Forestry operations in New Brunswick have had restrictions imposed as the province experiences the highest fire hazard level seen in over 20 years.
Energy and resource development minister Rick Doucet says right now we’ve had a long period of time without rain and so it’s very dry in the woods and we’re facing extreme conditions.
“From the ground up, we have very high combustible levels for the forestry and now we’re seeing, going into the ground even deeper, that if we have an outbreak we’re going to have a situation where we’re going to have some ground burning for quite a long period of time,” says Doucet.
Restrictions are for forestry operations on Crown and private lands and include no harvesting, forwarding, site-prep or pre-commercial thinning between 12pm and 8pm for any operations which have two or more people or any operations that are using mechanical equipment.
“It’s not something that we favour to do because there is an impact on forestry operations, but at the same time we have to protect New Brunswickers, we have to protect our forestry and that’s key right now,” says Doucet.
Doucet tells us they’re doing aerial surveillance on a constant basis, they have all of their water bombers, equipment, and fire personnel ready to go at a moment’s notice. He says they do not want to have an outbreak lik we’ve seen in neighbouring provinces.
