Analysis-EU's bid to save bees stings sugar beet farmers

SUGAR BEETS TAKE LOTS OF IRRIGATION & LAND

Sun, September 24, 2023 



By Maytaal Angel and Gus Trompiz

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's sugar beet growers are turning away from the crop in a move that could drive soaring prices even higher, as the EU's environmental rules clash with its bid to stem food inflation and secure supplies.

Farmers are switching crops after the European Union's top court ruled in January they can no longer be granted exemptions to a ban on so-called neonics - insecticides which protect against diseases like virus yellows in sugar beet but are toxic to bees and other pollinators vital to food production.

The ruling, which the bloc and environmental groups say is critical for safeguarding pollinators, some of which are currently threatened with extinction, has led to a cut in acreage devoted to sugar beet as crop yields suffer, farmers and industry experts told Reuters.

"In our region, we lost 15% of the (sugar beet) area (this year)," said Alexandre Pele, who has a 240 hectare farm in central France.

"I have struggled to meet volume commitments with the sugar factory because my yields have declined notably due to the ban on neonicotinoids," said Pele.

The EU is the third largest sugar producer in the world so a reduction in output could impact soaring global prices and frustrate efforts to bring food inflation down.

"We’ve entered a new paradigm in sugar, low prices are a thing of the past," said an analyst at one of the world's largest sugar traders. "Global stocks are low, demand is growing and supply is vulnerable all over the world due to climate change, due to the difficulty expanding production anywhere, not least Europe."

EU sugar prices are at their highest ever levels, roughly double prices seen two years ago, driven partly by an increased reliance on costly imports as the local sugar sector shrinks.

The European Commission expects sugar imports to have risen about 60% in the current season. The bloc relies on imported sugar, mostly subject to duties, for about 15% of its needs.Neonicotinoids were banned in Europe on non-flowering crops like sugar beet in 2018, but after a 2020 attack of virus yellows crushed output in France and Britain, EU member states granted temporary exemptions.

Since January's court ruling banning exemptions, the area devoted to growing sugar beet in France, the EU's largest sugar grower, has hit a 14 year low.

The European Commission said it expects the entire EU beet area to fall some 3% below a five-year average this year due to the ruling. The EU beet acreage has already fallen 17% percent since the 2018 neonics ruling, EU data shows.

The acreage fall led the world's second largest sugar producer Tereos to close a factory in northern France this year, losing 123 jobs. Tereos said at the time it was expecting to receive 10% less beet from farmers.

French grower Pele said he hasn't yet reduced his sugar beet crop because of the investment he's already made, but the yield from one of his plots is down by 45% this year.

One in 10 bee and butterfly species, critical for safeguarding biodiversity, are currently threatened with extinction, and environmental groups along with the EU pin much of the blame on neonics.

"The harm of neonics to pollinators is undeniable. They are the most studied pesticide in human history, and we know very well how they work," said Noa Simon Delso, scientific director at Beelife, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation.

Several seed makers, including Germany's KWS Saat are working on new sugar beet varieties that would be naturally resistant to virus yellows, but farmers say they may not be available until 2027.

By this time, those who have left the sector and sold costly equipment might be loathe to return.

"Consumers will have to appreciate if more constraints are put on farming, for good reason or not, the costs of production will increase until we find other methods to cultivate this food," said Andrew Blenkiron, who runs a 7,000 acre farm in the east of England, which thanks to Brexit, can use neonics this year.

He said he would move away from beet if he can't protect his crop.

"It's a dilemma - producing food at a cost effective price while ensuring we have good environmental protection," he added.

A shrinking sugar beet sector could hit other staple crops because farmers need to plant alternates like sugar beet or oilseeds on their wheat, barley and corn fields every other year in order to maintain soil health.

Oilseeds were one of the first crops targeted by the ban in late 2013, and rapeseed production has since fallen 12%.

"If I lose a crop like sugar beet, that's an agronomy (crop rotation) issue but also, because weather threats are multiple these days, having a number of crops allows me to better manage risk," said Pele. "If I no longer have sugar beet it would be a real loss."

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Sugar Beet vs. Sugar Cane: Why It Really Makes a Difference - Utopia

Sugar Beets’ Environmental Toll Isn’t That Sweet (bloomberglaw.com)

Link.springer.com

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12355-019-00734-9

Sustainability of the Sugar Beet Crop | SpringerLink 

Jul 6, 2019 ... The sustainability of modern sugar beet growing has been proved considerably high. Its improvement has been gradual, streamlined with ...

Sidneymintz.net

https://sidneymintz.net/sugar.php

Sugar - Sidney Mintz 

Download PDF; 2009 “Notes toward a cultural construction of modern foods,” Social Anthropology 17 (23): 209-16. 2009 “Afterword,” Ethnology 47 (2): 129-35 ...ABOUT SUGAR CANE IN THE CARRIBEAN AND NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICAS

THE DARK TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR BEET

6th Dec 19

by Jessica Sinclair Taylor, Head of Policy and Communications

We all know sugar is bad for our health. But were you aware just how bad it is for our soil?

We all know sugar is bad for our health. But were you aware just how bad it is for our soil? Today, Feedback publishes a report uncovering the hidden damage growing sugar beet is doing to our soil.

In the UK we use over 100,000 hectares of prime agriculture land to grow a product we really need to eat less of: sugar. British Sugar, the monopoly company controlling the UK sugar beet industry refines around 7.6 million tonnes of sugar beet grown on English soils every year, turning it into over a million tonnes of refined sugar. And they have plans to expand, with a goal to increase production by 50%.

That much sugar sounds like pretty bad news from a health perspective, especially when you take into account that in the UK most adults consume double their recommended daily allowance. But it turns out there’s another casualty of all that sweet stuff: our soil.

Sugar beet is a hard-wearing crop on our soil. Harvesting it, especially late in the year when soil is wet, leads to large quantities of soil being lifted from the fields, stuck to the crop and to farm machinery. We’ve calculated that the sugar beet harvest caused an average soil loss of around 489,000 tonnes a year in the period 2014-2018. To put that in context, the UK’s total soil loss per year, excluding soil loss from harvesting, is estimated at 2.9 million tonnes – so the sugar beet harvest could be adding as much as 20% to our annual soil loss per year.

Consider the fact that it takes between 200 and 400 years to form 1cm of topsoil, and that soil is a resource at the very heart of our agricultural production. Surely, we should be doing everything we can to care for it?

It gets worse. Sugar beet is largely grown in East Anglia and the Midlands, in areas Natural England describes as having some of the best and most versatile land in the country. If we shrunk the area of land used to grow sugar beet by 40%, around the decrease needed to produce just enough sugar to meet our recommended daily allowance, we calculated that we could be growing 150,000 tonnes of peas, 3.1 million tonnes of carrots or 1.8 million tonnes of potatoes.

Once harvested, beet is delivered to one of four sugar beet refineries all owned by a single company, British Sugar. British Sugar is a monopoly: nearly 40 years after the state sold its stake in the company, the company remains the only buyer for the UK’s sugar beet growers, negotiating a fixed yearly price with NFU Sugar, the body representing UK beet growers. We asked British Sugar to comment on our estimate on sugar beet’s contribution to soil loss, but they did not respond to our request.


“We Welcome This Report, And Urge The Approach Outlined In It To Be Applied Across Our Entire Food System So That The Public Health And Environmental Impact Of The Crops We Grow Can Be Considered Alongside One Another – And Informed, Ambitious And Holistic Choices Made As A Result.” Ellen Fay, Director, Sustainable Soils Alliance

On the one side, two vital and finite resources: our land and our soils. On the other, our health, and the costs to the NHS of treating ill-health related to excessive sugar consumption. Spending on treating Type 2 diabetes alone comes to £8.8 billion per year. With the government adopting policies to incentivise lower sugar consumption, like the ‘Sugar Tax’, it seems nonsensical to continue to use significant area of land to grow sugar.

Sugar is bad for us, and it is bad for the land it is grown on. Yet amidst these challenges, British Sugar plans to grow production by 50% annually – potentially with grave potential effects for our health, land use and soils.

Today, the UK shareholders of Associated British Foods Plc (ABF), the parent company that owns British Sugar, meet for the companies Annual General Meeting. ABF is forecasting strong earnings growth next year, including in its sugar divison.

We hope our new report will open a new front in the fight to tackle our addiction to the sweet stuff. Between 2008 and 2018 (so, excluding the potential impact of the Sugar Tax, which kicked in April 2018), the average decline in sugar consumption has been just 0.2% annually – at this rate, it would take the UK 386 years to reach the WHO recommended daily sugar intake. Policy to address high sugar consumption through demand alone are failing. It is time to explore the potential to constrain supply of UK-grown sugar.

Such a move poses the opportunity to staunch the rapid erosion of UK soils, to incentivise production of healthy vegetables improving food security, and to orient agricultural policy around the twin goals of public health and planetary health. As well as reconsidering the sugar in our tea, it is time to reassess the role of sugar beet in our fields.

Read our full report.

TELL THE SUGAR INDUSTRY TO 'BEET IT'

Front Microbiol. 2023; 14: 1151052.

Published online 2023 Apr 17. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1151052

PMCID: PMC10149816

PMID: 37138624

Understanding the sugar beet holobiont for sustainable agriculture

Adrian Wolfgang, 1 Nora Temme, 2 Ralf Tilcher, 2 and Gabriele Berg 1 , 3 , 4 , *

Author information Article notes Copyright and License information PMC Disclaimer

Abstract

The importance of crop-associated microbiomes for the health and field performance of plants has been demonstrated in the last decades. Sugar beet is the most important source of sucrose in temperate climates, and—as a root crop—yield heavily depends on genetics as well as on the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes. Bacteria, fungi, and archaea are found in all organs and life stages of the plant, and research on sugar beet microbiomes contributed to our understanding of the plant microbiome in general, especially of microbiome-based control strategies against phytopathogens. Attempts to make sugar beet cultivation more sustainable are increasing, raising the interest in biocontrol of plant pathogens and pests, biofertilization and –stimulation as well as microbiome-assisted breeding. This review first summarizes already achieved results on sugar beet-associated microbiomes and their unique traits, correlating to their physical, chemical, and biological peculiarities. Temporal and spatial microbiome dynamics during sugar beet ontogenesis are discussed, emphasizing the rhizosphere formation and highlighting knowledge gaps. Secondly, potential or already tested biocontrol agents and application strategies are discussed, providing an overview of how microbiome-based sugar beet farming could be performed in the future. Thus, this review is intended as a reference and baseline for further sugar beet-microbiome research, aiming to promote investigations in rhizosphere modulation-based biocontrol options.

Keywords: biofertilization, Beta vulgaris, Rhizoctonia, phylosymbiosis, microbiome, biocontrol, soil-borne pathogens

1. Introduction

The holobiont concept (Zilber-Rosenberg and Rosenberg, 2008) changed the view on microbes in many scientific disciplines. It states that practically all multicellular lifeforms are inhabited, depending on—or at least are affected by—the interplay with microbial life. The collective genome of plant-associated microbiota exceeds the host genome in both size and number of functions by far and is thus referred to as its second genome (Berendsen et al., 2012; de la Fuente Cant et al., 2020). Given the importance of plant-associated microbes for the health, vigor, and resilience of their host, the microbiome of plants and its modulation is a potential key factor for crop management and crop development in the future (Berg et al., 2015, 2021; Mendes and Raaijmakers, 2015).

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris, L.) is the most important regional source of sucrose in moderate climates of the northern hemisphere. Its biomass production is ranked eighth amongst the most produced field crops worldwide (FAOSTAT, 2022). Sugar beets are biennial, meaning that flowers and seeds are produced in the second year. Since flowering detracts sucrose from taproots, sugar beets are harvested annually. The wild ancestor of all beet crops is the sea beet (Beta maritima L.), a native plant still frequently found on European coastlines. Sugar beet thrives on most soil types, as long as pH is near neutral, easing its geographically widespread cultivation (Draycott, 2003). In contrast to many other crops, the breeding of sugar beet out of the Silesian Beet happened in times when the basics of genetics were understood. Therefore, its development and breeding trends over the decades are comparably well documented (Panella and Lewellen, 2007). Early sugar beet cultivars were bred in Northern Europe, a region with a non-humid, temperate climate and low pest and disease pressure. When these cultivars were planted in other regions, the yield was severely decimated by pests and pathogens (Panella and Lewellen, 2007). Sugar beet was intensively studied regarding physiology, anatomy, chemical, biochemical constitution, genomic traits, nutrient requirements, and convenient agricultural practices to optimize yield in the last 150 years, and was first genome sequenced in 2014 (Dohm et al., 2014). Still, leaf pathogens, root and storage rots, and microbes interfering with sucrose extractions illustrate the importance of sugar beet-associated microbial communities for both plant health and yield. All these mentioned facts make sugar beet an interesting model plant for microbiome research.

Despite the widespread cultivation of sugar beet, our knowledge in sugar beet microbiomes and microbiome-based strategies in future agricultural systems have not reached their full potential thus far. To fully exploit this potential for crop protection and plant growth promotion (PGP), a deep and holistic understanding of both the plant itself and the environment-plant interactions is crucial. Since the rhizosphere is the primary soil-plant interface, we have to especially emphasize the establishment, formation, and dynamics of its microbiome in this context. We hereby try to connect current knowledge about sugar beet-associated microbial communities to their physical, chemical, and biological context, namely the specific traits of the host plant. We aim to describe the sugar beet holobiont as defined by Berg et al. (2020), as the entirety of the microbial community members and its “theater of activity”. In the first section of this review, we will provide an overview of the current knowledge on sugar beet microbiome to be considered in experimental setups of future studies, highlight knowledge gaps, and discuss the sugar beet holobiont following its ontology from seed to postharvest roots. The second section summarizes potential or already tested biocontrol agents and their natural occurrence in the plant host and presents the current application strategies for microbiome-based agricultural practices.

Figure 1

Simplified temporal (Left) and spatial (Right) holobiont model of sugar beet taproot. The arrow width indicates the relative importance of vertically and horizontally assembled endophytes (Top Left). A: Root exudation and/or endophyte release leads to an increase in measured diversity in taproot-associated rhizosphere communities (Zachow et al., 2014; Cardinale et al., 2020; Wolfgang et al., 2020). CFU number in the peel can exceed the CFU number in the rhizosphere (Okazaki et al., 2014). B: Relative sugar content increases toward the center, higher in proximity to vascular bundles. Sucrose further decreases with increasing distance to the secondary cambia (Milford, 2006; Hoffmann and Kenter, 2018). C: Diversity decreases toward the center, while the relative abundance of copiotrophic bacteria increases (Lilley et al., 1996; Okazaki et al., 2014). D: Microbial abundance is highest in the root elongation zone near the root tip, with a high relative abundance of exudate responders, e.g., Variovorax and Pseudomonas (Jacobs et al., 1985; Lübeck et al., 2000; Shi et al., 2009a). E: The sugar content of beet tissue is highest in lower taproot (Milford, 2006).

2.2. Microbial assembly and dynamics in the sugar beet rhizosphere

Ultra-processed foods are not only bad for our bodies, their production damages our environments


Laila Benkrima, Agronomy Consultant, B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation, Simon Fraser University
Sun, September 24, 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

Our grocery stores are increasingly filled with ultra-processed foods, which have little to no nutritional value and a huge environmental impact. (Nathalia Rosa)

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) have become increasingly popular and range from chips to microwave meals and even bread. Even just a casual glance at supermarket shelves in Canada also reveals a plethora of UPF offerings in all their elaborate and enticing packaging.

Besides their affordability, UPF not only offer time-saving convenience but also momentary satisfaction drenched in saturated fat, sugar, salt and additives. After all, who can resist enjoying a tasty snack when indulging in a football game or an electrifying new TV series?

Although much is discussed about the direct negative impact of these products on our health, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, little has been said about the impacts of UPF on the environment.
What are ultra-processed foods?

UPF can be defined as “formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, that result from a series of industrial processes” and contain little or no whole foods.

They are made using industrial processing methods that may include moulding, chemical modification and hydrogenation (which can turn liquid unsaturated fat into a more solid form).

The consumption of ultra-processed foods is not new. In Europe, processed products on an industrial scale have been widely consumed since the late 18th and 19th centuries. A 2020 Canadian study shows that the percentage of total purchased calories attributed to UPF in Canada increased from 24 per cent in 1938 to 55 per cent in 2001 and, in 2013, Canadians purchased an astonishing average of 230 kg of UPF per person.

Even more alarmingly, 99 per cent of Canadian adults consume UPF at least once a week. In comparison, 57 per cent of people in the United Kingdom consume some kind of UPF on a weekly basis.

The consumption of UPF in Canada is largely associated with men, youth, those struggling with low income and those with obesity.

Read more: The rise of ultra-processed foods and why they're really bad for our health

Unfortunately, UPF tend to be more affordable than fresh, whole foods. They have a longer shelf life, require no preparation and can be enticing due to high sugar content that trigger feel-good dopamine responses.

However, consuming UPF comes at a high cost not just to our health but to our environment as well.

Cutting costs, raising emissions

UPFs rely on energy-intensive manufacturing processes and long supply chains, leading to substantial greenhouse gas emissions.

The most substantial environmental impacts of UPF-rich diets predominantly stem from the post-farm stages, specifically the final product creation and packaging processes.

One specific additive that has the most environmental impact is palm oil. Palm oil is responsible for deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests. It is the world’s most consumed vegetable oil that can be found in half of our food.

Another villain is high-fructose corn syrup, which not only leaves a long carbon footprint but is also linked to obesity, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

Read more: Two surprising reasons behind the obesity epidemic: Too much salt, not enough water

The massive waste generated by over-packaged UPF is another factor to consider. Their plastic packaging doesn’t degrade in landfills or in nature, and has a dramatic impact on soil health and marine life.

One recent study published in Nature Sustainability demonstrates that UPF processing and packaging stages have the greatest environmental impacts of the whole system, and are a major source of environmental waste worldwide.

The path to sustainability

There is no simple answer to the problem, but there are alternatives that can help reduce the pressure on the natural resources available on the planet. Embracing sustainable agricultural practices that prioritize regenerative farming, waste reduction and local sourcing of ingredients can effectively lower the carbon impact of UPF.

In addition, companies should adopt water-efficient technologies and support initiatives that restore natural habitats, as these are essential steps towards water conservation and biodiversity preservation. Public and health agencies need to put pressure on governments to adopt new policies and implement measures that will protect public health and the environment.

Advancements in agricultural technology could play a pivotal role in mitigating the environmental impact of food additives. Precision farming techniques, data-driven decision-making, and AI-driven supply chain optimizations can enhance resource efficiency and reduce waste.

Small and medium-sized agri-food enterprises and small family farms often prioritize sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients, contributing to a more sustainable food system and enhancing biodiversity. Supporting local businesses not only encourages a healthier food ecosystem but also bolsters community resilience and regional economic development.

Indigenous communities as well possess a profound knowledge of sustainable agroforestry practices, and collaborating with these communities can provide essential teachings into more sustainable food production and responsible land and water management.

Read more:  Australia's agriculture sector sorely needs more insights from First Nations people. Here's how we get there

The environmental impact of ultra-processed foods cannot be ignored any longer. As we become more and more conscious about what we buy and how it is produced, we hold the responsibility to advocate for change.

High rates of UPF consumption indicates an essential failure of our food system to provide universal access to affordable, wholesome food. Whether such a goal is even possible may be up for debate, but what cannot be denied is that our current industry-driven proliferation of UPF is inflicting harm on both our planet and our health.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Laila Benkrima, Simon Fraser University.

Read more:

Why taxing ‘junk food’ to tackle obesity isn’t as simple as it seems

Colonists upended Aboriginal farming, growing grain and running sheep on rich yamfields, and cattle on arid grainlands

GOOD NEWS

Incidence of long COVID 'strikingly low' in children, Alberta researchers find

CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 


New research from the University of Alberta has found a "strikingly low" incidence of long COVID among children ages eight to 13 who contracted COVID-19.

"It's reassuring that in our study we found that most kids resolve symptoms within two weeks," said Lyndsey Hahn, a postdoctoral fellow in the pediatrics department of the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine and dentistry.

Hahn is lead author of the study, Post-COVID-19 Condition in Children, which was published this month in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Only one child in a study group of 271 developed long COVID after a COVID-19 infection, the study found.

"The incidence of [long COVID] in this study was strikingly low," the authors say in a research letter.

Hahn, however, cautioned in an interview that the study is only "a tip of the iceberg" and that more research is needed to better understand long COVID in children.

Between August 2020 and March 2021, researchers from the U of A and the Women and Children's Health Research Institute in Edmonton recruited a study group of 1,026 children ages eight to 13.

Parents provided consent and tracked their children's symptoms. The children were followed for 76 weeks.

At the time they were recruited for the study, none of the children had been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

University of Alberta researcher Lyndsey Hahn is the study's lead author.
 (Submitted by Lyndsey Hahn)

Of the 1,026 children, 572 did not test positive for COVID-19 during the study period while 454 did.

The researchers focused on a group of 271 children who tested positive for COVID and for whom there was sufficient data to determine the presence of long COVID.

Of that group of kids, only one — or 0.4 per cent — met the World Health Organization's definition of the condition.

That child's symptoms resolved near the end of a 14-week post-infection followup period, the study authors noted.

Common symptoms of long COVID include fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction, although the WHO says more than 200 different symptoms have been reported.

The WHO definition of long COVID says it involves "continuation or development of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with symptoms lasting for at least two months with no other explanation."

Because the participants signed up for a study before they got COVID, scientists were able to see if they had any symptoms of an infection before they got COVID itself.

Sometimes a child had the dual misfortune of getting one respiratory infection first, such as common flu, and becoming ill with COVID immediately afterwards.

In such cases, it took longer for children to recover from their symptoms completely, Hahn said.

That finding is a cause for concern, said Dr. Candace McNaughton, a research scientist and an emergency physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. McNaughton was not involved in the study.

"Having a child who is sick with a fever or headache for four weeks or more is a big deal, even if it does not qualify as post-COVID condition," she said.

"My take-home from the study is that a large proportion of children have symptoms that could impact their schooling or work for parents for a month, which is a big burden for parents and families to bear," she added.

McNaughton said the Alberta study is "another piece in the very large puzzle that we have right now with regards to the long term effects that COVID may have on children."

These long-term effects, McNaughton said, may include having difficulty speaking or remembering things, high heart rate that lasts for several months after getting the infection, and Type 1 diabetes.

"There's enough evidence for me as a mother, and a physician, and as a researcher to say, this is a virus I'd like to avoid," McNaughton said.

Dr. Tehseen Ladha, an assistant professor in the pediatrics department at the U of A, praised her colleagues for conducting the study. Ladha was not involved in the research.

"I think long COVID is an area that we know so little about, and to see researchers and academics really focusing on it from my home university is really uplifting," Ladha said.

In her work as a clinician, Ladha has observed that children between eight and 13 do not appear to be developing long COVID often.

"I did notice that the ones that have long COVID were generally over the age of 13," she said.

"I can see evidence of what they've shown in this article in my own practice."

Ontario legislature resumes after Greenbelt about-face, minister resignations


The Canadian Press
Sun, September 24, 2023 

TORONTO — Ontario's legislature resumes sitting Monday on the heels of two cabinet ministers' resignations, a cabinet shuffle, and a major policy reversal – and that was just in the past week.

Politicians will return to the business of the legislature after its 15-week summer break that saw the release of two damning reports from the auditor general and integrity commissioner about the process to remove lands from the Greenbelt for housing development.

The return of the legislature will see Premier Doug Ford set about backtracking on that decision, as announced last week, following nearly a year of public outcry.

But don't expect Ford's abrupt admission that "it was a mistake" to open the Greenbelt to equally abruptly quell the controversy. Opposition politicians say there are still many unanswered questions.

"I can assure you we are going to be using this opportunity to get more answers, because Ford and his Conservative government have a lot to answer for," NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Friday.

"We have every intention of continuing to hold them to account."

She said there are still questions surrounding what developers knew in advance of the official announcement that the Greenbelt was to be opened up, what the premier knew, what his staff knew, why his director of housing policy resigned last week, and what emails had been deleted, as referenced by the auditor general in the course of her investigation.

"There's endless questions and I think why it's really important is that this casts a long, dark shadow over this government in everything they do," she said.

"We have the privatization of health care, we have the selling off of the 95-year lease for Ontario Place that people are really opposed to. I think it's fair that we need to shine light in every corner."

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said "the heat is not going to get turned down any time soon," but it may take some time to get proper answers on outstanding Greenbelt questions, and the Liberals will also be advancing other priorities at the same time.

"It is really important for us to focus on the things that are important to Ontarians like housing, like health care, like education, like the environment," he said. "We have to keep doing that. I think we'll be able to walk and chew gum. So we will find different ways to dig deeper."

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said he doesn't want to lose sight of the fact there is still a housing affordability crisis, and will be pushing for solutions that don't involve prime farmland or enriching developers to the tune of $8.3 billion.

The auditor general found that's how much the landowners whose property was removed from the Greenbelt stood to see their land values rise. It's unclear if any of them will pursue any type of recourse over the government's policy reversal.

Both the auditor general and integrity commissioner found that the process to select lands was rushed and favoured certain developers.

More than 90 per cent of the land removed was in five sites passed on to then-housing minister Steve Clark's chief of staff, Ryan Amato, by two developers Amato met at an industry event, the auditor said. Both Clark and Amato have since resigned.

A second cabinet minister, Kaleed Rasheed, resigned this week after news reports raised questions about his connections to developer Shakir Rehmatullah and a trip to Las Vegas.

On Friday, a third cabinet minister resigned, though he said it was unconnected to the Greenbelt. Monte McNaughton resigned as labour minister to take a job in the private sector.

Stiles said it is indicative nonetheless of the turmoil Ford's government is facing.

"I'm beginning to wonder whether, in fact, we're going to have anybody left to question on Monday at this rate," she said.

The departures prompted a mini cabinet shuffle Friday, with Ford naming David Piccini, who has been environment minister for the past two years, as the new labour minister. Andrea Khanjin, who represents the riding of Barrie-Innisfil, is promoted to cabinet to serve as the new environment minister.

Todd McCarthy is the new minister of public and business service delivery, after having been named associate transportation minister less than three weeks ago in another mini cabinet shuffle that was prompted by Clark's resignation.

Vijay Thanigasalam, who represents Scarborough-Rouge Park, has been named the new associate transportation minister.

Opposition politicians won't be the only ones at the legislature Monday armed with criticisms of the government. The Ontario Health Coalition has said it will be busing in "thousands" of protesters to pressure Ford to drop his plan to expand the private delivery of public health care.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2023.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

One of Canada's first feature films was mostly made in Nova Scotia, but you'll likely never see it


CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 

This scene from Evangeline was filmed in Halifax at the garden of the Billman residence, which would be located on present-day Herring Cove Road near the Armdale roundabout. 

(James Billman Collection, Nova Scotia Archives 1981-295 no. 1. - image credit)

After travelling to about 30 states and a half-dozen provinces looking for a copy of Evangeline, one of Canada's first feature films, Bashar Shbib came up empty handed.

Shot in 1913 in Nova Scotia and Quebec, Evangeline is based on American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie. It tells the story of Evangeline and Gabriel, two star-crossed lovers from Grand Pré, N.S., torn apart by the Expulsion of the Acadians beginning in 1775.

There are no known copies of Evangeline. The proof of its existence lies in clues from a few surviving images, journalism of the day and a description of the film housed with the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington.

"The idea that the film has disappeared is definitely sad," said Shbib, a Montreal-based filmmaker who made a documentary about his efforts to find a copy of Evangeline. Fittingly, the 2013 documentary is titled The Search For Evangeline.

Evangeline is considered Canada's first feature film because it was made by a Canadian company, the Canadian Bioscope Company, which was headquartered in Halifax.

This ad for Evangeline appeared in the Feb. 7, 1914, edition of The Moving Picture World magazine. 

(Canadian Bioscope Company, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

However, it wasn't necessarily the first feature film shot in Canada.

Shot for $30,000, Evangeline used American actors for its leading roles. In Nova Scotia, shooting locations included Halifax and the Annapolis Valley, duly noted in an ad for the film declaring it was "Made in Annapolis Valley amongst the Actual Scenes Described in the Poem."

Annapolis Royal mayor was 'moved to tears' by film

The film description housed at the Library of Congress echoes this as well and includes a signed reference letter, of sorts.

"I can certify having witnessed the churchyard scenes, played and filmed in the old graves yard there, being moved to tears by the realistic acting of women and children," notes a letter signed by three people, including the mayor of Annapolis Royal, Geo. J. Hawkesworth.

The document also describes what happens during each of the 75-minute film's five reels.

Another scene from Evangeline shot at the Billman residence in Halifax. Fewer than 10 photos showing scenes from the film are known to exist. 

(James Billman Collection, Nova Scotia Archives 1981-295 no. 2)

While Evangeline was made by a Canadian company, it was distributed out of New York and released in 1914.

Film trade publication The Moving Picture World predicted Evangeline would be a "a strong favourite everywhere as the subject is well known to ... school children in the country, the study of Longfellow's classic poem being a part of the regular school work in nearly every city of the United States."

A 'soul-stirring love story'

Rival publication Motion Picture News echoed that.

"There are few Americans who do not know the pathetic and soul-stirring love story which Longfellow so plaintively poured into the poem Evangeline. Consequently, the picture should attract unusual and wide-spread attention," it said.

In a separate issue, Motion Picture News noted that a matinee was arranged in Buffalo, N.Y., for pupils of School No. 26 to see Evangeline.

"The pupils are studying this literary classic in their English courses and all were enthusiastic about the matinee," it said.

Where Evangeline screened

The film was screened in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, and received glowing reviews.

Shbib's search for Evangeline saw him track down descendents of people who worked on the film in the hopes they had a copy. He even went to the Library of Congress.

Bashar Shbib's efforts to locate Evangeline took him to cities across North America, including Washington, D.C. (Oneira Pictures)

"In those days, you copyright the film by taking the image of the first of every shot [in the film]," said Shbib.

The film's description notes it had 200 scenes.

But to Shbib's dismay, he said he was told they had recently thrown the images out.

Why copies weren't kept of old films

George Melnyk, the author of One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema, said it's not surprising no known copies of Evangeline exist because that's common for most films of the time.

"Nobody thought of them as having longevity or archival value or meaning for the cultural history of a particular country," he said. "Companies, you know, disappeared. The films went in the trash or whatever happened to them, things like that, because they simply weren't seen as valuable cultural documents."

The Canadian Bioscope Company, which made Evangeline, was headquartered in Halifax on what is now present-day Barrington Street near Inglis Street. (Mark Crosby/CBC)

The Canadian Bioscope Company went out of business when the First World War broke out, says the Nova Scotia Archives' website.

While Nova Scotia now has a booming film and television industry, Evangeline is a reminder of its early days.

"There should be more research and more studies into what's missing," said Shbib. "What are the films that we're not talking about and what are the stories ... that have been overlooked?"

'Not just a magazine store': How Atlantic News is still surviving after 50 years

CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 

Michele and Stephen Gerrard have been the owners of Atlantic News, first opened by Pat Doherty in 1973, since 1998. (Andrew Sampson/CBC - image credit)

When Pat Doherty first opened Atlantic News in Halifax in 1973, print was still king.

On busy downtown street corners, pedestrians could easily grab a copy of the latest edition of The Chronicle Herald or The Globe and Mail from one of the city's news vending machines. At convenience stores, magazines lined the shelves alongside other necessities like shaving cream, condoms and toothbrushes.

But inside Doherty's newsstand, there was something for everyone — magazines from all over the world like Time and Saturday Night, scandalous rags like Playboy and others dedicated to almost every conceivable interest, no matter how niche.

Back then, Halifax was still a city modest in its ambitions. A place where, as Doherty suggested in an interview for Don Connelly's Halifax — a 1985 CBC Nova Scotia special — life seemed to glide along.

"Simply put, there's not too much of anything here," Doherty quipped.

"Because of that you don't get tired of it. There are no excesses. If you were living in the middle of the prairies, there'd be too much land. If you're living in Sable Island, there'd be too much sea. Our economy is mixed. Everything is very mixed."

Pat Doherty, seen here in this file photo from 1985, was the owner of Atlantic News until his death in 1991. (CBC Archives)

In the years since Doherty died in 1991, after a short battle with illness, the city has changed dramatically, with both the population and the cost of living on a steady incline.

But while few things have remained the same, his legacy at Atlantic News lives on at the corner of Morris and Queen streets, with the current staff and owners celebrating the store's 50th anniversary this weekend.

"When we took over in the 90s … I had a two-week-old baby and we had our two-year-old daughter, and we had to live up to this massive legacy of Pat Doherty," said Michele Gerrard, who assumed ownership of the shop with her husband Stephen in 1998.

Blowers Street Paperchase, seen here in two file photos from 1993, closed in 2015. 

(CBC Archives)

By her count, there were 11 major newstands in Halifax when they took over, including two other independents: Paperchase on Blowers Street and The Daily Grind on Spring Garden Road.

The 90s were perhaps the last golden age for magazines, marked by iconic issues like Kurt Cobain and Nirvana on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, tabloid headlines about the O.J. Simpson trial and Princess Diana's face on what seemed to be every magazine in the world in the months after her death.

"The idea [was] that this would just continue and continue. Everyone was reading. And then, of course, along came the internet," said Gerrard.

In Halifax today, only Atlantic News remains.

Michele (far right) and Stephen Gerrard celebrate the 25th anniversary of Atlantic News in 1998, the year they bought the store. (Submitted by Michele Gerard)

"It is strange to be in a landscape where we are the only ones," said Gerrard. "To have outlasted the competition, it's a sign of ... a business that's well-run, well-loved, but also that the product is still of value to people."

Reports of print's demise, said Gerrard, have been greatly exaggerated, but the store has had to evolve to reflect a changing climate.

As some newspapers became harder to ship to Halifax, Atlantic News got onboard with PressReader in the early 2000s, a service that allows them to print on-demand copies of thousands of newspapers around the world at the push of a button.

Likewise, when The Globe and Mail print edition stopped being distributed in Nova Scotia, the company pivoted and made a deal to fly copies in for 400 eager customers each Saturday.

The store now also carries books, sold next to magazines with similar subject matter, and has increased the amount of work sold by local artists, like holiday cards, games and puzzles.

Atlantic News has been located at the corner of Morris and Queen St. since 1973.
On Sunday, Atlantic News celebrated its 50th year in business. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)

According to Gerrard, the store's inventory is down from a high of around 5,700 titles to a current roster of about half that amount, driven by a changing marketplace and the ubiquity of smartphones and social media.

When they first started out, the main threat to the business was leisure time, she said. The more people worked, the less time they had to read.

The bigger challenge now is capturing attention, something that has been decimated by the devices we keep in our pockets. The time many once spent leisurely flipping through a magazine is now monopolized by a sea of distractions, always just a swipe away.

But Gerrard said demand from many of her clients has remained strong, and an increasing number of people with screen fatigue are turning back toward print.

"I think we do see a desire to not be on our cell phones all day," she said.

Atlantic News still carries thousands of magazines, says owner Michele Gerrard, but has evolved to carry some books as well. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

More recently, the store has survived the touch-and-go era of COVID-19 lockdowns.

As proprietors of a newstand for so long, the Gerrards have witnessed history unfold, quite literally, in the pages of the magazines on their newsstand.

They've seen the decline of Playboy, which no longer sells a print edition, and have watched events like 9/11 and, more recently, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, play out right in front of them.

"The impact of [Diana's] death was huge in the store," said Gerrard. "I can't even describe the sorrow, the panic, the frenzy, the needing to understand, and the voraciousness of our customers who were trying to find anything and everything [about] what's happened."

Michael Doherty says his brother would be thrilled the store he founded is still around 50 years later. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

On Sunday, staff at the store were taking the time to celebrate, hosting a day of events to commemorate the store's eclectic history.

In the crowd were longtime customers, family, and friends.

One of them was Michael Doherty, the kid brother of Pat Doherty, who started it all back in 1973.

He can still picture his brother next to the cash register, writing out letters to send to publishers whose magazines he was interested in carrying, and chatting with his customers, many of whom grew to be close friends.

"He would have loved what they've done here and just the fact that they've survived," he said.

"When you think of all the things that came in, technology, books on the internet, and all of that competition, they were very creative. It's wonderful."

This framed portrait of Pat Doherty hangs near the same counter where he once stood. (Andrew Sampson/CBC)

The next 50 years at Atlantic News look to be just as eventful as the last, but whatever happens, the store's current owners won't be the ones to see it through.

After 25 years, they're planning to move closer to family in Australia, and looking to sell the shop to someone willing to carry its legacy forward.

"What we're hoping new owners will choose is that they want to continue the ethos of this," she said. "We're not just a magazine store."

Trekking hundreds of kilometres in the footsteps of Alice the moose

CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 

After 36 days on the trail, Jamie Findlay, left, completed the A2A Challenge Walk last Saturday. 

(www.a2acollaborative.org - image credit)

Two decades ago, a moose named Alice migrated from the Adirondack Park in New York state to Algonquin Park.

The 640-kilometre voyage, tracked by a team of researchers, saw her crossing busy highways and swimming the St. Lawrence River en route to the Ontario provincial park.

Nature Canada's storyteller and grant writer Jamie Findlay admitted he doesn't know exactly what motivated Alice to travel all that way, but he was inspired by her transnational trip.

"The journey of Alice the moose just kind of captured, symbolized this need on the part of wildlife to move and travel," Findlay said.

"And I thought it would be really neat to just follow in the footsteps of Alice the moose and do that route,"

Last week, Findlay completed the Adirondacks to Algonquin (A2A) trail, which follows a winding network of hiking paths, highways and back roads in honour of Alice's journey.

The route was conceived by The A2A Collaborative, a nonprofit that aims to connect and preserve the ecological corridor between the two parks.

From left to right, Bill Brown, Bill Barkley and Jamie Findlay plan the first leg of the trek. (www.a2acollaborative.org)

'Nature is flow'

Findlay didn't cross Highway 401 or swim the St. Lawrence but said he's gained an appreciation for Alice's lengthy migration.

"We create parks and protected areas for wildlife and we think that they stay in these places and that they're happy there," he said, adding that many animals, especially large mammals, move across human-made barriers, like roads, railways and agricultural development, often to their demise.

Findlay described being on the trail as 'life raised to the second power,' adding that every emotion he experienced, from boredom to excitement, was amplified. (www.a2acollaborative.org)

"Nature is flow — living things have to move and circulate and intermingle and it's hard for a lot of the animals to do that in the sort of environment they live in."

A 'patchwork quilt' of terrain, stories

Over 36 days, Findlay walked, cycled and paddled his way along the "patchwork quilt" of terrain, often bringing friends along for days or weeks at a time. He and a friend even hitched a ride on a horse and buggy on a section of country road in upper New York state.

"We figured that was a legitimate means of travel because it wasn't mechanized," Findlay said.

Findlay and Barkley got a ride in a horse and buggy in upper New York state. (www.a2acollaborative.org)

Findlay and his companions stopped at parks and schools between legs of the trek to share stories from the trail.

"Without exception, people were interested in what we were doing and they wanted to know more," he said.

Shortly after crossing the border, Findlay and Barkley held a talk at Thousand Islands National Park. (www.a2acollaborative.org)

"I hope to get people interested in this region," he said. "I'm hoping that people will be inspired to explore it and protect it."

The route Findlay followed. (CBC News Graphics)

Manitoba could make history by electing first First Nations premier to lead province

The Canadian Press
Sat, September 23, 2023 


WINNIPEG — A First Nations premier would head a province for the first time in Canadian history if the New Democrats win the Oct. 3 Manitoba election, and the significance is not lost on party leader Wab Kinew.

"My dad was not allowed to vote when he was a young man, and I have a shot at potentially leading the province," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press last month.

"That's a big change that speaks to progress in our country and in our province within one generation."

Kinew was born in Ontario and lived on the Onigaming First Nation as a young boy. His late father was a residential school survivor who endured horrific abuse and passed on to Kinew the importance of Anishinaabe culture and language.

The former CBC host was elected in the Winnipeg riding of Fort Rouge in 2016. The following year, he launched a successful bid for NDP leader, putting him on the path to potentially becoming the province's first First Nations premier and second Indigenous premier.

John Norquay was the first Indigenous person to serve as Manitoba's premier. Norquay, who was Métis, was the province's fifth premier until 1887.

And, while other Métis citizens have served at the highest level of politics in the province, Manitoba's history with First Nations leaders in provincial politics only goes back a few decades.

It wasn't until the '50s and '60s that First Nations people were allowed to vote without conditions in provincial and federal elections.

Former New Democrat Elijah Harper was one of the first First Nations people to become a member of Manitoba's legislative assembly in 1981. Since then, there have been more than a dozen Métis and First Nations people who have been elected to serve with the provincial New Democrats, Liberals and Progressive Conservatives.

But there are still disproportionately few Indigenous people entering provincial politics. There has been greater representation in the territories, with a history of Indigenous premiers in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

"There are historic barriers that are still being overcome. Some of them are things that have an impact on a personal level, like intergenerational trauma, other things are systemic barriers," said Kinew.

Réal Carrière, an assistant professor in the department of political studies at the University of Manitoba, researches Indigenous representation in Canadian politics.

He said if Kinew becomes premier, it would be a significant moment because it shows an Indigenous person excelling in a space that hasn't always been welcoming for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

"There are still dominant stereotypes that view Indigenous Peoples negatively," said Carrière.

"And the real significance here is challenging those stereotypes and then allowing other Indigenous Peoples to see that it's possible to succeed at the highest level."

Kevin Chief knows the power representation can have on youth.

The former NDP member of the legislative assembly and cabinet minister often relays a story from his childhood growing up in Winnipeg's North End, where he boarded a transit bus to find an Indigenous man at the steering wheel.

That moment left a lasting impact on Chief. While he didn't become a bus driver, Chief said that man became a role model for him by opening his mind to possibilities.

"You can't tell young people things are possible, you really have to show them," said Chief.

If Kinew becomes premier, it symbolizes a larger reconciliation movement seen countrywide in Canadian politics and other sectors, said Chief.

"The only way you can become the first First Nations premier of a province is with the support of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous voters."

Indigenous politicians often have to walk in two worlds and balance the expectations within their own community and as an elected official representing a constituency.

Eva Aariak is well versed in this. The current commissioner of Nunavut was the territory's second premier and the first woman to serve in the role in the territory.

The Inuk woman has spent most of her career working in politics either at a local or territorial level.

"Indigenous leaders have an added level of understanding because they have to fully understand both worlds. In many cases, they become more effective that way," Aariak said.

She added that Canada still has a ways to go when it comes to seeing Indigenous people, especially Indigenous women, in leadership roles. But there has been progress, including the appointment of Mary Simon, who is Inuk, as Canada's first Indigenous governor general.

For Kinew, he has said he doesn't just want to be the best First Nations premier, he wants to be the province's best premier. Whether he succeeds in this year's election, he believes Manitoba is moving forward as a province.

"If we have increased participation from all corners of society, I think that strengthens our democracy."

— With files from Steve Lambert

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2023.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

The threat of wildfires is rising. So is new artificial intelligence solutions to fight them

Sun, September 24, 2023

LONDON (AP) — Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.

Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.

With wildfires becoming larger and more intense as the world warms, firefighters, utilities and governments are scrambling to get ahead of the flames by tapping into the latest AI technology — which has stirred both fear and excitement for its potential to transform life. While increasingly stretched first responders hope AI offers them a leg up, humans are still needed to check that the tech is accurate.

California's main firefighting agency this summer started testing an AI system that looks for smoke from more than 1,000 mountaintop camera feeds and is now expanding it statewide.

The system is designed to find “abnormalities” and alert emergency command centers, where staffers will confirm whether it’s indeed smoke or something else in the air.

“The beauty of this is that it immediately pops up on the screen and those dispatchers or call takers are able to interrogate that screen” and determine whether to send a crew, said Phillip SeLegue, staff chief of intelligence for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The cameras, part of a network that workers previously had to watch, provide billions of bytes of data for the AI system to digest. While humans still need to confirm any smoke sightings, the system helps reduce fatigue among staffers typically monitoring multiple screens and cameras, alerting them to look only when there's possible fire or smoke, SeLegue said.

It's already helped. A battalion chief got a smoke alert in the middle of the night, confirmed it on his cellphone and called a command center in San Diego to scramble first responders to the remote area.

The dispatchers said that if they hadn’t been alerted, the fire would have been much larger because it likely wouldn't have been noticed until the next morning, SeLegue said.

San Francisco startup Pano AI takes a similar approach, mounting cameras on cell towers that scan for smoke and alert customers, including fire departments, utility companies and ski resorts.

The cameras use computer vision machine learning, a type of AI.

“They’re trained very specifically to detect smoke or not, and we train them with images of smoke and images of not smoke,” CEO Sonia Kastner said.

The images are combined with feeds from government weather satellites that scan for hotspots, along with other data sources, such as social media posts.

The technology gets around one of the main problems in the traditional way of detecting wildfires — relying on 911 calls from passers-by that need confirmation from staffers before crews and water-dropping planes can be deployed.

“Generally, only one in 20 of these 911 calls are actually a wildfire. Even during fire season, it might be a cloud or fog or a barbecue,” Kastner said.

Pano AI’s systems do still rely on final confirmation, with managers playing a time lapse of the camera feed to ensure it’s smoke rising.

For fighting forest fires, “technology is becoming really essential,” said Larry Bekkedahl, senior vice president of energy delivery at Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility and a Pano AI customer.

Utility companies sometimes play a role in sparking wildfires, when their power lines are knocked down by wind or struck by falling trees. Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged that its power lines started a devastating blaze in Maui this summer after apparently being downed by high winds.

PGE, which provides electricity to 51 cities in Oregon, has deployed 26 Pano AI cameras, and Bekkedahl said they have helped speed up response and coordination with emergency services.

Previously, fire departments were “running around looking for stuff and not even really knowing exactly where it’s at,” he said. The cameras help detect fires quicker and get teams on the ground faster, shaving up to two hours off response times.

“That’s significant in terms of how fast that fire can can spread and grow,” Bekkedahl said.

Using AI to detect smoke from fires “is relatively easy,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft.

“What is not easy is to have enough cameras that cover enough places,” he said, pointing to vast, remote areas in northern Canada that have burned this summer.

Ferres' team at Microsoft has been developing AI models to predict where fires are likely to start. They have fed the model with maps of areas that burned previously, along with climate and geospatial data.

The system has its limitations — it can't predict random events like a lightning strike. But it can sift through historical weather and climate data to identify patterns, such as areas that are typically drier. Even a road, which indicates people are nearby, is a risk factor, Ferres said.

“It’s not going to get it all perfectly right," he said. "But what it can do is it can build a probability map (based on) what happened in the past.”

The technology, which Microsoft plans to offer as an open source tool, can help first responders trying to figure out where to focus their limited resources, Ferres said.

Another company is looking to the heavens for a solution. German startup OroraTech analyzes satellite images with artificial intelligence.

Taking advantage of advances in camera, satellite and AI technology, OroraTech has launched two mini satellites about the size of a shoebox into low orbit, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth’s surface. The Munich-based company has ambitions to send up eight more next year and eventually put 100 into space.

As wildfires swept central Chile this year, OroraTech said it provided thermal images at night when aerial drones are used less frequently.

Weeks after OroraTech launched its second satellite, it detected a fire near the community of Keg River in northern Alberta, where flames burned remote stretches of boreal forest repeatedly this summer.

"There are algorithms on the satellite, very efficient ones to detect fires even faster," CEO Thomas Gruebler said.

The AI also takes into account vegetation and humidity levels to identify flare-ups that could spawn devastating megafires. The technology could help thinly stretched firefighting agencies direct resources to blazes with the potential to cause the most damage.

“Because we know exactly where the fires are, we can see how the fires will propagate," Gruebler said. “So, which fire will be the big fire in one day and which will stop on their own.”

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed.

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press

This season's widespread, severe wildfires will have long-lasting impact on N.W.T.'s boreal forest

CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 

Volunteers, including Edmund Gill, up front, clear dry branches to create a firebreak as wildfires threatened the Northwest Territories town of Yellowknife in August. More than four million hectares of N.W.T. forest have burned during the 2023 fire season. 

(Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters - image credit)

Usually fires help to maintain a healthy boreal forest, but it's all about balance.

More than four million hectares of boreal forest have burned in the N.W.T. this wildfire season, and that paired with the severity of the fires will lead to a range of long-term impacts on the landscape.

Jennifer Baltzer is a professor of biology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Baltzer says wildfires are crucial to maintaining biodiversity in the boreal forest, but this is not a typical fire season.

"Wildfire is just a really important and central component of the way the boreal system functions," she said, "But with climate warming and drying and the kinds of conditions we've seen this summer and in previous summers, we're seeing fires that are burning in ways that we haven't seen before."

Jennifer Baltzer is the Canada Research Chair in forests and global change at Wilfrid Laurier University. She says while wildfires are vital to maintaining biodiversity in the boreal forest, the 2023 N.W.T. fire season is not a typical one. This year's fires, she says, will have a range of impacts on the landscape. 

(Angela Gzowski/Wilfrid Laurier University)

What's different about this season's fires?

Area and severity of fires

This wildfire season has been the worst on record in the territory. Not only is the area burned extraordinary, but the season has been exceptionally dry, leading to the fires burning hotter, and deeper into the soil.

According to Baltzer, fires usually occur 70 to 100 years apart from one another in the N.W.T., but these intervals are getting shorter. The combination of more widespread, intense and frequent fires has several consequences to the forests.

Peat is the thick, spongy layer that forms part of the soil in boreal forests, and it's where 80 to 90 per cent of carbon in the boreal forest is stored. This layer builds up over time, storing carbon from the atmosphere as it grows.

Peatlands store carbon and provide valuable habitat for forest species.

 (Taylor Holmes/CBC)

While wildfires will burn the peat soil, they are not usually intense enough to burn through the build up between fires, and there is enough time between burns for the peat layer to recover.

However, Baltzer said that this seems to be changing. She said that in the 2014 fires there were places where all of the carbon that was accumulated during the fire-free period burned, and the fires began burning older carbon, or what is known as legacy carbon.

"This is a really important change in the way the system responds to these more severe wildfires like we saw this summer, because it means that the carbon sequestration mechanisms of the boreal forest are not working the way they have in the past when they're challenged by these really large and extreme wildfires that are really deep-burning into the soils."

In the long term, the burning of legacy carbon in the boreal forests could mean the forests emit carbon dioxide rather than remove it from the atmosphere.

Forest regrowth

The extensive, deep burning can also affect how forests regenerate after the fires. If fires occur too frequently in an area, they can kill seeds stored in the soil. Short fire intervals may also kill trees before they are mature enough to reproduce and leave new seeds.

Black spruce reestablishes well on thick peat soils; pine and aspens do not. Baltzer says that after intense burns, forests dominated by spruce trees may be replaced with aspen and birch forests.

"The forest will stay as forest, but the composition changes, which has implications for the other plants that grow in the forest and for the wildlife that use that forest," she said, "In the most extreme situation, we see burning that is severe enough that we have no regeneration of trees, and in fact, a transition toward either grassland or shrubland systems."

This change may come with some benefits. Deciduous trees like aspen and birch tend to be less flammable than jack pine or black spruce, Baltzer said. A shift from primarily coniferous to primarily aspen forests could provide natural fire breaks on the landscape.

Impacts on wildlife

As the forests change, so do the species that inhabit them.

Samuel Hache is a landbird researcher with the Canadian Wildlife Service. He said that species adapted for mature boreal forests such as chickadees, nuthatches, warblers and Canada jays may struggle as more habitat is lost to wildfires.

"For me, a growing concern is perhaps how much mature forest will be left in the Northwest Territories to be able to support communities of mature forest specialists."

Mature boreal forests take decades to regrow. As large swaths of older forests burn, some species may struggle to find habitat. Baltzer said that caribou are one species that avoid burned areas for years following a fire.

Bobby Drygeese lives in Dettah, N.W.T., and he said he's been seeing more animals out in the open since the fires, and that the animals are more skittish than usual.

Dettah resident Bobby Drygeese says animals are out in the open more than usual this year due to the wildfires burning in N.W.T. However, he's optimistic they'll return to their normal habitats over the next few years.

 (Avery Zingel/CBC)

"We've seen a lot of bears, a lot of foxes and stuff out on the highways and the roads."

However, Hache said there will be both "winners and losers."

After the fires in 2014, Hache and his colleagues discovered that some birds did make use of even the most-severely burned areas.

"In the next few years we expect that the so-called fire specialists, you can think about the black-back woodpecker, common nighthawk, and some other open-habitat species that will benefit for the first maybe two, three, four years," Hache said.

Drygeese is also optimistic about the return of wildlife. He expects animals to return to regrowth near Dettah in the coming years.

"Because of the new sprouts and all that, there'll be nice and fresh and clean food. So animals will be coming back to those burn areas, but it might not be for a couple years."

Fire and water

Wildfires can also affect permafrost thawing. Baltzer said that permafrost thawing is not only associated with the fires directly.

Peat serves as an insulating layer for permafrost, as does tree cover. When fires burn through the canopy and deep into the soil, it removes layers of insulation protecting permafrost. Blackened earth also adds to the problem, as the scorched soil absorbs more energy and accelerates permafrost thaw.

"A lot of those southerly permafrost landscapes are already thawing out just in the face of climate warming. You have that additional input of energy from wildfire, and that can be the extra energy input needed to push those systems to a permafrost-free state," Baltzer said.

There are other impacts on water systems from the wildfires.

Mike Waddington is a professor and Canada research chair in eco-hydrology at McMaster University. He studies the effects of wildfires, and said that there are multiple ways fire affects how water flows through a landscape.

After a wildfire the soil can become water repellant. This can contribute to erosion and also have impacts on water quality, as the runoff carries excess nutrients and carbon which can affect water quality, Waddington said.

"That's a concern that people in N.W.T. will need to be aware of. In many cases after fire, a decrease in the quality of the water increases nutrients, algal growth, dissolved organic carbon, which increases the cost for treatability."

While the immediate damage from the fires is easily visible, it will take years to determine the full effects of this exceptionally-severe wildfire season on the territory.

B.C. mule deer stressed by wildfire, but still much to learn about wildlife impacts

The Canadian Press
Sun, September 24, 2023 


Proof that deer experienced elevated stress in response to wildfires in British Columbia's southern Interior can be found in their poop, although researchers say there's still much to learn about what increasingly severe blazes mean for wildlife.

Shaun Freeman, a wildlife and habitat biologist with the Skeetchestn First Nation, said his team began gathering mule deer pellets in August 2021, while two large fires were still burning in the area between Cache Creek and Kamloops, B.C.

The samples were sent to the Toronto Zoo, where testing revealed elevated concentrations of the stress-induced hormone cortisol.

Stress can affect the animals' nutritional uptake, causing them to burn precious fat stores, and it can decrease their ability to produce offspring, Freeman said.

Cortisol levels have since dropped by around half in samples taken during more favourable conditions, he said, allowing the researchers to establish a baseline.

But the local mule deer population has been declining, and the Sparks Lake and Tremont Creek wildfires that together spanned 1,595 square kilometres scorched half of the animals' key winter habitat in Skeetchestn territory, Freeman said.

The winter range has mature old-growth conifers, which help deer move through the forest by shielding the ground from deep snowfall. The trees' needles and arboreal lichens also provide food during the sparse winter months, he explained.

Swathes of forests burned by the 2021 wildfires have shifted to the kind of habitat that deer would forage in during the summer, he said.

With access restrictions in response to the wildfires lifting this fall, the First Nation has asked people to stay out of the areas burned in 2021, especially at low elevations frequented by deer,in order to minimize stressors and disturbances.

Adam Ford, Canada research chair in wildlife restoration ecology based at the University of B.C.'s Okanagan campus, said there are many unknowns and variables when it comes to understanding the impacts of wildfire on wildlife.

The effects vary over the short and long term and across seasons and species, as well as different types of habitats and how animals use those areas, he said.

Ford said the return of fire to the landscape after decades of aggressive suppression efforts could actually be a "net benefit" for most wildlife.

But for that to happen it has to be the right kind of fire, and it must be combined with land-management approaches that support overall ecosystem health, he said.

"We're going to have fires regardless," Ford said.

"What we want to see is the return of good fire, cultural fire, prescribed fire."

Cultural fire — the strategicblazes Indigenous Peoples used to steward the land before fire suppression ramped up with colonization — would have led to explosions of vegetation for wildlife to feast on, among other benefits, Ford said.

Yet climate change is fuelling increasingly large, severe wildfires, and their effects interact with other disturbances, such as clear-cut logging and reforestation.

As fire returns to the landscape, Ford said it's important to manage those impacts.

If an ecosystem is already "sputtering along, then fire could be bad," he said.

The predominant approach in B.C. is to replant logged or burned areas with coniferous trees intended to feed the forest industry. It's also common practice to remove deciduous treesthat would otherwise play important roles in the ecosystem, including support for wildlife, Ford said.

"The problem is people think restoration is planting trees. You're restoring people's access to timber, but you're not restoring the habitat (or) the ecosystem," he said.

"If we want (wildfire) to be a benefit, then maybe we don't let all these other activities come in after the fire," Ford said. "Maybe we enjoy the flush of deciduous understory and don't see it as competition for softwood lumber species."

Fire can be used to promote regeneration and biodiversity on the landscape, agreed Sarah Dickson-Hoyle, an ecologist working with the Secwepemcul'ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society, of which Skeetchestn First Nation is a member.

"But that contrasts really drastically with these extensive high severity burns."

The onset of "megafire" has prompted calls for scientists to deepen their understanding of the long-term effects and trajectories of recovery, she said.

Secwepemc territories have been affected by several large, high-intensity blazes in recent years, including the 1,900-square-kilometre Elephant Hill fire in 2017.

Work so far has revealed limited short-term recovery in areas that wereseverelyscorched, said Dickson-Hoyle, an intern with the innovation organization Mitacs and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of B.C.'s faculty of forestry.

"We're seeing much lower diversity for those understory plants, for the shrubs, the grasses, the wildflowers that are not only the biggest part of biodiversity in those forests, but are really important for wildlife forage," she said.

"Understanding the impacts of these megafires is also bringing to the forefront that these fires in many of the landscapes in B.C. are not what those areas would have been adapted to. It's outside the historical range," she added.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2023.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press