453 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Folks, -that’s- the kind of guy who knows when to hold them, and when to fold. He’s the sort of person I can understand when he says he’s not evacuating.

But the rest of you/us/me? Hell no. Under no circumstance should you ever defy an evacuation order because you think you know what you’re doing and what you’re up against.

[Victoria Watcher]

Residents of Jasper, Alta., who lost their homes in last month’s wildfire face unique rebuilding challenges tied to leasing provisions nearly as old as Canada, followed modern rules dictating what they can and can’t construct.

 

Lawyer Jessica Reed said property owners in the townsite in Jasper National Park own their buildings but, unlike other municipalities, don’t own the land they sit on.

 

“The actual owner of the land, even if you looked at the land title, is the King himself,” said Reed, a partner with a firm that has offices in four Rocky Mountain municipalities, including Jasper.

 

This means that each property owner in Jasper, like those in other communities located within a national park, is a leaseholder with the Crown and must make annual payments tied to property values, Reed said.

 

The Canada National Parks Act also stipulates the leases are usually for 42-year terms, although some are shorter, and renewing involves renegotiating terms of the leases.

 

Reed said this has already caused headaches for Jasper homeowners, as banks sometimes refuse to issue mortgages if the existing lease on a property is shorter than the prospective mortgage term.

 

That problem could become much bigger, given 358 homes and businesses in the town of 5,000 people were recently levelled by fire, she said.

She’s concerned the leases may impede rebuilding efforts and potentially cause financial harm.

 

 

 

https://www.cheknews...ebuild-1218204/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 August 2024 - 07:33 AM.

[Mike K.]

A wildfire is burning west of Nanaimo’s airport along the Nanaimo River.

It’s over an acre in size.

[Mike K.]

Last night, 9:20PM:

https://youtube.com/...vPp2CsC4vCwhOHe

Be sure to check out his ‘shorts’ on YouTube. In his main video he says “we’re not professional firefighters,” he’s speaking to his group, I guess, because he was a wildfire firefighter. He’s got quite the channel, wowza. Lots of tips on how to do all sorts of things around the house.

Latest update: https://youtu.be/ucf...6D7lmteKYAE6jdT

These guys are the real deal. A key element to all of this is radio equipment to know what’s going on. It sounds like it’s critical to have that set up right.

[Mike K.]

Another fire was discovered along the Nanaimo River, but quick work was made of it and it has been extinguished.

Meanwhile, that wildfire firefighter who stayed behind to protect his home put out a video showing a national forest near him, to illustrate a point about forest management: https://youtube.com/...8r3M_nwTleyDowl

It’s pretty clear that our forest management needs tweaking.

[max.bravo]

I was up in lake cowichan this weekend with a stop at Kinsol trestle, and couldn’t help but think the same thing for most of the entire trip. Thick, dense monoculture forests, with tons of deadfall, everywhere. Scary stuff. I’d never want to live in a forest. From the dense brush and trees lining the highways, to the houses packed within forests - not somewhere I’d want to be.

If I owned a property up there the first thing I’d do is clear it and place my house in the centre of a bigass lawn.

[Mike K.]

What is a bigger concern, potentially, is urban canopy cover. Has anyone studied the fire impacts via tree removal bylaws in the urban environment? Lots of trees in the City of Victoria that ought to come down are not, because of concerns over municipal problems. Houses among trees in an urban environment could be just as bad, or worse, than housing in a semi-rural forested environment with more freedom to manage property.

I guess each scenario relies on firefighters. After an earthquake or another emergency there may be a lot of urban fires that cannot be put out in time.

[lanforod]

I always figured the Broadmead/Sunnymead area is just ripe for a fire to rip through.

[Victoria Watcher]

Between April 1 and October 31 (2023), 2,245 wildfires burned more than 2.84 million hectares of forest and land. This is the most hectares burned in a wildfire season in B.C.’s recorded history.

 

Though the number of wildfires and hectares burned are significant, 80 per cent of wildfires this season were contained at five hectares or less.

 

Other years saw more total fires. Twelve seasons have had over 3,000 fires from April 1 to October 31, with 1970 holding the record with 3,990 fires.

 

 

https://www2.gov.bc....-season-summary

 

 

 

 

Interesting that the worst season for number of fires was over half a century ago.  How much do you want to bet that in 1970 they did not record the number of hectares burned?  When they say 2023 was "the worst on record", those records might only go back to 2008:

 

https://www2.gov.bc....ldfire-averages

 

And much prior to 1950 I'm sure they hardly put out any fires, they did not have the capacity or equipment.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 August 2024 - 11:39 AM.

[Nparker]

 

 

...Between April 1 and October 31 (2024), 2,245 wildfires burned more than 2.84 million hectares of forest and land...

It is known exactly how many fires and how many hectares of forest are going to burn in the next 74 days? I never knew forest fire stats were so exact and predicable.

[Victoria Watcher]

Sorry, that was my addition (thus the brackets), it was supposed to be 2023.

 

Fixed.

[Victoria Watcher]

This was 1919:

 

https://en.wikipedia...fires_in_Canada

 

 

Only 11 people killed despite having very limited weather or fire-tracking information (and information sharing) or firefighting ability.

 

2M hectares by the way is 20,000 sq. km.  BC is around 945,000 sq. km.

 

 

^ That's about 2M hectares.

 

One might make a case that that amount burning and renewing each year would be good for the ecosystem.

 

Certainly for 99.98% of the history of the world, it all worked out.

 

There is no area of the earth that does not have trees (except extreme regions) and even the oldest trees are only 500 or 600 years old (there are some very rare exceptions almost up to 10,000 years old).   But trees have been on the earth for hundreds of millions of years.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 August 2024 - 11:58 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 August 2024 - 10:41 AM.

[dasmo]

Satire surely?