A powerful documentary that addresses BC’s escalating wildfire crisis and the urgent need for solutions will be shown tonight in Williams Lake.
“BC Is Burning” was written and produced by retired forester Murray Wilson who has over 4 decades of experience in wildfire suppression and forest management.
“In August 2024 I started filming mainly around the Interior of BC.” Wilson said, ” I didn’t do any filming in the Williams Lake area but I did have a great contact, I watched some videos from Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. They had some excellent videos and I asked them if I could use some of their footage and they very graciously gave me some of their footage so there is some from around the Williams Lake area as well as Percy Guichon who is also in the documentary.”
Since 2017 over 7 million hectares, larger than Ireland, have burned doubling BC’s annual carbon emissions and costing billions in suppression, community devastation, timber losses, and health impacts.
“So far the documentary has been shown in Kelowna, Vernon, Merritt, Kamloops, and Williams Lake tonight (August 19) then it will be in Nakusp and on to Castlegar.”
Wilson said unfortunately wildfires have impacted all of us not just the forest sector, or insurance companies, but everyone.
We asked Wilson why it’s important for people to see this documentary.
“We use to look forward to Summer and now we say I hope it rains or I hope it doesn’t get too hot. I think as an individual you can learn about some of the drivers that are really creating some of our fire seasons that we have. So I think there’s an opportunity for anyone and everyone that has interest because it impacts all of us.”
In the film Wilson interviews 16 people in BC and California who have a lot of experience and education, some are scientists, some are foresters, some are policy makers.
“And I think they all come back with the same answer generally,” Wilson said, “that we need to start managing fuel, which are trees at the landscape level much more intensely than we already do now. We need to do more management and not less to help reduce wildfires.”
BC is Burning is a 45-minute documentary that includes a 20 minute Q & A with Wilson who will be accompanied tonight (Tuesday) in Williams Lake by Josh Prestie Regional Executive Director for the Ministry of Forests.
Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/bc-is-burning-tickets-1549868702009?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1
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