There is a great attraction for so many people to live in the forest – back to nature, off the grid, privacy, communing with critters, hiding from authorities like the tax people or police, and thinking that you are master of your own domain. The beauty of the trees, the lakes, rivers, even the rocks, has a powerful appeal.
One ought not to forget that nature is not that smiling Mother ones sees on advertising clips promoting everything from breakfast cereals, to sparkling waters, healing herbs and gurgling brooks full of minerals that will cleanse your hide and curl your hair.
Mom nature is a hard task master who plays no favourites and will knock you down without warning. You know - floods, fires, violent winds, polar vortices, heat domes, and bugs.
Ticks are the latest beasties sent to torment us, replacing the mosquitoes, blackflies, Jeff’s nemesis the deer fly, no-see-ums for those of us wearing eyeglasses, and sticky-footed flies that land on you and only lick the sweat from your skin but tend to poop on your bare arm.
Of course there are the larger creatures that can be a problem. Bears are a little jealous of their territory, wolves and coyotes will dispatch your pets, rabid racoons that raid at night are masters at break and entry, chipmunks will steal your peanuts, rabbits will eat your lettuce (kale is safe from all discerning woodland creatures), deer will devour your flowers, although truth to be told, you really don’t need flowers in the forest – it comes with its own. Forget about raising chickens in the forest (or town).
Despite these small challenges, many people love to live in the forest. Others, almost as much, but prefer living near the forest, building small towns and communities where they can have internet access, piped-in running water, electrical power not relying on wind or sunshine filtered through the trees, weekly garbage pick up, medical care nearby, food provisions on the shelf, and if they are lucky in Ontario, an LCBO convenience store.
There may even be a cannabis store on the corner, although people in the forest can grow their own as long as they are willing to share the leaves with Bruce the Moose.
This is known as living the life: away from the smog, traffic, cookie-cutter houses, zillions of people, noise, low property taxes, and nosey neighbours. Until there is a forest fire.
That old-growth pine tree when smote by Mom Nature’s zillion volts of lightning can turn into 2,000 bd ft of flaming kindling before you can say Doug’s your Uncle. If there is one of these near-the-forest towns close by, the fire heads right that way. And as we just saw in Jasper, that wall of fire can move with alarming speed.
Living alone, isolated in the forest, you must have already calculated the odds of a forest fire and planned your defense and then quick exit. But living in one of the utopian towns at the edge of the forest, you must collectively fireproof your environs.
A 500-metre firebreak is a good idea, but then you are not really living in the forest or even nearby. Removing the fuel around your house means the cedar hedge has got to go. Maybe the steel roof costs a little more than the flammable asphalt shingles, but it would have been a good investment. Just how ‘fireproof’ was that fire-rated siding will be cause for reflection – later.
There is also talk – only talk so far – about fireproofing the forest itself. The idea is to remove all the flammable detritus on the ground near the trees so there will be no fuel for the fire to feed on. First, do the proponents of this idea have any idea of how much forest there is in Canada? And second, that rotting stuff on the grounds is what feeds and nourishes the trees. If the trees are not fed, they will die and become dry fuel or worse, a treeless landscape that will not attract critters, let alone people who desire to live in or near a forest.
A lesson learned by good fortune was the saving of critical infrastructure in Jasper: the hospital was saved (spared), as was the water pumping station, and schools. Living in a ‘forest’ town, the plans must include special fire protection for survival and recovery from a fire.
Our town, North Bay, will never, well hardly ever, have a forest fire threat. Whoops, we do have a lot of suburban homes surrounded by forest. However, we do have something some towns do not: lots of roads leading to exits in all directions. Nevertheless, maybe we should be reviewing our forest fire emergency plan. Let’s get a committee right on that.
In the bigger, Canada-wide picture, we need to be sure that if a fire does threaten, we have the regional, provincial, and federal resources for the defense, and, the recovery of burned or damaged buildings. Our political relationships between all levels of government are suspect to begin with, so setting up a national organization to oversee forest fire emergency response is going to be a quagmire of egos, budget allocations, forms, partisan politics, and allocating personnel resources to a dozen fires that all sprang up as if coordinated.
I suppose we could do it based on the percentage of forested land in a province, although grassfires on the prairies could be a subset of the flammability of tree species – hardwoods, softwoods, Boreal, brush, and grasses. Then there is terrain, winds, annual rainfall, spruce budworm, and now more than ever, the average temperature of the region. Throw in electrical storm patterns and the number of careless people walking in the forests at any given time.
In the meantime, as we sort this out, we must ensure that our people fighting the fires are properly equipped and adequately paid for their efforts. And it should go without saying, given thanks privately and publicly for their service.
And for heaven’s sakes, be careful with fire – in the forest or in the town.
