BC Wildfire Photos, Fall 2017

When I was doing some reforestation viewing work in October and November of 2017, I ended up driving around many regions throughout central BC.  I was stunned by how extensive the wildfire damage was.

Obviously, the wildfires had been in the news for months, as it was BC's busiest fire season in history.  Several records were set, including records for the total amount of area burned in the province in a single year (1.2 million hectares), the number of people evacuated (over 65,000), and for hosting the largest single wildfire in BC's history (the Plateau fire, at 545,000 hectares, which is the size of Prince Edward Island).  More statistics can be found at these links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_British_Columbia_wildfires

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/wildfire-statistics/wildfire-season-summary

Despite the news coverage, and despite knowing the scope of the damage, it was still very surreal to drive through those areas.  There were a few areas where I drove for over two hours through completely burned out devastation.

A very small portion of this area will be replanted by hand in 2018, but most of the burned area will have to rely on natural regeneration, and it will be decades before natural forests regenerate.  The amount of burned area is far beyond the scope of BC's reforestation industry to address, and even if enough tree planters and funding could be found to tackle the problem over the next 5-10 years, all the western Canadian forestry nurseries combined don't have nearly enough capacity to produce the required amount of seedlings.

On a positive note, a lot of the area that was burned had pine trees, and lodgepole pine comes back very quickly and densely after a fire.  This is because the cones usually survive fires, and the heat opens them so the seeds can escape and start a new forest.  However, that only applies in areas where mature stands burned.  Any areas that were logged in the past thirty to forty years wouldn't have the necessary mature trees with cones to initiate this process.

All of the photos here are from the Cariboo region, and specifically, from four different fires:  The Hanceville complex, the Plateau complex, the Central Cariboo complex, and the Gustafsen fire.  These areas were located to the west of 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, and Quesnel.

A lot of tree planters in central BC are going to be working in these areas in 2018.  For more information about tree planting in BC, visit www.Replant.ca

All photos on this page may be shared publicly or commercially without compensation, as long as you leave the attribution to Replant.ca either in the photo or as a text attribution.

Stupid Clerks, part one

The other day, while I was still on the west coast (well, in Alberta) I had to run to town to pick up some stuff for my cooks. One of the things they asked for was 7 kilograms of thinly sliced [sandwich] ham.

I went to the deli counter at the IGA, and said that I wanted 7 kilograms of sliced ham. The girl looked confused, so I showed her the list and repeated my order. She looked at it and said, “You mean 700.”

I was confused, and said, “No, just 7.” After she insisted a couple times that I meant 700, I said, “I think you’re getting confused by my cook’s handwriting. That reads SEVEN KAY GEE not SEVEN ZERO ZERO.” She didn’t understand.

Our argument went on. Even the lady in line behind me was getting exasperated, and she couldn’t believe the clerk either, so she yelled over my shoulder, “He wants fifteen pounds.” Another clerk behind the counter came to the defense of the first one: “We don’t cut it in pounds anymore.”

I tried a new approach. I said, “I know this sounds like a lot, but I’m trying to buy enough meat here to feed eighty people with lunch sandwiches for three or four days.” She replied, “I know, and 7 is not nearly enough. You need 700.” I suddenly thought I understood what the problem was: she was confusing grams and kilograms. I tried a new approach, “I think you’re talking about grams. I want seven kilograms, which is a lot of meat, not seven grams, which is a couple slices.” She said, “No, you don’t understand how we weigh things here.”

Obviously I didn’t.

At this point I was getting short on diplomacy as I was already late for meeting someone, so I said, “Listen, just start slicing meat. I’m going to go pick up some paper towels. When I get back here, I’ll tell you when to stop.” She didn’t look impressed, but when I saw her reach for the ham, I figured that I was safe to pick up the paper towels.

When I got back, she was all smiles. She had the right amount of meat all packaged on the counter. I started to put the package into the cart when she apologized, “Sorry, I didn’t understand what you meant. I think this is what you wanted. This is actually seven THOUSAND kilograms.”

Inconceivable!

It's a good thing that I brought the big truck.