The ban prohibiting off-road vehicles from the backcountry is missing the mark when it comes to preventing human-caused wildfires, says one BC conservation group.
BC Wildlife Federation executive director Jesse Zeman told iNFOnews.ca that a complete ban of people and all vehicles from the backcountry is what is needed in the parts of the province that are a tinderbox.
“If the things that are going to cause wildfires are campfires and arsonists, having an ATV ban does not deal with those,” Zeman said. “If the intention is to reduce the number of wildfires, you’re going to have to remove everybody (from the backcountry).”
Statistics from BC Wildfire Service show that human-caused wildfires are more likely to be caused by open burning and campfires, 8% and 6.5%, respectively. A 10-year average found that arson counted for 3.8% of wildfires, the same figure as vehicles.
…
“The government absolutely has several routes by which they could ban all types of vehicles, by which they could ban all people… from going into the back country,” BC lawyer Kyla Lee told iNFOnews.ca.
The provincial state of emergency gives the government the power to impose travel bans or area restrictions, but even under the BC Wildfire Act the government could do the same.
“This is the same legislation they rely on for the campfire bans and the open fire bans,” Lee said. “They can use that to ban everybody if they really wanted to.”
Lee said bringing in restrictions after declaring a state of emergency gives the government more latitude than if somebody were to challenge an outright ban brought in under the Wildfire Act.
