This is our second worst wildfire season on records-and can be new to normal
This year’s wildfire season is already the second worst on records in Canada, and experts are warning that it can be normal.
Canadian International Forest Fire Center (CIFFC) and Natural Resources have burnt over 7.3 million hectares so far for this year for this year, according to the latest Canadian data.
Mike Flenigan, a professor at Wildland Fire at Thompson River University, told CBC News, “This is the size of the New Breanswick, to bring it in reference,” Mike Firengan, Professor of Wildland Fire at Thompson River University, told CBC News.
The last three fire seasons are 10 worst in records, dating back in 1972 according to a federal database, the 2023 disastrous Blaze took the top position.
Flenigan, who has been studying fire since the 70s, said, “I have never seen three bad fire season.”
“I have seen two in a row: ’94, ’95. I have never seen three. It’s scary.”
Manitoba and Suskechewan accounts for more than half of the area so far, but British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are all above their 25 years average. Fire ban has been announced in several provinces, including total ban on going to the forest in Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, this week, a military and coast guard were called to help fight fire in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to CIFFC, about 1,400 international firefighters have also helped fight Canadian fire this year.
Scientists say that the climate change, inspired by the burning of fossil fuel, has created a long -term fire season and dried landscapes, causing more intense and widespread forest fire.
“I always used to say … a few years are cooler and wet and we will find a quiet year,” said Flenigan.
“But perhaps a bad fire is going to be a year every year.”
Dry conditions across the country have allowed this fire season to set fire to the balloon quickly.
“Canadian forests are very dry, very hot,” environmental canadian climologist David Philips told CBC News. “This year … there is no kind of rebuke from what we have seen.”
This year notable blazes have been seen in areas where we have not historically not Newfoundland and Labrador, where a fire has exceeded 5,200 hectares.
Natural Resources A research scientist at Forest Ecology in Canada says Boulenger says Newfoundland says “the huge fire is not used to see the fire.”
“But we have to use more and more for this, as those ecosystems are also estimated to see an increase in fire activity in the coming decades.”
The other is the other outer Quebec, which was one of the toughest-touched provinces in 2023, when the estimated 4.5 million hectares were burnt.
This year, there has been a lot of fire season in the province, thanks to the continuous rainfall in spring and early summer, Baulngar says. But a sudden match of dry conditions in August, usually a cool fire month for the province, has been recommended by experts.
Repeated fire results
Bad back-to-back fire season can have major results.
Fire is a natural part of the life cycle for many tree species, but a forest can be damaged to the point where the tree cannot come in the area for years, or for decades. This is called “regeneration failure”.
“The problem is when we have a lot of fire and we are out of what we are saying to the natural variability of the system,” said Boulanger. “When such things happen … then the forest can lose its flexibility.”
Scientists are already looking at it in the areas of Quebec, which were heavy damaged in 2023, and in the Northwest regions and parts of Alberta, are called Bougalangar. Right now, regeneration failure in Quebec is affected by about 300,000 to 400,000 hectares.
Low trees means that less carbon is being stored, increasing the problem of emissions during widespread wildfire. The 2023 fire produced about a quarter of the year’s global wildfire carbon emissions. Meanwhile, wildfire smoke has been linked to innumerable health complications, including a high risk of dementia.
Most parts of Canada remain a warm warning as warm and humid temperatures continue to continue wildfire. Ken McMulan, Fire Chief for Red Dear, Alta, are calling to allocate resources for the development of a national wildfire and coordinate rescue efforts between the provinces.
Experts say that intensive wildfire with becoming an annual problem on a new scale in Canada, we need more strategies.
Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) has called Ottawa Establish a National Forest Fire Coordination Agency To ensure that personnel and equipment can be distributed across the country when heavy fire in various areas, and fire is on the major table when national policies are made.
The government is studying the possibility of creating a national disaster response agency from 2023, and met with CAFC to discuss it in December. But it is time to move beyond the planning phase, according to the president’s president and fire chief Kane McMulan in the Red Dear, Alta.
“All sides are saying that they think this is a good idea. The reality has not helped anyone take the ball and bring beyond the finish line,” he said.
At Thompson River University, Flainigan supports the idea, but believes that we need to go ahead and create a strong national emergency management agency that will be able to provide training to fight wildfire, the forecasts where there is a possibility of fire and whether they are a threat, and then transfer resources there.
“Yes, it’s going to spend money, but if it stops a Jesper, a Fort McMure, it pays for itself,” he said, referring to the Alberta communities destroyed by fire in recent years.
“The status quo is not working. We are spending billions and billions of dollars on fire management expenses, but our region has been burnt, it has been quadrupled since the 1970s.”
