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Heat hits the forests
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June 5, 2009
Heat hits the forests
Hot June weather is already changing forecasts for forests this season, with fires underway in various regions of the province, including Tyaughton Lake near Lillooet, which has nearly doubled to 1,500 hectares in two days. Ken Lertzman, director of SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, specializes in forests management and forest fires and wasn’t expecting this to be a “big fire year.” He says, “However, if the weather keeps up as it has lately, that expectation could clearly be wrong. In the aftermath of the pine beetle, we have a lot of flammable fuels across the interior of the province, so if we have a lot of fire weather (hot, dry windy), there's potential for a bad fire year.”
Ken Lertzman, 778.782.3069; lertzman@sfu.ca
www.rem.sfu.ca/forestry
Hot June weather is already changing forecasts for forests this season, with fires underway in various regions of the province, including Tyaughton Lake near Lillooet, which has nearly doubled to 1,500 hectares in two days. Ken Lertzman, director of SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, specializes in forests management and forest fires and wasn’t expecting this to be a “big fire year.” He says, “However, if the weather keeps up as it has lately, that expectation could clearly be wrong. In the aftermath of the pine beetle, we have a lot of flammable fuels across the interior of the province, so if we have a lot of fire weather (hot, dry windy), there's potential for a bad fire year.”
Ken Lertzman, 778.782.3069; lertzman@sfu.ca
www.rem.sfu.ca/forestry