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Forest fire activity declining across Canada as a whole, but BC an exception: study

Forest fire activity in Canada as a whole has been declining over the last 30 years, a new study has claimed.

But the Fraser Institute’s review of fires across Canada between 1959 and 2019 also confirmed that in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, recent fire activity “really has been unprecedented.”

“Contrary to popular misperceptions, forest fire activity in Canada is on the decline over the last three decades, and that is consistent with global fire activity,” said Robert P. Murphy, a senior fellow with the think tank and author of Trends in Canadian Forest Fires, 1959-2019.

The study found that the first half of the period under review showed a growth in fires, but the second half showed a decline.

<who> Photo credit: NowMedia

“In fact, forest fire activity across the nation as a whole was significantly worse in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, having reached its peak and maximum area burned in 1989,” the study explained.

“For example, in 1989, 12,015 fires burned some 7.6 million hectares, compared to 4,062 fires burning 1.8 million hectares in 2019.

“The six worst years of forest fires in Canada, measured in terms of total area burned, all occurred before the year 2000.”

But BC and the NWT are exceptions.

“It is wrong to say that forest fire activity is on the rise in Canada, as the last 30 years will tell us,” Murphy said.

“Though there are important regional differences to recognize and better understand.”

Recent activity in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador has been “much less,” the study showed.

“Meanwhile, in Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, there have been relatively steady levels of forest fire activity over our data period.”

The study’s authors stressed that their work is not an attempt to “explain trends,” but “merely to document them.”

They went on: “In reality, there are many possible explanations for changing trends in fire activity, including not just temperature and rainfall, but also local fire suppression policies, human-forest interactions, and agricultural practices.”



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