century," says Hirsch. "We’re not only a forest nation, we’re a forest fire nation."

He adds that, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the focus of Canadian forest policy and practices on resource usage—combined with European-based perceptions and fear of fire—resulted in forest fires being seen as "the enemy."

"Fire, in fact, has been an important factor in the Canadian forest since the last Ice Age," he points out. "This is particularly true in Canada’s vast boreal forest region, where fire is critical to the very existence of primary boreal species such as pine, spruce, fir and aspen."

Hirsch points out that Canadian agencies (provinces, territories and Parks Canada) are world leaders in forest fire management; however, just as with hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, sometimes Mother Nature presents unstoppable wildfire conditions. While the vast majority of wildland fires in this country—about 97 percent—are contained at less than 200 hectares (ha), the remaining 3 percent that burn under the most extreme conditions account for 95-98 percent of the total area burned. Fires in excess of 100,000 ha are not uncommon in Canada, and fires exceeding one million ha have been recorded, most of them occurring in the remote "modified suppression" zones located primarily in the northern regions of Western and Central Canada.

Based on input from individuals covering a broad spectrum of disciplines, best practices from across Canada and around the world, and extensive analyses by a federal/provincial "core team," the CWFS identifies ways to address the seemingly daunting challenge of balancing the positive ecological aspects of fire with the possible negative impacts on people and the economy. The tool kit available to fire managers will be expanded to include hazard mitigation, preparedness and recovery activities that complement an efficient and enhanced fire suppression and response system. New ways of sharing risk from an economic standpoint will also be explored.

Unveiling of the Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy Declaration October 4, 2005 Left: The Honourable David Forbes, Minister of Environment, Government of Saskatchewan Right: Richard B. Fadden, Deputy Minister, Natural Resources Canada

The Strategy builds on a strong spirit of intergovernmental cooperation within the Canadian wildland fire management community. This "esprit de corps" is most evident in the fact that, for over two decades, thousands of fire fighting resources, such as aircraft, firefighters and water pumps, have been exchanged between agencies when wildfires become too numerous and too large for a single organization to handle on its own.

The ministerial declaration provides the political impetus for the development of collective and bilateral agreements whereby each of the wildland fire management organizations will approach its respective government for an appropriate contribution to address its priority needs. The funding will support initiatives targeted at immediate needs like the replacement of aging aircraft and equipment. There will also be a stepped-up recruitment and training program to create the next generation of professional fire management staff, which will incorporate capacity-building in Aboriginal and rural communities. The Strategy will also address underlying challenges through such activities as an extensive public awareness campaign, the creation and implementation of FireSmart land-use planning and development guidelines for homes and communities, and the appropriate management of forest fuels in high-hazard areas to create safer communities and healthier forest ecosystems. The development and application of new science and technology will foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, leading to products such as pan-Canadian early warning and wildfire monitoring systems and improved predictive models. It will also serve as the basis for the regular updating of policies and practices according to the most recent findings and knowledge. All of these actions will tackle key issues before they become major problems and, ultimately, reduce the overall burden on the fire management system and on expenditures to taxpayers.

As the Co-chairs state, "The CWFS is an ambitious initiative that, when implemented, will make Canada’s wildland fire management policies and programs among the most progressive in the world, thereby enhancing the safety of Canadians and facilitating the wise management of the country’s valuable natural resources."

Hirsch suggests that, once the Strategy is in place, it will serve as a model for other forested nations, particularly those northern countries that also contain boreal forest. The Strategy will constitute part of a long list of forest management techniques and policies that provincial, territorial and federal organizations have shared globally.