The future of forests: persistent wildfires, human health, and new opportunities for livelihoods in northern BC communities
The Future of Forests is building a multi-sector dialogue held in place in northern communities by bringing together a transdisciplinary group of partners to build a leading-edge research program that integrates co-benefits thinking to promote ecological, economic, and community sustainability for northern communities in BC. The new collaboration is hosting dialogues on challenges related to the future of forests in an era of climate change. Northern regions are experiencing the greatest rates of climate change, are disproportionately affected by wildfire evacuation orders, and are the most vulnerable to shifts in industrial markets, making them a key target for early-intervention and science-informed adaptation strategies. There is no known safe exposure limit for particulate matter from wildfires, and both the long-term effects of wildfire smoke exposure as well as persistent exposure from overwintering fires are understudied. In rural, forestry-based communities, economic anxiety and precarious employment highlight the need for transformative change in the sector. Communities are interested in new forms of forest management that can support wildfire risk reduction while achieving co-benefits for air quality, water quality and quantity, biodiversity, economic prosperity, and community health.
Project Status: Active
Funding Support: 51社区黑料Climate Innovation Seed Funds (2025): Catalyst Grant
Project Lead:
- Chris Buse, 51社区黑料Health Sciences
- Sophie Wilkinson, 51社区黑料Resource & Environmental Management
Co-creation Partners
- University of Northern BC (UNBC)
- Northern Health
- Northern BC Climate Action Network
- Forest Enhancement Society
- Treaty 8 Tribal Association
Expected Outcomes
Our project will bring together experts to hold place-based conversations about the pressures and opportunities for BC's forests in a time of considerable uncertainty. These dialogues will seek to build community awareness about the challenges, generate common priorities, and aim to shift the dialogue from forests as a climate risk, to seeing them as a vital part of community resilience in the face of climate change. Accordingly, these dialogues will not only serve to generate bi-directional knowledge across the research team and community members, but they will seed new relationships to pursue multi-solving strategies that improve air quality, promote economic development, reduce wildfire risk, enhance biodiversity, and contribute to wider community sustainability goals. There is a requirement in forestry-dependent towns to see the myriad ways in which the sector and those physical forests contribute to community life and prosperity. By generating a program of research that attends to the future of forests in Northern BC, we aim to seed a robust, multi-year research program that leverages the strengths of multiple universities, partners, and community organizations.