Rural Communities Want In on Wildfire Response. Is BC on Board? – The Tyee
November 29, 2023
As wildfires worsen, locals are taking matters into their own hands, leading to clashes. And opportunities.
On a crisp October evening, several dozen Southsiders gathered in the Grassy Plains School gymnasium to debrief after an exceptionally long and exhausting wildfire season.
“Congratulations on saving your Southside,” said Sharon Vare, a director with Chinook Emergency Response Society. “Everybody needs to give themselves a hand.”
The rural area of Southside stretches from François Lake in the north to Ootsa Lake in the south. Located on the traditional territory of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, its rolling landscape is dotted with small communities and is home to about 800 residents. Livestock outnumbers people 15 to one.
Fifty kilometres west of where the community meeting is taking place, the Little Andrews Bay fire continued to smoulder, tendrils of smoke lifting into the air and being batted about by the fall wind. The Little Andrews Bay fire was just one of more than two dozen wildfires that locals responded to this summer. Any number of them could have led to a summer like 2018.
Read More: https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/11/29/Rural-Communities-Wildfire-Response/
