By Adam Donnelly

Wildfire preparedness workshop wants to get ranchers ready for 2019 season

Feb 12, 2019 | 3:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — Over the past two summers, British Columbia has been paralyzed by two of the worst wildfire seasons ever recorded. For families who rely on the land for their prosperity like ranchers and farmers, these fires can have catastrophic consequences, reducing generations of hard work and investment to ashes.

To help mitigate and reduce the impact of wildfires on the agricultural sector, the BC Climate Action initiative is holding a series of wildfire preparedness workshops for agricultural producers across the province to ensure they’re ready if and when the next major wildfire strikes.

With Kamloops in the midst of the most wintery weather we’ve seen in a while, the threat of wildfires is far from the minds of most folks. For Wildfire Mitigation Specialist Kevin Smith, the blowing snow is a great way to teach people about the dangers of wildfires to structures on their property.

“Where we actually see up 60% of the structure loss in a wildfire is from the ember storm,” Smith told CFJC Today. “When we think of an ember storm, we think of the worst snowstorm we’ve ever seen. The embers are able to penetrate our homes and find sites of ignition.”

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Jim Forbes with the BC Ministry of Agriculture says with what’s at stake for these families, preparedness is a key piece to protecting livelihoods across BC.

“We’ve tried to have some programs in place to help producers,” Forbes explained. “It’s one of those things where those programs aren’t meant to make producers whole. So they’ve still lost a significant amount of money.”

It’s a reality ranch owner Judy Steeves knows all too well. Her family was affected by the 2017 Elephant Hill Wildfire.

“Our family’s ranch is about 15 km from Cache Creek,” Steeves said. “We felt we were pretty safe, but when we saw how fast that fire moved, we were pretty worried.”

Steeves says the 2017 Wildfire season was a wake-up call for her family, which is why she’s now taking an active role in wildfire preparedness.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m here today,” Steeves told CFJC Today. “I’ll probably continue to do that every spring… attending something like this gets your mind in gear. We weren’t prepared in 2017… right away.”

The workshops will only work if the people taking them turn the words into action.

According to Forbes “The Boy Scouts have it right. We live in a fire ecosystem, and producers need to be prepared.”

“The phrase ‘new normal’ is out there,” Smith said, of the recent fire seasons. “We’re actually worried that this could be the beginning of a new trajectory.”

There are 7 more wildfire preparedness workshops scheduled throughout the province. For more information, you can visit www.bcagclimateaction.ca.