Thank goodness the summer from hell is winding down.
It’s been too much for anyone to bear with wildfires, rising COVID-19 cases and drought, just for starters.
The wildfire situation this summer has been very distressing, with the combination of hot and dry weather and human complacency wreaking havoc in our forests.
We’ve been through this before, but there must be far better preparation next year way before the summer when it’s too late to make adjustments or changes on the fly. We dodged a couple of bullets the last two years after horrific wildfire seasons in 2017 and 2018, but we must assume the worst will continually happen more often than not going forward.
Right off the top, campfires must be banned across the province during July and August. People need to get used to it, we simply can’t afford any more human-caused fires than we have already.
There also needs to be a massive shutdown of back country areas during the two primary summer months. If it’s not humans sparking fires in remote areas, then there’s hikers and bikers and ATVers needing to be rescued from remote locations and it’s just too dangerous for search and rescue teams to be doing any more than needed.
Let’s face it, people are not very receptive to being told what they can and cannot do. Human rights, after all.
But we’re way past that point, folks. The damages being done are far too extensive and that means the public has to face facts. You can’t always do what you want when the potential to torch forests and the threat to human lives from some careless actions is so high.
We were lucky on the Island. There were a couple of fires in the vicinity that fortunately did not spread to anywhere near the large degree as the Interior.
Preparations in early 2022 will be paramount across the province. Locations that could lead to fuel for fire need to be identified and cleared ahead of time.
Weather obviously is a key factor of which we have no control, but these dry patterns also require the utmost in care to avoid more of the province being burned to a crisp.