2023—The Worst Wildfire Season in Canada—What Can We Learn About Prevention?

In late June, while preparing for this episode, there were over 500 wildfires burning across Canada. Smoke from the wildfires was affecting millions of Canadians and Americans across a wide swath of North America with air quality indexes reaching extreme levels. As of the posting of this episode (July 25, 2023), the number of wildfires burning across Canada had grown to over 1000 with 660 classified as “out of control”. Our timing to have a conversation about wildfires with a prominent Canadian scientist could not have been more relevant.

In Season 6, Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Anabela Bonada, Manager and Research Associate at the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Among other things, Anabela is an expert in forest fires and has been actively involved developing a user-friendly guide for residents to simplify the recommendations in Canada’s National Wildfire Guide.

Canada’s wildfire season started early this year. Anabela puts the current situation into context: “The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center reports that [as of July 5] over 85,000 square kilometers, or almost 33,000 square miles have been burned so far. This is equivalent to a little bit more than New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, in Canada, combined or a little bit bigger than South Carolina in the US. This is already the worst wildfire season on record for Canada.”

She notes that with climate change, drier and warmer seasons are expected going forward in Canada and the US, particularly in an El Niño year. “For North America, it means that we’re going to see drier, warmer climate in the West and Northwest, areas that are usually wildfire prone, and parts of Canada. The expectation is more wildfires—in size and intensity.”

There’s a lot of work underway in Canada to raise awareness about wildfires and to make communities more resilient. The Intact Centre, in collaboration with FireSmart Canada, has developed easy to follow guidance for homeowners and for communities to get ahead of wildfire risks. As Anabela notes, “There are things that you can do around your home, from simple, moving any combustible material 10 meters (about 33 feet) away from your home, to more complex, like considering a Class A roof that is resistant to wildfire.”

Anabela goes on to note that a more nature-based solution is to focus on changing the natural drivers that lead to extreme wildfires rather than fighting the fires after they have started. “So, our focus needs to shift from suppression to prevention as we consider nature-based solutions to wildfire.” Anabela’s call to action with regards to wildfires is, “We need to take action, now—all the way from policymakers right down to every individual.”

Jeff agrees and adds: “I am thinking about collaboration and the fact that wildfires really don’t respect borders. What can we be doing now and in the future? I want to think about what kind of collaborative research is needed and how we pursue that—including how natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions can be used in advance of a wildfire event but also following wildfire events.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Anabela Bonada at LinkedIn