The Fire Canada Banned

In 1874, British Columbia made it illegal to light the fires that had protected the land for thousands of years.Long before Canada built a system for fighting wildfire, First Nations were lighting small ones on purpose. Knowledge holders chose the place, the season and the weather. The flames cleared dry vegetation, fed the soil, opened travel routes and improved berry patches and habitat for deer, elk and moose. They also broke the land into patches, so a later wildfire had nowhere easy to run.The Bush Fire Act ended that in British Columbia. It arrived a decade before the federal ban on the potlatch and served the same purpose. Both removed ceremony and pressed Indigenous people toward assimilation. When Banff was created in 1885, the federal government forcibly removed Indigenous peoples from the park and kept fire off the land for almost a century.The fuel stayed. It is still there, and the climate is getting hotter.Canada has started to reverse this. Parks Canada returned fire to Banff in 1983. Gitanyow and Xeni Gwet’in are burning again. But British Columbia burns about 10,000 hectares a year. New Jersey burns more.Sometimes the right fire has to come before the wrong one does. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit quietcanines.substack.com/subscribe