BC ranchers call for compensation after controlled burn goes wrong
Posted August 7, 2017 11:58 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CLINTON (NEWS 1130) – A group of about 40 ranchers in the Clinton area are demanding an apology and compensation from the provincial government after efforts to contain a wildfire instead sparked a new one.
On August 1st, fire teams set off a controlled burn on Hart Ridge Mountain just south of Clinton to create a buffer zone for the massive Elephant Hill wildfire, which has already consumed over 110,000 hectares.
The wind then suddenly shifted, tossing embers over Highway 97 and sparking another wildfire which threatened nearby ranches and homes.
“When fires get to this size, the use of controlled ignitions is one of the best tactics that we have in terms of trying to contain them,” Kevin Skrepnek with the BC Wildfire Service explains. “Unfortunately, in this instance, the winds just weren’t in our favour.”
Ranchers like Greg Nyman argue the controlled burn should have never taken place given the adverse wind conditions at the time.
Nyman was able to make it off the mountain safely, but he was forced to abandon more than 100 cows, and still doesn’t know their fate.
“It’s not something that can be fixed or remediated in one year, it’s going to be perhaps a decade-long struggle to get a lot of these people back on their feet,” he says.
“It’s not just the cattle ranchers, it’s the forest-based community that the Interior relies upon.”
The ranchers want to see an apology from government officials for the way the controlled burn was handled, and for a general lack of consultation with local residents beforehand.
They are was compensation for any lost livestock, as well as rural structures, woodlots, private timber, fields, grazing and fencing.
