Ecological wildfire recovery

Ecological Wildfire Recovery is the suite of actions undertaken to assess, recuperate, restore, reclaim and/or salvage landscape values that have been disturbed by a wildfire.

Following a wildfire, a landscape can be assessed in terms of impacts to ecological, social, cultural and economic values. Once the impact to values is known, decisions can be made to manage or address any concerns.

To recover a landscape disturbed by wildfire, the desired future condition of the values that were affected must be determined. This is best done at the regional or district level by integrating existing management objectives for ecosystem, resource and socio-cultural values into a planning instrument (e.g., an Ecological Wildfire Recovery Plan) that describes:

• The priority values that have been disturbed by fire
• The best uses going forward (e.g., salvage harvesting)
• The desired future condition for the priority values (objectives)
• The actions designed to achieve the objectives 

Ecological Wildfire Recovery takes an ecosystem approach while also considering strategies to maintain and develop disturbance resilience in an uncertain future. Recovery planning includes cooperative management between relevant First Nations, government, industry, interested parties and other organizations at the local and regional level to develop objectives at a landscape scale.

Ecological Wildfire Recovery picks up where a legislated wildfire suppression rehabilitation plan leaves off. Once all the disturbed landscape values have been assessed and tabled, a working group determines the priority values and what the landscape level goals and objectives should be, as well as the strategies and actions that can be implemented to achieve these. Ecological Wildfire Recovery planning can include short- and long-term objectives, and recovery effectiveness should be monitored.

Ecological Wildfire Recovery is not a disaster recovery plan and is not intended to:

• Recover areas to 100% pre-fire conditions
• Recover communities and businesses impacted by wildfire
• Recover as much timber value as possible
• Directly address concerns on private lands

Which wildfires are destined for recovery efforts beyond legislated rehabilitation will be determined by the significance and extent of the impacts. Ecological Wildfire Recovery may address any or all of the following values and issues (* denotes a FRPA Resource Value):

• Access Management
• Biodiversity*
• Cultural Heritage/Archaeology*
• Fish/Riparian*
• Forage & Associated Plant Communities*
• Hydrology
• Invasive Species Management
• Recreation*
• Resource Features*
• Soils*
• Terrain Stability
• Timber*
• Visual Quality
• Water Quality*
• Wildlife*
• Climate Change
• Other values or issues as identified

Ecological Wildfire Recovery complements the work that the Wildfire Land-Based Recovery program does with Rehabilitation and Post-Wildfire Natural Hazard Risk Assessment.