The numbers detailing B.C.’s worst wildfire season on record are colossal.
As of Friday, September 15th, the province’s 1256 wildfires had burned 1.19 million hecatres across B.C. at a cost of over $500 million.
Those numbers detail what has been a devastating year for much of the province’s lumber industry.
“The wildfires have had a pretty significant impact on B.C.’s working forests,” said B.C.’s Forests Minister Doug Donaldson during Friday's press briefing.
“At this point, 53 million cubic metres worth of lumber has been destroyed, which works out to about four years worth of the province’s annual lumber cut.”
To better facilitate moving timber impacted by wildfires to the mills, the provincial government will be issuing “salvaging” permits to help move the lumber.
The government says while the “extraordinary powers of the provincial state of emergency are no longer required,” the wildfire season is far from over.
Crews will still be fighting the fires, and resources will be directed to keep the fires under control and extinguish them.
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