I began to distrust the province’s wildfire statistics after noticing the reported size of the Donnie Creek fire — the province’s largest ever — was not altered from mid-July to mid-September. Yet throughout this time, BC Wildfire Service stated that Donnie Creek was out of control. Now at the end of September, the fire is still uncontrolled and the government agency said it may burn until winter.
Now, my distrust seems proven. On September 29, BC Wildfire Service added 533,409 hectares (5,334 square kilometres) to the total area burned in the province. That is 93 percent of the amount reported in the preceding four weeks and almost one-fifth of the total for 2023.
The 30,207 square kilometres (about 7.5 million acres) reported as burned in 2023 is 9x the average in the preceding 15 years and 18x times the 2008-2016 average. That latter number is significant because BC NDP operator Bill Tieleman was writing in The Tyee in 2017, blaming BC Liberals for failing to follow recommendations of Gary Filmon’s Firestorm 2003 Provincial Review and generally underspending and doing too little on wildfire prevention.
Tieleman promised that BC NDP would not be like the BC Liberals who, he wrote, “fiddled while our forests burned.”
The NDP scribbler included a note of climate change denial that should have received more attention. It foreshadowed NDP commitment to increased fossil fuel production in British Columbia.
And while environmental groups loudly proclaim the fires are caused by climate change — a conclusion that conveniently promotes their demands to eliminate fossil fuels — it doesn’t lay the blame where it actually belongs.
In 2017, UBC Professor Lori Daniels was quoted by the Globe and Mail:
We are on the path that was projected related to climate change. And as we look to the future, the kinds of fire weather conditions we have now that we consider extreme, when we project forward based on climate change predictions, they become more like our average conditions. This is very disconcerting and it is a serious concern for us.
Conditions in 2023 have proven Professor Daniels correct, and today’s government even worse at moderating wildfire risks than were the BC Liberals.
BC NDP took power in 2017 promising to be different than their predecessors. That pledge has been accurate, at least in regard to healthcare, climate and resource policies. Indeed, they have been different. Worse, not better.
Categories: Forestry
in-sights.ca 
sept 20-2023-trip on the peace river reveals hundereds of half burnt log piles-hundereds of thousans of trees of all sizes felled by bc hydro crews left laying like a thousand pickup sticks–all this trash will float as the water rises for site c flooding the peace river valley causing huge log jams-as the moose -elk -deer and all other critters that live in the valley try to swim across the peace river they will get caught up in these log jams and drown—this is history repeating itself—as the waters of williston resivoir were rising hundereds of thousands of moose were caught up in these log jams and were drown–this event was documented in the book crooked river rats by bernard mckay–the rotten bloated carcasses floating in williston for years to come-it is no wonder that bc hydro wants to shut down the river valley for boaters so no one can see this event happen–i intend on filming this event–mark meiers-charlie lake bc
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a corrupt govt
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The NDP’s complete lack of anything environmental makes my gorge rise.
A corrupt government is a much too simple moniker, rather they have become Malignant Narcissists, refusing to listen to anyone except their diminishing retinue of supporters. The only reason the NDP will probably win the next election is that Falcon’s BC United rates a 2, with Eby’s NDP being a 3.
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So how do you hold NDP’s hands to the fire? Anyone?
Changing the deck chairs on the Titanic by voting won’t change
anything. Proportional might help. Doubtful though. The political
system by which we participate in and are governed by will never
respond to the serious matters we and the next generation face.
Norm’s entries here should make that pretty clear. You can only
endure so much bad news to try and live a healthy mental daily
life. The song entitled “It’s Good News Week” by the
Hedgehoppers comes to mind. Social media is not your friend.
Storm the Bastille?
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