On Shaman's Rock

Smoke in our future

From Shaman’s Rock

By Jim Poling Sr.

This hot, relatively dry summer is making me nervous. I won’t be unhappy to see the start of autumn with its cooler temperatures, and hopefully, more rainfall.

Many of us live surrounded by trees, many of which are getting too dry for my liking. Snow and rain falls have been below normal for many months now while temperatures have been higher than normal.

Southern Ontario has received big storms but they have missed, or been much lighter, in some areas north of Barrie, where the real forests begin.

It’s great to have such a blue-sky summer, but the TV images from wildfires out west are unsettling. There were more than 400 wildfires burning in British Columbia and Alberta this week.

Also worrisome is the fact that these wildfires no longer are rare events. Last year wildfires burned a record 185,000 square kilometres (71,429 sq miles) of the country, an area the size of Syria.

Another worry is the fact that 163 of last year’s fires went underground and smouldered until spring, which fire services refer to as "overwintering" or "holdover" fires.

So far this year Ontario has not had any catastrophic forest fires. However, a trend to warmer, drier weather is a worry. 

Canadian Forest Service (CFS) researchers predict that eastern Canada will see a 200-300 percent increase in fire friendly dry, windy days 

“There is a lot more fire in the future, and we better get used to it,” CFS researcher Mike Flannigan has been reported as saying. 

Getting used to it means that all of us must be more aware of the dangers and do whatever we can as individuals to prevent fires. We need to think more about how we handle hot ashes from BBQs, how we dispose of cigarette butts and seriously follow rules about campfires.

Also, we all need to work at reducing our carbon footprints by changing our energy sources. Some things individuals can do are listed at:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/651b116ede324e5b7a7c7abd/t/65c12a04a3bd1f7d0c2439a8/1707158020193/ClimateResponsible_Checklist_v02.pdf.

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