Comments for the BV Research Centre

Tuesday night’s presentation by John Vaillant was very good and thank-you to Janet Harris, the Tremblay’s and the BVRC team for coordinating this event. I must say I was disappointed to find John’s presentation paired with a pro burning agenda.

‘They don’t want to give up the thing that gave them everything’

John Vaillant

John spoke about climate change, industry and the new realities of wildfire. It was of great interest and value. His book FIRE Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World is available at the library and in stores. Here is a link to a National Post interview. This quote refers to the oil industry but its true in all our relationships with Fire. Whether we burn for pleasure, for cooking, to clear trash, debris, reduce wildfire risk, aethetics (grass burning) or other reasons – we like to burn! It’s not in our DNA but it’s part of our culture. Until we start teaching about all the aspects of fire including consequences with transperancy and non bias, this issue will never be resolved.

Cultural Burning or what I like to refer to as Burning for Berries in the thesis by Rick Rick Budhwa should be discussed and practiced I agree.

BUT preceding the appeal for public support we need to reengage the community in air quality planning. I find it disappointing the Research Centre would not have tried to balance the agenda at the table with a neutral discussion on the impacts of air quality from wildfire smoke particularly the impacts we are going to experience due to FIRE weather. Continually expanding sources of emissions without dealing with the consequences and mitigating the risk to human health and ecosystems at the same time is wrong.

This was a missed opportunity to talk about holistic air quality management, identifying and using our community’s best burning practices, and mitigating the negative effects of poor air quality.

On the topic: Air Monitoring and Community Engagement

Get Involved: the BVLD Airshed Management will be meeting Wednesday Nov. 20th, 2024 4- 6pm in Smithers