The mountain pine beetle is an insect that infects lodgepole pine trees and is the cause of severe infestations affecting the health of forests in British Columbia and Alberta. While mountain pine beetles can cause significant damage to forests, they are also increasing wildfire severity. Rapid growth of beetle populations in Western Canada has been caused by the changing climate. Temperatures in winter months have not been cold enough to prevent the spread of these insects, which has led to larger areas being infested. In British Columbia alone, the outbreak of the mountain pine beetle has affected over 18 million hectares of forest. This threat required a new approach to fire management. According to Bob Simpson, Mayor of the City of Quesnel, the mountain pine beetle epidemic gave an early indication that wildfire risk faced by municipalities like Quesnel was going to become fundamentally different than what had been experienced before. Mayor Simpson’s background in forestry made him very well aware of the wildfire risk faced by Quesnel when he was elected for his first term in 2014. He made it a priority to address this growing threat by engaging his municipal government in discussions about fire risk management strategies. The Mayor and his team convinced members of the municipal council that one of the community’s priorities should be to better manage the forests and that this work would have to start at the municipal level as there were limited provincial supports at that time. This led to the establishment of a think tank process where an overall strategy to reduce wildfire risk was developed by the City.
Recognizing that climate change is increasing the likelihood of forest fires, and the transmission of fire across the wildland-urban interface, the City of Quesnel, British Columbia, chose to take a more involved approach to their wildfire mitigation strategy when the previous plan came up for review in 2017. Climate change is exacerbating the threat of wildland fires by multiple vectors. In addition to causing climatic shifts that lead to a longer and more intense fire seasons, it is also responsible for increasing the amount of highly-flammable dead wood in forests. The Mountain Pine Beetle is causing high rates of tree mortality across Western Canada. The population of the species was previously kept in check by consistently low temperatures throughout the winter. However, changing weather patterns have led to a population boom that has resulted in widespread devastation of forests. These dead trees then increase the chance of a forest fire due to their dry and highly flammable nature. One of the components of this plan, fuel management by vegetation clearance, has had other positive effects in the community beyond the stated purposes of increasing outreach and improve fire resilience. The program has led to an expansion of the local trail system and an ongoing revision of the local land management practices.