Vancouver park board passes motion to update fire management plan for Stanley Park

As Canada faces its worst wildfire season on record, Vancouver's park board is calling for updates to the 14-year-old forest management plan for its largest park.

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation passed a motion Monday to update the Stanley Park Forest Management Plan.

"Back when the plan was created we didn't have summer droughts as long as we have them now," said Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby, who proposed the motion two weeks ago.

"The park is not immune to the wildfires ravaging Canada."

Digby says updating the plan is long overdue in the midst of climate change.

He says long dry spells have elevated the risk of wildfire at Stanley Park, a rainforest in Vancouver's downtown that covers an area of 400 hectares.

The motion directs staff to develop an updated risk mitigation plan to include the removal of dead trees, and to engage with host First Nations to incorporate Indigenous perspectives on managing wildfire.

Park's dead trees could fuel fires

One of the main concerns highlighted in the motion is the ongoing looper moth infestation that has killed about 20 per cent of the park's trees.

"We have a lot of dead trees in Stanley Park. So they provide a huge amount of fuel for wildfire," said John Vaillant, author of the best-selling book, Fire Weather about the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

Vaillant says he has grown increasingly concerned about Stanley Park and its surplus buildup of low ground fuel or deadwood.

He says if a strong gust of wind were to carry a burning ember and drop down on a dead tree, it can burn and spread rapidly enough to burn the entire city down.

Digby says Indigenous prescribed fire burning will help reduce dead fuel, lowering future wildfire severity and intensity. Prescribed fires are primarily done to get rid of built-up fuel such as needles, grasses, twigs, fallen branches and downed trees.

The 2009 mitigation plan did not directly incorporate Indigenous perspectives on wildfire risk in Stanley Park.

"[Indigenous prescribed burning] is a brilliant idea," Vaillant said. "It should be front and centre in the updated plan."

Vaillant says urban residents might not necessarily like prescribed burns because of the smoke it generates, "but the price you pay for a few days of smoke, is a safe forest for the rest of summer."

The Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nation Development Corporation refused to comment on their involvement with the soon-to-be updated Stanley Park Forest Management Plan.

"We work closely with the Park Board and will have more to share when have something to say on the issue," an MST spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC News.

Hydrating wetlands to create 'fire breaks'

Digby also wants to hydrate the park aquifers.

The idea, he says, was brought to his attention by Paul George, one of the co-founders of the Wilderness Committee and the B.C. Green Party.

"We should be filling up ponds with water during winter and fall when there's enough rain so that we have these watery areas all around the park to slow down fire," said George.

Ongoing efforts to address fire risks

The park board has directed staff to prepare an assessment report on the looper moth infestation and fire risk by September this year.

The report will help inform a budget for the implementation of the updated Stanley Park Forest Management Plan by next summer.

In the meatine, to address immediate risks, the park board says it has increased the number of rangers enforcing a prohibition on camping within the park.

They say they are also regularly removing flammable materials, and working closely with the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) to closely monitor fire risks. 

In an email to CBC News, Fire Chief Karen Fry said wildfire risks are always a concern for the city and that everyone should practice fire safety inside the park: no open flames, no fires and no smoking.

"VFRS has recently taken delivery of three replacement wildland vehicles, of which one will be located within the response areas to Stanley Park," she wrote, adding other equipment is also available for firefighters if needed.