B.C.'s Elephant Hill wildfire resulted in losses of $1B per year: Indigenous report

An Indigenous-led report into a massive wildfire nearly six years ago that destroyed more than 100 homes and scorched a vast swath of British Columbia's Interior says the blaze resulted in up to $1 billion per year in ongoing nature and ecosystem losses.

An Indigenous-led report into a massive wildfire nearly six years ago that destroyed more than 100 homes and scorched a vast swath of British Columbia's Interior says the blaze resulted in up to $1 billion per year in ongoing nature and ecosystem losses.

The Elephant Hill wildfire burned more than 1,900 square kilometres of forests, grasslands and properties in the summer of 2017, directly affecting numerous First Nations and other communities.

The report was released Wednesday by the Secwepemcul'ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society, based in Kamloops, B.C. The society was founded by eight Secwepemc communities directly affected by the Elephant Hill wildfire and has been working to pursue landscape recovery and restoration throughout their territories.

Susan Todd, president of consulting firm Solstice Sustainability Works Inc., led a research team that worked with the society to prepare the report.

Todd, who's a chartered professional accountant and has a master's degree in environmental management, said people may be uncomfortable attaching a monetary value to the environment and resources, but if “we don't count them, they are effectively valued at zero.”

“We just need to make sure that we don't take nature services for granted. When something seems free, then you tend to overuse it or you tend to use it badly,” she said in an interview.

The economic analysis shows how resources, including wild food, timber, regulation of clean water supply and clean air, as well culture and well-being services, were affected by the fire.