OCTOBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Drought conditions spread across province as autumn begins


Dry skies, scorched earth mean thirsty soils


by PETER MITHAM KELOWNA – While the


threat of wildfires has receded, BC continues to face trouble after one of the driest summers on record. Temperatures across the


province soared during the last 10 days of June, sucking moisture out of the ground and priming rangeland and forests for a hot and smoky summer. By mid-September, the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development declared Level 4 droughts in all watersheds ringing the Okanagan, while the Okanagan and watersheds north to the Nechako, Upper Fraser and Upper Columbia were pegged at Level 3.


While irrigation levels were high, Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, said the recharging of local reservoirs last winter helped keep stream flows healthy (provincial drought levels reflect stream conditions). This prevented the


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Okanagan – which was as arid as surrounding regions – from reaching a Level 4 drought and spared farmers from the restrictions seen in 2015. “They’re recognizing that


we have all these reservoirs and that most of the streams are supported by storage,” she says. “The province isn’t coming down with a heavy hammer in the Okanagan on agriculture, so far as I can tell.” Protocols for Level 3


droughts call for 30% reductions in surface water and groundwater use by residents, industry, farmers and municipalities alike. Level 4 droughts demand maximum water conservation. It’s hardly what farmers, not to mention Val Cameron, the province's water stewardship manager, would have expected following the flooding many dealt with this spring. “This year was a very strange year because we had a lot of flooding earlier on in the year: lots of rain, lots of late season snow that melted. So it recharged the streams and groundwater and lakes,”


Cameron says. “Really, we weren’t expecting to get to any level of drought this year. It was a bit of a surprise for us. But there was virtually no precipitation over the whole southern half of the province from early June.” Cold fronts that swept


through the province in mid- September delivered rain as well as the season’s first snows, taking the edge off the dry conditions. The cooler weather also meant less evaporation, lower demand for irrigation and reduced water use.


But without a few good


rains, soils in drought-struck regions will enter winter without enough moisture to nourish growth come next spring. This is a problem not only in the southern half of the province but the East Peace, where the province declared a Level 3 drought on September 15. Soils in areas ravaged by


wildfires this summer may also lack water, even if there’s rainfall, because scorched earth becomes resistant to water.


15


Burned fencing and scorched earth at Cheryl Monical's ranch near Lac la Hache is typical of what many ranchers face after this summer's wildfires. CHERYL MONICAL PHOTO


“We say it’s hydrophobic, which means it repels water,” Cameron explains. “That could create a very interesting situation next year, even if we do get fall


precipitation or winter precipitation.” Cameron adds that run-off


from scorched areas could also contribute to spring flooding in 2018.


The measure of success.


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