Forestry

VANCOUVER - British Columbia First Nations are wasting no time in enforcing their claim on traditional lands in light of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision recognizing aboriginal land title.

The hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nations served notice Thursday to CN Rail, logging companies and sport fishermen to leave their territory along the Skeena River in a dispute with the federal and provincial governments over treaty talks.

May 26, 2016 - Two major fires have burned huge swaths of forest through the heart of the oil and gas patch in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta without causing any damage to infrastructure.

Pipelines, compressor stations, tank farms and active wells – all processing highly flammable hydrocarbons – have at times been surrounded by the huge fires, which have destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest north of Fort St. John.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A massive wildfire burning around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta is about 1 km (1,094 yards) away from Enbridge Inc's Cheecham crude oil tank farm, but is under control for now, emergency officials said on Monday.

The blaze near the tank farm was stable because the wind was cooperating as Enbridge's industrial firefighters tackled the blaze, the officials said at a news conference.

The simple fact of the matter, a fact that many invested in a destructive oil industry do not want to now face, is that a fire whose early-season extreme intensity was fueled by human-caused climate change is now doing what Canada would not.

Politicians are reluctant to mention the role of global warming in the destruction of Canada’s oil sands capital.

The Fort McMurray fire disaster brings out the eloquence in Canada’s politicians. They talk movingly – and I think sincerely – about the devastation wreaked on the inhabitants of the northern Alberta city.

They praise the generosity of those Canadians who help. They put partisanship on ice. In one memorable instance last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed the Commons floor to hug Rona Ambrose, the teary-eyed interim Conservative leader.

What's turning northern forests into tinder? Biggest reason is climate change, but that’s not all

A sudden shift in the wind at a critical time of day was all it took to send a wildfire out of control through Fort McMurray, forcing more than 80,000 people out of their homes in what has become the biggest natural disaster in Canadian history.

Earlier this week, Darby Allen, the regional fire chief for the area, minced no words when he was asked what might happen now that more than 1,600 homes have been destroyed.

Waste wood could soon replace diesel power at the remote Kwadacha First Nation, which is seeking financial help to build a small biomass plant.

The off-the-grid community of just over 300 wants to build a small biomass facility that would produce around 145 kilowatts of electricity.

"What we're looking at is co-generation, green energy, to burn wood waste to offset the electricity (from diesel) and heat some buildings and a greenhouse we're building," Chief Donny Van Somer said. "We're trying to get off fossil fuels as much as possible."