Bringing Fire Back to the Land

From September 22-26, 2022, WLFN conducted the final phase of the Bond Lake treatment. A team of around 35 kept the low-intensity fire moving through the lands, clearing the last of the understory. Although the burn had its share of difficulties to plan around (residential areas, watersheds, and endangered species to name a few), Walker says it went “fairly smoothly.” The plume of smoke was quite a spectacle, towered over the communities of Williams Lake and Sugar Cane.

As we drive through the Thunder Mountain lands, we come upon a slash pile that’s still smoldering from under a thick blanket of snow. It strikes me that the despite being freshly logged, the whole area still looks like a forest. Unlike the stark nakedness of a clearcut, it’s almost serene; vast and open, with large, sprawling trees poking out from the rolling landscape, and the occasional patch of smaller trees filling things out around the edges.

In the short term, the payout from this “thin-frombelow” style of logging doesn’t compete with clearcutting. More specialized labour and machinery is involved, and the quantity of market-grade timber extracted is much lower. That said, once an area has been clearcut and replanted, it takes a long time for those little seedlings to become a harvestable forest again. Meanwhile, an area that was “thinned-frombelow” could be continuously harvested from year to year, bringing in more income over time than if it were clearcut. Also, no expensive re-planting is required.

In 2020, an informal meeting was held with representatives from Xatśūll First Nation, Williams Lake First Nation, Canoe Creek Dog Creek, Canim Lake Band and Esk’etemc. The meeting was to seek guidance from Secwépemc Youth, Elders and Knowledge Keepers about how the land was managed in the past, and how it ought to be managed moving forward. All in attendance wanted the forests to be more like they used to: abundant with berries, mushrooms, and medicinal plants, open and easy to navigate, and safeguarded from drought, landslides, and uncontrollable wildfires. Less than three years later, and we’re already seeing significant progress towards this vision.

WLFN’s model demonstrates an economically sustainable framework that could be replicated across the country, using both new and old technologies to rejuvenate and safeguard our forests.

... Fire Keepers are being looked to for the expertise they’ve held for millennia, and their time-honoured traditions are once again being put to use.

Does this mean a new era of Indigenous fire stewardship is upon us? One can hope. These three land treatments only took two and a half years from concept to execution. But, while the CRD and Ministry of Forests didn’t skip a beat issuing the permits, there are no guarantees that conventional cutting permits won’t be issued to other companies for neighbouring blocks, allowing yesterday’s land-management models to continue as the norm. It’s unfortunate that it took several years of record-breaking wildfires to get cultural burning back into newspaper headlines. The good news is that for the first time since colonization, Indigenous Fire Keepers are being lookedto for the expertise they’ve held for millennia, and their time-honoured traditions are once again being put to use. The word is getting around that it’s time to bring fire back to the land. ⸙