COLLINS – It’s almost too late to prepare for wildfire season
(Image: Abbott-Chapman report)
IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY NOTICED, temperatures are rising. An early spring has started. While most of us are preparing for a return to warmer weather, we pay relatively little attention to the consequences of an early warming trend.
Extremely low snowpacks mean another round of drought will hit, heavy sprinkling regulations are going to be implemented again, lawns will become brown, many people with lovely gardens will not enjoy them when their plants droop. Will people want to enhance the beauty of their properties when the upkeep is so expensive?
Those of us in the city will feel the pain of climate change, but nowhere near as much as our rural neighbours needing to irrigate their fields and grow the produce needed to survive.
When these concerns face us, it’s easy to forget that protection against wildfires is just as important. The costs of wildfires are growing each year. Climate change is creating worsening conditions. The drying out of the forests means hotter fires — fires that spread more quickly and obliterate entire communities.
There are few of us who have any real plans in the event of a wildfire. I wonder how many of us have even read the FireSmart materials on the web that provide such a great resource. This week, as much as I hate to admit it, is the first time I’ve really gone through the material in depth.
Lots of great information about more effective fireproofing of your property, preparing to leave if you have to, and knowing what emergency resources are available. There are people who can come to your home and help you make decisions on what needs to be done.
Doug Collins has had a wide background in the broadcast industry, having done virtually every type of news and sports broadcasting, including news anchor, sports play-by-play, and editorialist. His “One Man’s Opinion” aired on TV from 1973- 2013. He retired from his management roles in the station in October, 2018, but continues to write his column. In 2019, Doug was awarded the Freedom of the City.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Does combustion increase nitrogen in soil?
Fires release the nitrogen that has been tied up in growing or dead plants and in microbial life. Much is lost to the atmosphere, but net available inorganic nitrogen in the soil increases and becomes available to new microbial or vascular plant life.
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Yes, here we go again predicting the weather for this year and putting fear into people. In days gone by people were allowed to burn in the spring to reduce fuel loading. Most farmers would burn the old dry grass to let the new grass get a new start with the extra nitrogen produced by the fire (free fertilizer). Another way to help is have the city shut the Noble Creek Irrigation system down making the farmers scramble for water this spring thanks to city council in a closed meeting with no input from the users. I think we are going backwards making farming a low priority in Kamloops. This is not long term planning.
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Notwithstanding the need for better local leadership, which is not going to happen around here anytime soon, burning grass doesn’t produce any nitrogen, the smoke is bad for anyone’s health and Noble Creek irrigation produced negligible amounts of food for the local population.
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