The Other New Normal – PART I

And because a community is, by definition, placed, its success cannot be divided from the success of its place…its soils, forests, grasslands, plants and animals, water, light, and air. The two economies, the natural and the human support each other; each is the other’s hope of a durable and livable life[1].

-Wendell Berry

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Give me the facts

My aunt and I were on a morning walk during a July vacation I had started. As we meandered our way up to Old Mission Road in Oyama, BC, we talked about the current weather anomalies hitting BC this summer. My aunt has lived in the Okanagan Valley for over 50 years. Summer after summer, I would see her tidying up the deadfall around her lot. She has always been conscious of how the hot dry summers inevitably stoke wildfires in the valley’s arid environment. However, what hasn’t happened before, from her perspective, was the early onset of the extreme heat and ongoing drought conditions.

During the end of June and beginning of July, BC was under an extreme heat dome with temperatures in the 40’s. This was unprecedented. Even though one of the warmest places in Canada is Osoyoos, BC, they still had never seen temperatures past 33 degrees in June.  On the news, the number of wildfires has outranked last year by 5 times what was seen previously. By mid-July, they had recorded over 1000 wildfires compared to a previous statistic in 2020 for that same time was just over 200. Up to now, 2018 was BC’s difficult fire season, we are not at the end of this one but it will be sure to break some records somewhere. Outside of the obvious heat dome and climate change discussion what other outlying factors are involved in this year’s intense wildfire season?

The Ongoing Challenges

As the conversation evolved and our movement propelled us into what environmental factors have led to this relentlessly dry environment, Auntie June told me about the pine beetle ravaged trees and the lack of rain. We talked about why the provincial government tried to harvest these diseased trees with little immediate value for time and money spent. She then told me how much time she spends cleaning and clearing her own 8-acre hillside lot of the potential fire hazards. These vary from dry brush, fallen pine needles to discarded aerosol cans left by vagrant youth. She points out that “Those aerosol cans can explode.” Then, she bends down to pick up a cigarette butt off the ground saying, “who the heck is smoking out here!?” I hear the frustration in her voice. Year after year, tourists flock to the Okanagan area in hopes of a beach escape. However, many are oblivious of the delicate balance this environment is teetering on in the summer.

Taking Time to Understand

I, myself, remember when I was younger thinking how old-fashioned and prudish my elders sounded for poo-pooing people for these behaviors. Now, as I hear of people losing their homes, sometimes their whole communities, such as Lytton, BC, and in the recent past, Fort McMurray, AB; these cautionary statements paint a whole new image for me. My aunt walks out amongst this environment as a grand elder wondering when we all will learn to respect and protect what we have before it, too, is gone.

Working on Solutions

After coming back from this small trip eastwards, I started to reflect on how, I, as a glocally minded individual, can help reshape this thinking about the changing environments, temperatures, and times. Glocally as an adjective means to think locally as well as globally. While reading various statistical data websites, I came across a BC Government funding initiative that was started back in 2018. I’m guessing it was in reaction to, or in anticipation of the intense wildfire season that year. The initiative is called the FireSmart Program. The highlights of the funding and support portion of this program are:

• 100% funding of up to $150,000 across a suite of FireSmart activities.
• Regional, multi-jurisdictional applications are encouraged
• Incentives have been added to undertake FireSmart activities on private land.
• Funding opportunities are available for fuel management projects on First Nation reserves.

Wandering around the website, I was especially impressed by the free educational materials created for anyone to utilize to initiate community projects or utilize in classrooms before schools are let out for the summer. Like the beach clean up’s, practiced here on the West Coast, I envision forest and community fire starter clean-ups. As the adage goes knowledge is power. In the end, all people need to be aware of what we can do prevention-wise, to live more sustainably in this other new normal.

By Theresa K. Howell

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[1] Excerpt from: Chapter 2 “Going Glocal” – Thriving Beyond Sustainability; Pathways to a Resilient Society by Andres R. Edwards (2010)

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