Ecosystem Restoration - Grasslands and Fire

[GoatGuy]

Great westland video.

It's old, but still the same issues as back then. Well worth the watch if you're concerned about the future of wildlife.

https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/westland/items/1.0048444

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Thanks for posting that up GG. Some good info in there.

I used to watch WestLands with my Dad back in the 80's but I was a bit too young to appreciate it for it's full value.

SSS

[Looking_4_Jerky]

Thanks for digging that up, GG. Not sure if I'd seen that one or just others like that.

You're right, it's an old video. But to me, that simply underscores how little we've done and what little distance we've come toward restoring fire as a regular component of our ecosystems. By the late 80s, the scientific community had already put the pieces together and widely acknowledged that fire was an integral and necessary natural process that had been missing for years, resulting in the alteration of ecosystems. Habitat within the ecosystems had shifted away from what the areas traditionally supported. Seemed obvious what our next steps should have been. Here we are 30 years later and our grassland interfaces look worse than ever. There is so much red tape and stakeholder consultation (among parties of conflicting interests) involved in conducting prescribed burns that our wildlife branches would have to look like a Manilla call center to be staffed adequately to be pulling off a good number of burns per year.

[HighCountryBC]

Social acceptance of prescribed burning needs a 180 degree swing from where it is currently at. The public hates smoke - makes for crappy golf weather in the spring/fall.

Burning in those shoulder seasons needs to become the norm. Too much red tape/user groups that want a say as it stands now in my opinion, and that generally leads to burns that are too small to have a major impact or no burning at all. You're not going to see fires allowed to burn without full response in areas with any timber value as industry would have a fit.

I know there are a few potential prescribed burns in the Okanagan/Similkameen that would do wonders for wildlife but are currently held up due to a number of reasons (GG is well aware).

Get the public on board with the positive impacts of burning - I think they will buy into reduced fuel loading/interface fire potential more so than what's healthy for the forest/wildlife (or get people involved who will withstand the public outcry over a couple days of smoke).

[rocksteady]

The pendulum of doing more prescribed burning is swinging back to being used more often and we are getting the public on board, one burn at a time...

[adriaticum]

Good video,

[Rob Chipman]

Thanks GG.

[Whonnock Boy]

The issues have not changed.

[Surrey Boy]

The issues have not changed.

Physics and biology haven't changed either.

[Bugle M In]

The issues have not changed.

Nope, the issues haven't changed, but the problem's has gotten even bigger since that video!
Way more development into grassland/winter ranges since '91, especially after the upturn in real estate market.
So many places were small towns for all the years I could remember, and then, suddenly, they all become Resorts.

[Bugle M In]

The pendulum of doing more prescribed burning is swinging back to being used more often and we are getting the public on board, one burn at a time...

I can only hope that it continues to swing even further in that direction, and that the "bob" becomes even larger
on the end of that pendulum.

[rocksteady]

I can only hope that it continues to swing even further in that direction, and that the "bob" becomes even larger
on the end of that pendulum.


Having positive public feedback will help turn the tide of opinion. If one of these occurs in your area and you like what you see, write letter to the editor, phone the district manager or what have you.. Usually we only hear from the people who are dissatisfied..