“Wild” Fires Canada 2023

[Steve G.]

  An interesting perspective of the current situation:


https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canadas-burning-because-of-bad-forest-policy-not-climate-change


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-did-the-wildfires-in-canada-start-cause-nova-scotia-quebec/


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/smoke-air-quality-what-started-the-wildfire.html

[hardrockminer]

The NP article relies in part on a 2016 report.  Here in BC the worst fire seasons were 2017, 2018 and 2022.  So they weren't included in the report.  The pine beetle destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of timber between about 2000 and 2010.  Most of that timber was not logged and is now dead and dry, creating ideal conditions for wildfires.

Again, here in BC roughly half of all fires are caused by lightning.  The other half are human caused.

In 2021, after enduring weeks of smoke we decided to take our RV out to Bella Coola.  Most of the highway West of the Fraser River is burned by fires over the last few years.  We actually drove through one fire. 

[Steve G.]

   Up until 3 days ago, on the BC Wildfire app, a government app, showed confirmed cause at over 85% human caused. Without reason, they have inexplicably removed "cause". I guess it doesn't fit the current provincial and federal govt. "narrative".

[hardrockminer]

You need to go back and look at previous years to get a sense of how many are human caused.  I have no idea why they removed the cause from this year's fires but I've seen no evidence to suggest they are trying to cover something up.

In 2022 it was 68% were caused by lightning.  Other years back to 2003 can be viewed here.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/about-bcws/wildfire-history/wildfire-season-summary?keyword=2022

Meanwhile, here is an interesting site.

https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/