Adaptation Planning
Case Study: Vanderhoof, BC
About the Case Study
Community Context
Climate-related Changes
Community Impacts
Adaptation Actions
More Information
About the Case Study
The Canadian Forest Service (CFS) developed a framework for assessing the vulnerability to climate change of forest-based communities. The framework was subsequently applied to the community of Vanderhoof. The resulting report focussed on assessing the potential impacts of climate change on forest resources and the likely consequences for the communities they support. This information is important to developing adaptation strategies for either protecting existing natural capital, replacing lost capital, or transforming exposed natural capital to alternative types of assets that are less sensitive to climate change. This summary is based on Canadian Forest Service’s (CFS) Assessing Potential Biophysical and Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change on Forest-Based Communities: A Methodological Case Study, and draws on other resources listed at the end of this document.
Community Context
Vanderhoof has a population of approximately 4,400 people and is located in the central interior of British Columbia. Its main industries are forestry, agriculture, tourism and other services. The forest industry is by far the largest economic sector, accounting for 39% of all jobs and 63% of the community’s economic base. Since the mid-1990s the majority of pine trees, the dominant tree species in the Vanderhoof Forest District (VFD), have been attacked by the mountain pine beetle having significant impacts on the Vanderhoof economy.
Climate-related Changes
Increasing Air Temperature
Historic climate records indicate a warming trend in the Vanderhoof study area with an increase in annual mean temperature of about 1.7 - 1.8°C between 1906 and 2005.
More Abrupt and More Severe Weather Events
The residents of Vanderhoof have noticed changes in their local climate including more severe weather events such as high winds and storms, milder winters, shallower snowpacks, and increased stream flows.
Community Impacts
Forestry Industry and the Local Economy
The impacts of the mountain pine beetle are at least partly due to recent changes in climate. Several recent mild winters have allowed expanding beetle populations to survive, whereas previously harsher winters killed them off. This has had a significant impact on the local forestry industry and therefore the Vanderhoof economy by increasing tree mortality. This may lead to increased harvesting in the short-term but will likely lead to a smaller forest sector after the beetle salvage is finished.
Increased Wildfire Activity
The combination of increased temperatures and increased fuel loadings due to the mountain pine beetle outbreak has greatly increased extreme fire weather and therefore wildfire activity is expected to increase. Forest-based communities may have increased risks to property and infrastructure, increases in the need for evacuation, potential health impacts from smoke, and increases in the frequency of forest closures.
Adaptation Actions
This study shows that climate change is a significant factor leading to changes in local timber supply over relatively short time frames. The economies of forest-based communities could be significantly affected by climate change and should be prepared to adapt to changing conditions. The Vanderhoof study did not identify locally-relevant adaptation options, but did suggest general adaptation options for further consideration, including:
- protecting natural capital, such as forests and water resources, that are vulnerable to climate change;
- building new assets, natural or man-made, to replace those that will be lost as a result of climate change; and
- transforming exposed natural capital, such as forests and water resources, to alternative types of assets that are less sensitive to climate change.
More Information
Vanderhoof Study
See CFS’s Assessing potential biophysical and Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change on Forest-Based Communities: A Methodological Case Study. The full report is available on NRCan’s website:
http://bookstore.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/catalog_e.php?Catalog=29156
Other Resources
For insights from other communities on the impacts of the mountain pine beetle damage and relation to climate change, view the following video produced by EKOS Communication. Local government officials and staff highlight concerns in the BC Interior about mountain pine beetle salvage and it's potential impacts on groundwater recharge of aquifer.
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