caretaker

Not building where wildfires are a certainty and not building on floodplains where you're sure to lose your house are the new realities of climate change.

scilly

Of course, lots of areas in the US, and other countries were only able to be settled because of damming of rivers in other places and the finding of artesian water underground.

Now over-population and over-use of the water has led to depletion of the underground supplies AND of the water being siphoned off from other areas by the damming.

Large areas of Texas have relied on artesian water, but the supply began to run out some decades ago. San Antonio had to shut down its famous fountain and water features installed for Hemisfair 1967 or 68 in the late 80s or early 90s because their supply of underground was running dry. They were promoting dry area gardening by the mid-1990s. The Austin area was one of the greenest areas in Texas as a result of the huge artesian basin underground. That is now severely depleted.

California is at a dire risk of losing much of its agriculture that was made viable by damming rivers in the northern US and Canada and then stealing as much of it from their northern neighbouring states who also wanted to use that water.

There have been serious suggestions that it won't be too long, in the lifetime look of things, before there will become a reverse exodus from California rivalling the Dust Bowl movement to that state in the 1930s.

Underground artesian basins have similarly been depleted by Californians.

Californians were greedy users of water, thinking of it as a never-ending supply. Not only are vast amounts using for irrigation of their farms and agricultural areas, which do produce a very large amount of the food demanded by Americans in other states, as well as being exported, but home owners and municipalities insisted on green lawns and unsuitable plantings.

A side effect of the damming done in the 1920s and later to keep that hungry state supplied with water has led to water problems up here in Canada. At least 2 of the dams were on rivers originating in Canada, backing up water to the north of the border and now several areas in eastern BC are short of water because of it. Not to mention the communities and ranches that were buried under the water backed up behind the dams.

scilly

I found out in the paper this morning that the centre of Kamloops, north of Kelowna in the Okanagan, caught fire last week.

Two lightening strikes in quick succession caused small fires on an embankment of grass and shrubs in the centre of Kamloops , they quickly grew in size and merged. The city's firemen were met with almost a "wall of fire" by the time they arrived.

Luckily they did manage to get the fire under control before too much damage was done.

What worries me about Vancouver is that this is, I think, the first time in the more than 50 years that we have lived here that the Fire Chief has issued a warning that the fire risk is Very High to Extreme.

I'm not as optimistic as Jsmith about Vancouver "being safe" and not worrying.

There are lots of open grass areas around, not to mention the grassy street boulevards and lawns , that are now almost straw-coloured because they are so dry. Homeowners can water their lawns with sprinklers twice a week. between 4 am and 9 am. The boulevards, and other grassy areas are under the control of the city who do not water them.

We may soon move into the next stage of watering restrictions because there has been so little rain, and that means watering lawns only once a week or not at all.

Then we can add in all the detritus (sometimes called "duff") on the floor of all the wooded areas around, even under the cedar hedges around houses.

That duff been the fuel for many of the wild fires in the US and Canada, and probably other countries as well.

The First Nations used to conduct controlled burns in the fall to burn that off, as did the early settlers. The Australian Aboriginals still do controlled burnings in their home territories, we saw it being done near Katherine Gorge.

The US Forest Service can be blamed for the stopping of those burnings. It was determined by them in the 1950s that the controlled burning was dangerous and not necessary, so they invented Smokey the Bear who told all children not to let their parents cause fires in the forests. It was bad to burn.

Decades of this has led to huge build-ups of the detritus ..........dead leaves and conifer needles, small twigs and branches, dead trees. All dry during the hot months.

Trump did say something about California should sweep or vacuum the forests during the wild fires last year. Everyone laughed at him, and while that suggestion was absurd, the basic premise was serious .......... the duff is extremely dangerous. Not only can the surface extremely dry layers burn but fires can continue to smoulder in the deeper layers, ready to burst out at any time.

I think of the forested areas in and around Vancouver ............... Stanley Park, Pacific Spirit Park out near UBC, Burnaby Mountain with SFU at the top, Queen Elizabeth Park, and the mountains on the north shore across the harbour from Vancouver.

It would not be the first time that Vancouver has burnt if it does happen .......... the first buildings were almost all destroyed in a raging wildfire back in 1886. That is why there are only one or two buildings in Vancouver that pre-date 1886.

scilly

I agree.

But people still want homes near the water, stupid fools!!!!!!

Maybe the fact that insurance companies are beginning to refuse to insure buildings in such places will have the required effect.

scrubbedexpat091

Problem with Trump statement on the forests was he was attempting to place blame onto State of California when the blame should be on the federal government.

In California the state government is responsible for just 3% of rest lands, 58% of the states forest lands are in the hands of the federal government, the remaining 39% is in private ownership or Native American hands.

State governments cannot govern federal lands, have no jurisdiction on federal lands, and have no responsibility over federal land.

Plus often not even forests that on fire in So. California especially but this sort of landscape:








The chaparral is designed to burn, outside the raining season its very dry, just waiting to burn, and it burns hot and fast, trees at least do take time to burn, and some species quite resistant to fire but this type of biome relies on fire, problem is we put houses into it, and only real solution is to not put houses in places that burn naturally and rely on fire to be healthy.

scrubbedexpat091

California has learned from the mistakes of the past when it comes to water and working to correct those mistakes, some parts of California likely have a more efficient water system than we do in BC where I believe the bulk of our wastewater is dumped into the ocean rather than recycled back into the water system to replenish it.


They are also building sea water desalination plants to help reduce demand for imported freshwater, and the plant is quite modern and they have solved many of the issues surrounding these types of plants, sea life friendly intakes and outtakes to not harm the ocean life, and energy efficiencies.

caretaker

Better late than never! BC Fires

scrubbedexpat091

The fire in Lytton looks to have started in town and not related to the wild fires that were in the area. The picture in the article, does look it may have started near the rail road tracks.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/cause-of-lytto...-say-1.5496738

caretaker

Patiently waiting for a statement from the CNR.... I suppose they have to examine all their data from sensors and video then find and inspect the engines and cars that were part of the train.
I just checked the highway cams and it's hazy in Keremeos and a bit worse in Boston Bar.
https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwayc...l/www/235.html
https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwayc...l/www/109.html

Danny B

Boggles my mind how they can track down what & where it started. Talk about needle in a haystack.

Danny B

We got all three today!

caretaker

If that was Saskatchewan I'd worry about snow as well.... seen it happen....
Actually I've seen it happen in BC too, in Golden. The snow came so fast it was 6" deep and cars in the ditch all over and the hitch hikers on the shoulder were rummaging in their packs to find their shirts.

scrubbedexpat091

It is certainly a science of it's own.

Trains, semis' cars, they can all cause fires, at least a coupe a year in California where a semi loses a tire, sparks, and bam fire.

scilly

I heard that on the radio news

Take your pick, or prepare to protect from all 3??

Communities along the highway from PG to Jasper have a flood warning and evacuation warnings associated with flooding, as well as 2 of your 3 ...... not sure if they have bad air conditions yet or not.

scilly

One year we were going to Crater Lake in Oregon, August, hot weather all over the place. As we drove up the mountain it got darker, and the snow started.

We were camping in a tent, and shivered all night., we had only warm weather gear with us, plus a pair of trousers or jeans and one warm sweater each. The campfire talk that evening centred on how this was very unusual and unexpected. It turned out that was true ..... it was the first recorded snow so early in the season!