Elephant Hill: Secwépemc leadership and lessons learned 

In the summer of 2017, wildfires burned a record-breaking 1.2 million hectares throughout British Columbia, driven by the combined impacts of climate change and the legacy of past fire suppression and industrial forest management over the past century. Amongst the largest was the ‘Elephant Hill’ fire, which burned close to 200,000 hectares throughout the heartland of the Secwépemc Nation. The scale of this fire and its devastating impacts on Secwépemc communities and territories catalyzed these communities to action: to advocate for Secwépemc-led processes of wildfire recovery.

In partnership with researchers at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, the SRSS has documented the experiences of the Secwépemc community and the provincial government regarding the Elephant Hill wildfire and the subsequent joint leadership approach to wildfire recovery.

In our new report, Elephant Hill: Secwépemc leadership and lessons learned from the collective story of wildfire recovery, we:

• offer an in-depth examination of the drivers for this new government-to-government approach.
• identify lessons – the successes, strengths and challenges – from Elephant Hill response and recovery.
• highlight persistent barriers to achieving true partnerships in wildfire management, and how these could be overcome; and
• present key findings and calls action to address critical needs and priorities for supporting First Nations leadership in wildfire management.

As we face the challenges of recovering from another devastating wildfire season, addressing climate change, and meaningfully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this report shows the critical role that First Nations can and should play in leading the work of recovering and restoring our territories.

Elephant Hill was just the beginning.