Alkali Resource Management (ARM), a forestry company owned by Esk’etemc First Nation, works with BC Wildfire and other organizations like Cariboo Aboriginal Forestry Enterprises to conduct controlled burns, shown here in August 2023.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Alkali Resource Management

A new documentary film, The Test, explores how the community of Logan Lake’s wildfire preparations were tested in 2021. A recent screening and panel discussion hosted in Williams Lake sparked more conversations about Indigenous-led wildfire resilience.

Logan Lake began its fire mitigation decades ago, becoming the first official FireSmart community in Canada in 2013 by setting in motion a series of measures to help protect infrastructure and homes from wildfire damage. 

The Test shows how community leaders assessed forested areas for wildfire risk and employed youth to thin it out, piling twigs and dead branches on the forest floor to burn in the fall. Homeowners also mitigated wildfire risks by cleaning gutters and keeping firewood away from their homes.

Just weeks after wildfire burned through Lytton, the Tremont Creek wildfire triggered the evacuation of Logan Lake residents. 

As the fire moved closer to Logan Lake, teams began hooking up hoses to previously installed sprinklers on top of houses and removing everything from the areas immediately surrounding houses, including propane tanks and quads.

While a change of winds worked in the community’s favour, the FireSmart efforts in the forest ensured a slow progression of the fire and allowed people to have homes to return to. 

With the underbrush and ladder fuels removed from the forest surrounding the community, fires were not as destructive and only caused an underburn — leaving the tops of trees and patches of grass untouched.

With Williams Lake and surrounding communities experiencing an evacuation due to wildfire in 2017, The Test tells a familiar story. 

Since 2017, Williams Lake and close-by Indigenous communities have been working to increase fire mitigation knowledge to prepare for each wildfire season. 

After its inaugural screening in Kamloops, The Test came to Williams Lake on May 14, followed by a panel discussion with people in various wildfire sectors.

Six panelists including Francis Johnson of Alkali Resource Management (ARM), a forestry company managed by Esk’etemc First Nation, and John Walker, Williams Lake First Nation stewardship forester, discussed the efforts showcased in the film.

While Williams Lake is not a recognized FireSmart community, steps are still being taken to educate the public about equipping homes and surrounding areas.

Williams Lake and neighbouring Indigenous communities, such as the Secwépemc communities of Esk’etemc and Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN), also work together to conduct prescribed burns in forested and grassland areas to lessen the destruction if a wildfire were to occur, as shown in the documentary. 

For instance, the Williams Lake Community Forest lands are managed through a partnership between the Williams Lake First Nation and the City of Williams Lake.

“We work very close with BC Wildfire (Service) to try to put fire, good fire, back on the landscape,” Walker says.

This collaboration allows for the Indigenous communities to have input on the use of the land while utilizing generational knowledge about wildfires.

In interviews with Johnson and Walker, they delved deeper into the processes set in place within the two Secwépemc communities of Esk’etemc First Nation and WLFN.

The raw emotion of the community of Logan Lake in the film struck a chord with Johnson who is a Hereditary Chief of the Esk’etemc Nation. 

He recalls the emotional moments families had while evacuating in previous years and the gratitude for the ones who stayed to fight the fires and ensure the safety of the communities.

Johnson discusses wildfire mitigation efforts that have been led by ARM since 2001, and have been prominent since the Central Cariboo wildfires of 2017.

Located southwest of Williams Lake, Esk’etemc First Nation works collaboratively with ARM to conduct cultural and prescribed burns. 

Burning supports the growth of native vegetation and improves habitats for wildlife. Along the Fraser River, for example, burns are planned in the fall to bring sagebrush back into the bunchgrass ecosystem which supports bighorn sheep. 

For WLFN, prescribed burns this spring aimed to improve the habitat for an endangered badger species who rely on the grasslands. 

Prescribed burns can be utilized for training opportunities and garners a sense of community.

Walker also emphasizes the social aspect around fires, especially as Elders have shared their stories. They have both heard accounts of Elders’ use of fire as a social practice and to bring the community together.

Each year, Walker says they bring the Elders on the land to see the sites where prescribed burns were completed, leading to regrowth of the understory vegetation. He says they often remark about the growing sxúsem (soapberry) and Saskatoon bushes.

“The first question isn’t how much timber was taken, it’s what plants are coming back,” Walker says.  

Cultural burns have been seen as a right for Indigenous people, Johnson adds, allowing them to act in their roles as stewards of the land. 

“Cultural burns usually have cultural objectives, [including] when you’re burning to enhance certain foods and medicines, or you’re burning around sweat lodges or community to reduce [wild]fire risk, or you’re burning meadows for hay production,” Johnson says.

Walker also emphasizes how prescribed burns are bringing back a tradition that Indigenous people have been conducting for many years, referencing Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz’s research on tree ring data which found the trees to show constant burn marks over the years, both near communities and hunting grounds. 

Traditional roles that were in place to manage the land are still enacted, remarks Johnson. 

Along with the cultural burns, the Esk’etemc First Nation has a Firekeeper who was appointed by the Elders. 

The community’s traditional governance continues with the Hereditary Chiefs, grandmother’s groups and over 20 families which have a representative who helps make decisions on behalf of their family. Johnson highlights the importance of partnerships between traditional governance and elected Chief and Council.

'Working together' supports wildfire resilience

ARM and WLFN have plans to collaborate with other communities to conduct cultural burns later this year for ecosystem restoration. 

“That requires a lot of planning and collaboration with BC Wildfire and the band as well,” Johnson says. 

Walker discusses the WLFN Community Wildfire Protection Plan and how they are complimenting the work already being done and widening Williams Lake’s boundaries, creating broader areas that will increase the level of wildfire mitigation.

In one of WLFN’s reserves, IR1, the biggest risk is the grassland covering the reserve and nearby areas, and Walker notes that they would like to conduct burns every year, if not every two years. 

“There’s so much area — that’s why we have to start looking at fall burns as well,” Walker says.

When they recently burned 80 hectares of grassland around the WLFN reserve including areas which had suffered wildfire in 2017, Walker recalls members of nearby communities thanking them for their preparedness. 

While conducting both on and off-reserve burns, notifying the residents is important. WLFN delivered notices to residents and utilized social media and local newspapers to ensure the public was aware of the burns since smoke would be visible. 

In conjunction with BC Wildfire Service and ARM crews, these burns were successful.

“We’ve been working together trying to promote cultural burning and good fire,” Walker says.

These efforts are costly, running up to $250,000 for a single operation, and collaboration is also helpful for fundraising. Organizations like the Cariboo Chilcotin Aboriginal Training Employment Centre, First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS), Indigenous Services Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada have all provided funds towards wildfire mitigation and fire stewardship. 

Both Johnson and Walker discuss the partnership between WLFN and Esk’etemc First Nation where they apply for funding proposals and complete burns and studies together. 

FNESS has helped with preparation for fire season including training and demonstration projects for the Esk’etemc community members to get involved.

“We had a FireSmart coordinator funded last year and they helped us with getting Elders’ homes treated,” Johnson says. 

FireSmart in the Esk’etemc First Nation community included moving wood and propane tanks away from homes and getting old vehicles moved out of people’s yards. They also helped cut the grass and looked after old shrubs around the houses.

WLFN received funding for a FireSmart co-ordinator in 2021 in conjunction with the city where they worked around Elders’ homes and around critical infrastructure such as community water sources. 

Like Williams Lake, ARM relies on a Wildfire Protection Plan and a Wildfire Risk Management plan which identifies evacuation routes and helps guide where to apply for funding. 

The company employs and educates people year-round to ensure all jobs are completed — from tree faller to chainsaw operator to fuel treatment. In 2023 Johnson says they had a team who worked fighting fires for six months.

With partnerships already built between WLFN and ARM, Johnson hopes to build capacity with other communities that don’t have fire crews or the training to conduct burns but notes that it’s a long process. 

“It definitely takes time because we’ve got to get our own stuff figured out before we can really help other people.”

— This story was originally published by The Wren.

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