When the government of B.C. agreed in 2006 to protect the Great Bear Rainforest, it won widespread praise and the Gift to the Earth award from the World Wildlife Fund. The deal covered more than six million hectares of rugged coastal terrain that sweeps from near the north end of Vancouver Island to the Alaska…

There were three new fires the evening of July 21 in the Northeast Region including two in the Sudbury District and one in the Bancroft District. Sudbury 35 was a 0.1 hectare fire, located about 39 kilometers west southwest of Sudbury. It was responded to by the Sudbury Municipal Fire Department and a FireRanger crew…

With the cost of fighting B.C.’s forest fires soaring to more than $140 million already this year, Premier Christy Clark acknowledged the province could end up spending as much as $400 million by the end of the season. On Wednesday morning, Clark visited the area of one of the province’s most concerning fires because of…

In just 24 hours, 115 new wildfires have flared up across B.C. — most of them in the Kamloops area and the southeast part of the province. “Lightning was a huge driver of increased fire activity yesterday and that would be from the lightning activity we saw Sunday night,” said Ryan Turcot of the B.C. Wildfire Service. Nine communities are under…

The City of Montreal, with help from Natural Resources Canada, is continuing its uphill battle against the emerald ash borer — this time by introducing a disease to the species that will hopefully kill the beetles off. “Right now, we have no way to control the emerald ash borer. It’s living freely with no predators and…

As B.C. spends hundreds of millions fighting one of the province’s worst wildfire seasons, critics are questioning the relatively small amount earmarked for wildfire prevention and whether those funds are being used efficiently.   Following devastating wildfires in 2003, the province provided nearly $68 million over 10 years for wildfire prevention for communities that have…

Rain may have cooled off Saskatchewan’s wildfire situation, but the province is not out of the woods yet, environment officials say. Hundreds of Canadian Forces members were leaving the fire zone in the province’s north Monday and there are fewer active fires than last week. But with 98 fires still burning, the battle to protect northern…

Two new evacuation orders have been issued in British Columbia because of wildfires. The latest was issued early Tuesday in West Kelowna for residents in about 70 properties on the west side of Okanagan Lake. The residents (on Westside Rd.) were asked to report to a community centre in West Kelowna. Other residents in the…

Saying this year’s wildfires may be the new normal, the premiers of British Columbia and Saskatchewan are calling for a national approach to fighting forest fires. Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall is calling for a partnership between the provinces and the federal government to ensure firefighting equipment is available where it is needed. Wall — who says…

British Columbia’s official bird is the Steller’s jay, but a close second, in the worst forest-fire season since 2003, is the flying whale known as the Martin Mars water bomber. The government has burned through its $63-million fire budget, but with 200 fires raging, 10 evacuation orders and 1,600 crew on the ground, it has…