Farmers and cattle in Northern BC continue to be impacted by the intense wildfires over the past two years.
The only major difference between this year and last is most of the fires were concentrated in the Cariboo and Kamloops Fire Centres while this year is mostly within the Northwest.
However, the number of affected cattle isn’t as steep as 2017.
“Last year we had somewhere in the neighborhood of somewhere between thirty and thirty-five thousand head of cattle directly impacted and this year we are in the neighborhood of twelve to fifteen thousand,” said Kevin Boon, General Manager, BC Cattlemen’s Association.
“The grasslands and the feed supply that those cattle depend on is significant as well so there is definitely going to be some impact but at this point, it’s very hard to assess exactly what it is.”
He believes ranchers in Prince George and Northern BC are not exempt from this year’s crisis but says it was much easier to move livestock this time around.
“In pretty much every area there was a lot of evacuations that took place involving animals and this year we actually saw more ability to move animals because we had smaller herds in the areas and we’re a lot more accessible to homes.”
Boon says the topic of fuel management will be a major talking point going forward because when you have a season where there is a lot of lightning and dry areas, the fires will burn quickly.
He adds his organization did see some improvements on how the government handled certain fires.
“They did listen, they did learn an awful lot from the year before and there’s a lot being implemented. Still a lot of work to do but I think it’s all apart of that system and one we can’t doddle about.”
“One of the things that we found over the last two years is that agriculture plays a major part in how that all plays out.”