File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Jill Sperling

BC WILDFIRE

New TRU-based research chair to focus on forecasting, prevention of B.C. wildfires

Jul 30, 2020 | 1:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — The province is chipping in $5 million to support a new position of a research chair at Thompson Rivers University, to improve the understanding of wildfires.

B.C.’s Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources and Rural Development Doug Donaldson joined the university in announcing the position via teleconference today (July 30).

The role of the chair will be to support wildfire data modelling and investigate the relationship between climate change and wildfire risks.

“With this research chair, we are working across government, tapping into business and technology within the local community, and we are learning from Indigenous people’s long-held ecological approaches,” Donaldson said.

The 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons were among the worst on record in B.C., with a cost to the province of nearly $650 million in 2017 and $615 million in 2018.

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“I know that this chair will help deliver better prediction and forecasting of wildfire events as well as up-to-date B.C. focused information to support land management decisions and strategies,” said TRU President Brett Fairbairn. “The research is going look beyond the fires themselves and will include the social impact of fires on those who experience those impacts.”

The first appointment to the chair is expected later this year.