BC Foresters Watchful For Beetle Signs In Massive PEI-Sized 2017 Burn (12,000 km2)

[hatrack]

All around her in a forest near Williams Lake in south central B.C. the exterior of the trees are a sooty black. For beetles, the fire-scarred trees are both a huge banquet and a breeding ground.

The devastation is part of the more than 12,000 square kilometres of forests that burned during last year's record-setting fire season in the province. That's an area twice the size of Prince Edward Island. More than 60,000 people were forced to flee their homes, and it cost a budget-busting $568 million just to fight the fires.

Daniels's work is part of an effort by government and universities to understand the impact of the destruction and figure out what can be done to help forests recover. An independent review of the wildfires prepared for the B.C. government suggests climate change is leading to "a new normal" where extreme fires will be much more frequent. Four of the province's most destructive fire seasons have occurred in the past eight years.

Researchers across the country say there's an urgency to learn how our forests are adapting to climate change, and how it will impact both communities surrounded by forests, and the people who depend on healthy woodlands for their livelihoods.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wildfires-bc-beetles-1.4692405

[msongs]

1. forests need fire and a good burning every now and then nt

[hatrack]

2. Not that simple - from the article:

In this part of the forest, there is very little life left. "If you look around us, the fire was burning really hot," Daniels says. She pulls out a knife and scrapes into the charred earth, sending up puffs of ash.

"It's burned down to just black and white ash," she says. "There's very little organic material left behind here."

That's a problem, she says, because in the past, most fires didn't burn so deep down into the ground; they left behind seeds and roots that helped the forests recover.

[NickB79]

3. They need low-level clearing burns at ground level

What we're now seeing are unnatural, climate-change-pumped megafires: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150809-wildfires-forest-fires-climate-change-science/