Forest Fires > Natural Disturbance Database > Data Sources

Data Sources

BC Forest Fire Records

Kwa Fire - Kwadacha Provincial Park. J. Parminter photo

Since 1920 the B.C. Ministry of Forests have completed a fire report on each wildfire actioned that includes information such as location, date of ignition, probable cause, final size, and a unique fire number identifier. Maps are prepared for fires greater than 20 hectares. Much of the significant information from 1950 to present has been transferred to an electronic database. A central fire atlas was created in the 1920s whereby fire boundaries and fire ID number were transferred to a set of base maps. Wildfires greater than 5 ha are also recorded on forest cover maps. The fire reports and atlas are a record of the fires actioned by the BC Ministry of Forests - small fires that were not discovered or fires in remote areas that were not actioned are not included. Also fires that occurred in the Railway Belt until 1930 and in national parks up to present day are not included.

Data for 1920 - 1950 is from a set of 150 linen maps at scales of 1:50 000 - - 1:125 000; data from 1950 -86 is from 1200 mylar overlaps of BCGS 1:125 000 topographic maps; maps from 1986 -2000 are from individual fire reports and forest inventory records. The spatial database contains approximately 15,000 fires. The attribute data includes BC Ministry of Forests fire number, date of ignition, and general cause. Additional attributes can be obtained for fires from 1950-2000 through the BC Ministry of Forests fire ID number.

BC Forest Service fire atlas map of the West Kootenays area, 1920-1950. Lightning caused fires are yellow and person-caused fires are red.

BC Forest Insect Infestation Records

The Canadian Forest Service began to survey forest insect outbreaks in the early 1900's. Between 1920-59, maps were in annual reports of the Vernon Forest Insect Laboratory at a variety of scales. These maps were based on ground observations and are more complete for southern BC.

Between 1959 and 1996 the CFS Forest Insect and Disease Survey (FIDS) Unit carried out province-wide aerial surveys in each of the 6 provincial forest regions. Information on possible outbreaks was gathered from local contacts and flight paths planned. During the aerial survey, the surveyor made a sketch map of the boundaries of outbreaks that were encountered on a base map (usually a 1:125 000 or 1:250 000 NTS topographic map) and noted the pest agent and severity of attack. Insect species identifications were confirmed by ground-based sampling. Because of the map scale, only outbreaks greater than about 20 ha were mapped as polygons. Smaller outbreaks were identified as points.

Forest insect infestation maps from 1998-2002 are from the BC Ministry of Forests annual provincial overview surveys.

The spatial database includes records of outbreaks for the 60 damage agents in the following list including 9 bark beetles (red), 25 defoliators (green), 9 other insects (purple), 12 diseases (brown) and 4 other animal and climatic agents (blue). It should be recognized that these are maps of outbreaks that were surveyed, not a complete outbreak history. Records are less complete for remote areas in early years before aerial surveys; for agents that caused minor damage or damage that is difficult to identify from aerial surveys such as many diseases; or for agents that affect tree species that historically had lower commercial value such as subalpine fir and hardwoods; and in some years when there was less funding available for flying time.