The President of the BC Cattlemen’s Association is calling the 2021 fire season “2017 on steroids” and he is concerned about what the situation is doing to available feed.
Kevin Boon says it is definitely a challenge.
“I think that we are in real trouble here in British Columbia and the fires are just compounding it. It is compounded by the fact that really from Lake Superior west is in severe drought,” he said on the NL Morning News. “We’re seeing already some liquidations of herd in the other provinces and probably from what we’re hearing, feed supplies and hay coming off at about 15 per cent of what normal would be. So there is a severe feed shortage.”
“One of the big things that really isn’t getting considered… we’re starting to get the attention now, is the loss of feed. We’re going to save our cattle from the fire only to have them starve to death over the winter because we have no hay and grass for them to feed. It is critical on this, the fire and the intensity of them is taking out a lot of that resource on top and we’re really at a crisis for our industry on many levels, but it’s an environmental catastrophe as well. Ranchers, their cattle are what they depend on to bring the income, but the land is what they depend on in order to be able to do that.”
Boon looks at fires such as Sparks Lake which grew so big so fast and how it worsens the fuel source and the condition of that fuel source. “The fact is that our cattle typically will be out and have a chance to graze that fine fuel. [With the fire season starting] two weeks earlier they haven’t got as much cleaned off, so there’s more fuel there. When I said on steroids, I meant it.”
Boon says there doesn’t appear to be any reprieve in sight based on the predictions for the next couple of months. “That heat wave before took and dried every piece of grass and fuel out there to an extent where it is volatile.”
State of Emergency
Boon is among those who have been calling on the province to declare a State of Emergency and he says he is extremely frustrated as are the ranchers that one has not been called. “We don’t necessarily understand all the aspects of a State of Emergency, I will be the first to admit that….. but in this time of drought and whatnot getting that public message out there so people are aware. I had a call with a potato producer in the mainland over the weekend that said ‘look is this as bad as what your saying? Because we’re not hearing it down here.'”
Boon says that producer offered to hay some land that he had plans to plow in for fertilizer, but he could do 1000 bails if it is needed. “That is critical and they’re not getting that message. So a State of Emergency needs to be declared just so that there is, if nothing else, an understanding by the people of BC the impact that is having not just in the centre interior, but all British Columbians.”
“This has the potential to destroy our ranching industry for years to come and that needs to be understood because there is people that can help and want to help without actually being on the fire line…. it would go a long ways fort he people out here living it to know that somebody in the other parts of BC really understand the dire situation we’re in.”
