Bioenergy as BIOMASS Heat Shield? CANADIAN Volume 5 No. 4 Are “fire-proofing” community stands and biomass two sides of the same coin? Editor -John Tenpenny (905) 713-4351 [email protected] Associate Editor -Andrew Macklin (519) 429-5181 [email protected] Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Contributors -Gordon Murray, Catherine Cobden, Robin Brunet, David Schmidt, Seth Walker, April Van Ert Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Media Designer -Emily Sun Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. Printed in Canada ISSN 0318-4277 Circulation Carol Nixon e-mail: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above.. No part of the editorial content of this publica-tion may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2012 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. W hen the insurance industry starts talking about biomass, you know we’ve made the big time. In part, that’s just what the Insurance Bureau Of Canada (IBC) is doing in Telling the Weather Story , a report released in June 2012. Prepared by the Insti-tute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the report looks at climate change trends, and the whole gamut of resulting weather-related risks facing the insurance industry. These include in-tense rainfall and flooding, extreme storms and pro-longed drought. They also include the trend to more frequent wildfires in much of Canada. Of course, the actual impact of climate change varies from re-gion to region. When it comes to wildfires, however, the expected impact in the next 35 years is predicted to be significant and widespread. The report predicts signifi-cantly more wildfires in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and the territories in the coming decades. In BC alone wildfire frequency is expected to increase by 50% between now and 2050. Between now and 2030, the biggest expected increase in wild-fire frequency is predicted to be in Ontario, more specifically northwestern Ontario. The report authors acknowledge that Canada does a great job of suppressing small fires. The concern is the 3% of fires that cannot be controlled. A greater num-ber of fires means a greater number of un-controlled fires. Moreover, as conditions in some of these regions get drier, winds increase and fuel loadings climb, the per-centage of uncontrolled fires may climb, making a very expensive double whammy. FOLLOW THE MONEY The IBC’s warnings on wildfires are objec-tive and mercenary. The IBC has no horse in the bioenergy race. The association cares about one thing – the odds and likely cost of property loss. What they fear is an increase in such tragic and expensive fires as the massive Slave Lake fire ($700-million loss), for example, and the Okana-gan Mountain Park fire of 2003 ($210-million loss). Add to that the hundreds of millions that the afore-mentioned provinces are spending every year in fire suppression, and you’ve got a costly problem that is predicted to get far worse in the coming decades. The report does not provide solutions, but instead highlights areas of concern so that government, hopefully, can act. There are ways to mitigate many of these risks, the report says, but no cheap ones. One big step is renewed infrastructure investment, in modernized storm drains, for example. Looked at from that infrastructure per-spective, is there an opportunity to start treating stands around vulnerable com-munities to reduce the impact of wildfires on life and property? True, we can’t cur-rently make money harvesting such stands for biomass utilization. Yet, communities don’t expect to make money installing new storm drainage, trimming trees near power lines or burying utility lines. They are an investment in safety and loss con-trol. Is there a place where renewable com-munity power and wildfire safety meet? • Scott Jamieson, Editor/Group Publisher [email protected] 4 Canadian BIOMASS AUGUST 2008 www.canadianbiomassmagazine.com
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