With the 2021 wildfire season well underway, the B.C. government has stepped up with more than $20 million to reduce risks around communities and support new research into predicting wildfire activity.
"Over and above the $22 million already provided, we are adding another $15 million as part of our commitment to help make communities more resilient to wildfire threats," said Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. "We are also funding a $5-million endowment to create a fire science research chair at Thompson Rivers University. The goal of these commitments is to make communities safer, reduce wildfire risks and research new ways of mitigating wildfire risks."
Mike Flannigan, an award-winning researcher and leading expert on wildfire behaviour and landscape fire modelling, has been named as the British Columbia research chair in predictive services, emergency management and fire science at Thompson Rivers University, starting in July 2021.
Flannigan's research goals include developing methods to help predict when and where extreme fire weather may arise, where wildfire starts could be expected to occur under those conditions and exploring the development of early warning wildfire notification systems.