Bioenergy as a Solution to British Columbia's Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Problem: A Policy Analysis

摘要

Since British Columbia's pivotal fire season of 2003, municipal, provincial, and First Nations' governments have struggled with the task of wildfire hazard reduction in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). After spending almost $100 million on plans and fuel treatments, it is apparent that we need to look beyond government subsidies for solutions to this problem. The province's emerging bioenergy sector, especially if this sector focuses on the large volumes of low-value biomass that constitute the greatest component of the hazardous fuels problem, could potentially provide a feasible economic solution; however, several significant policy and market impediments must be addressed first. Any viable solution centred on the bioenergy sector should include six key elements: 1) allow local and/or First Nations government to manage the WUI buffer; 2) allow local government to set the spatial boundaries of the WUI buffer; 3) pool all fibre in the WUI and stress economic maximization; 4) place all revenues from the sale of WUI buffer forest products in a locally administered trust account dedicated to forest fuel reduction and stand maintenance operations; 5) remove all Crown forest stands within the buffer from the timber harvesting land base; 6) make forest stands in the WUI buffer eligible for carbon offsets. Implementing these recommendations would go a long way toward economically solving British Columbia's wildland-urban interface fuels problem.