I’ll listen to any ideas on how can be more proactive with our forrest fire management/response under one condition. Whoever it is has to fully acknowledge that we are dealing with hotter and drier weather as a result of human induced climate change.
I am seeing a growing subset of individuals using poor forest management and arson as a way of deflecting their views/voting patterns on climate change. Human included climate change is real. Jasper. Fort Mac. Our summers of smoke. This should be a wake up call to the type of people that need their own evidence to trust the world is changing.
My anecdotal experience is the solutions will be unpopular. My family has a cabin in Invermere. The local fire department / government has come around with recommendations on making the houses more fire safe. Clearing brush / dead trees is popular and common sense. Asking people to cut down fire risk trees on their properties because they are too close to their homes / their neighbours homes is very unpopular.
It worries me that we’ve hit the tipping point where little can be done. Pine beetles don’t die in our warmer winters. It’s hotter and drier than ever before. Embers can travel 1-2 km’s. I’m all for more permanent firebreaks / controlled burns, but I dont think it will be enough.
Hopefully I’m wrong.
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