Wildfire: What Do We Know About the Efficacy of Fuel Management?

ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

Since about 2013, both the total area burned and the size of individual wildfires have been increasing across sub-boreal spruce ecosystems in the central and northern interior of B.C. Not surprisingly, this has brought greater attention to fire management as the loss of values – and suppression costs – have reached unprecedented levels. This has led to a corresponding increase in fuel treatments at a cost that will be difficult to sustain. But do we truly understand what we are doing? The literature on fuel treatments is largely from dryer forests and warmer climates such as Douglas-fire and ponderosa pine ecosystems. In this presentation we explore some foundational fuel management concepts at both the stand and landscape level, what we know and don’t know about their efficacy in the forests we live in, and what the path forward might look like.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Larry McCulloch is a Registered Professional Forester who has been practicing for more than 40 years across western and northern Canada. He is also a certified auditor under ISO 9000, ISO 14001, and ISO 14064. Larry has extensive experience with strategic fire management planning, community wildfire planning, fuel treatment implementation, fuel treatment research including case study analysis and prescribed burning, wildfire suppression, post-fire rehabilitation, and many compliance and conformance investigations including some respecting wildfire. Larry has lived in Smithers since 1986 and is an avid outdoor recreation enthusiast.