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CBC
13 hours ago
- CBC
Building peace through curiosity
Scholars at UBC Okanagan are analyzing an 800 year old Spanish book, looking for clues that might help us today. Francisco Pena is leading the project.
CBC
14 hours ago
- CBC
Clearcutting tied to 18-fold increase in flood risk: UBC study
Social Sharing A new study from the University of British Columbia suggests that clearcut logging can make catastrophic floods up to 18 times more frequent. The study, published in the Journal of Hydrology, analyzed long-term data from one of the world's longest-running forest research sites in North Carolina, the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. "We had a good opportunity to test out the effect of the physical characteristics of the landscape on the relationship between logging practices and flooding," Younes Alila, a UBC hydrologist and senior author of the study, told CBC News. Researchers compared two neighbouring watersheds, one facing north, the other south, that were both clear-cut in the late 1950s. They found that clear-cutting in the north-facing watershed, which receives less sunlight and retains more moisture, had a dramatic effect on flood behaviour. WATCH | What are the lasting effects of B.C.'s logging? What are the lasting effects of B.C.'s logging? 12 months ago "The north-facing watershed was super sensitive," Alila said. In that watershed, average flood sizes increased by nearly 50 per cent, while the largest floods were 105 per cent bigger than they were before logging. "Different sides of the mountains will respond differently to logging," Alila explained. He says the north side receives less sunlight, which keeps the soil wetter year-round. When storms arrive, the ground is already moist and can't absorb much water, causing more rain to run off into streams and rivers, resulting in larger floods. In contrast, the south-facing watershed, which loses more moisture due to greater sunlight exposure, saw almost no change in flooding after clear-cutting. Visit a clearcut the size of a city in B.C.'s Interior 3 years ago Mike Morris is the MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, a portion of the province that has historically been highly forestry-dependant and heavily logged. He is also a trapper who sees first-hand the impact of that logging on local wildlife, and he wants the rest of the province to know what it looks like. Correction: A previous version of the story included an estimation of the clear cut area that referred to the larger region, not the specific clearcut. Alila called the difference "a breakthrough finding," highlighting how landscape factors like the direction a slope faces can reshape a watershed's flood regime. "The point we are trying to make is that we can use the way Mother Nature designed the landscape … to better manage the forest in ways that minimize the risk to hydrology and the risk of floods." Precautionary approach In addition to slope orientation, the hydrology professor emphasized that other landscape characteristics, including whether the terrain is flat or mountainous, contains lakes, wetlands or floodplains, all influence how a watershed responds to logging. "You should not be logging in one part of a watershed without accounting for what's happening elsewhere in the same drainage basin," he said. "Water flows from highlands to lowlands so we need cumulative impact studies before moving ahead with forest development." Alila says the current regulations in B.C. don't require companies to conduct proper watershed-level impact assessments before logging. Researchers say the study's findings are directly relevant to the province, where clear-cut logging remains common and terrain features mirror those of the test site. "Clear-cut logging in B.C. has increased the downstream flood risk rather dramatically," Alila added. He points to the devastating 2018 floods in Grand Forks, B.C. as an example, saying clear-cutting in the Kettle River watershed played a major role. Most flood models that predict the behaviour of floodwaters, assume a simple, predictable relationship between logging and flooding, the UBC professor says. For example, cutting down X per cent of trees, will likely result in Y per cent more water runoff. But the study says after clear-cutting, the risk of extreme and unpredictable floods increases in ways that these basic models can't capture. "This experimental evidence validates our longstanding call for better analysis methods," said Alila. "When we apply proper probabilistic tools to long-term data, we find much stronger and more variable impacts than older models suggest." Jens Wieting, senior policy and science advisor with Sierra Club B.C., said the study underscores the need to reform forestry practices to respond to climate risks. "This study is really demonstrating that we need a precautionary approach," said Wieting. "Clear-cutting can make climate change impacts worse." He said moving away from clear-cutting and toward selective logging — a practice where only certain trees are harvested, leaving the rest of the forest intact — could help reduce flood risk, restore degraded landscapes, and save money in the long run by avoiding climate disaster costs. Province acknowledges research In a statement to CBC News, the B.C. Ministry of Forests said it "appreciates the research being done at UBC" and emphasized that the province continues to invest in water and forest management. "Currently, through allowable cut determinations, the Chief Forester places limits on the rate of cut in each watershed to help provide balance to the many values our forested landscapes provide, including reducing flood risks," the statement reads. The ministry says it's also moving beyond traditional modelling to better understand how changes to forests, water, and climate affect long-term sustainability. That includes promoting practices like selective thinning, fuel management and forest restoration. The province has also introduced Forest Landscape Planning (FLP), which it describes as one of the most effective tools for reducing flood risk at a broader scale. Still, Alila says implementation of old-growth deferrals and other reforms from the province have been slow.
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada is hosting the world's biggest dementia conference for the first time in a decade. What's changed since then?
This week, researchers from around the globe are descending upon downtown Toronto to attend the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, the world's biggest and most influential meeting for dementia research. The gathering is a chance for the international dementia community to discuss the latest research in the field; it's also where significant breakthroughs are often unveiled. At a related event on Saturday, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) – Canada's health research funding agency – announced $44.8-million in new funding for dementia and aging-related research initiatives, including the creation of 16 teams that will study everything from Alzheimer's biomarkers to dementia in Indigenous populations. To set the stage for this year's conference, The Globe and Mail checked in with Jane Rylett, a professor at Western University and scientific director at the CIHR Institute of Aging, which hosted Saturday's event. The last time this global conference was held in Canada was in 2016, nearly a decade ago. How has the dementia research landscape changed since then? This is a really important inflection point. There is a new class of drugs, the antibody therapy, that came into the market within the last three or four years; they probably will be approved in Canada in the coming years. But while there's huge hope around it . . . right now, there's a lot of debate around if they're really beneficial. For certain people, they don't work at all; other people have negative side effects by creating inflammation in the brain. And the benefit-to-risk ratio is not great. So I think at this year's conference, it's going to be really important to hear about new findings with that. Something that's really gained momentum over the last few years is stepping back from the pharmacological approach to treatment and saying, 'What else can we do that will reduce the risk of developing dementia?' Health system urged to brace for major shift in dementia demographics The other thing that's changed is there's always been an 'amyloid hypothesis' of Alzheimer's disease, based on these toxic peptides that get made in the brain and clearly have a role in brain health and development of dementia. But during these nine years, there's been a much greater move towards understanding the role of those and recognizing that while they're still important, they're not the whole story. Now there's more openness to looking at other hypotheses about how brain health can be impacted during the life course and can lead to dementia. How should people feel about this present moment? Thinking back to 2012, the United States' health department set an ambitious goal to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease by 2025. But here we are today and that goal is far from met. When people or groups make those kinds of statements, it doesn't necessarily mesh with the complication of the thing. And then what happens is people see [the missed deadline] and think, well, it didn't happen. That's always the danger of doing something like that. The brain is a complex thing, it really is. The problem with something like Alzheimer's disease is it's so multi-faceted and it's a spectrum. There's so many areas of the brain that are impacted and the clinical presentation can look similar for people but what's happening in their brain, and where the degeneration is initiated, can be quite different. There's no one pill that you're going to have that's going to be able to change the course or alleviate the symptoms. So was it realistic to say in 2012 that this could be cured by 2025? Probably not. But it stimulated a lot of activity. We understand much more about the underlying pathology and the pathogenesis of the disease. And stepping back was an important thing, saying what can we do that is not a pharmaceutical or a pill? What are the life, behavioural and other things that we can do? Canada has a chance to change the Alzheimer's experience - let's not squander it There's been a lot of focus on the funding cuts in the U.S. that are under way right now, including to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). How has that affected things? is it looming over the conference this year? Yes. A number of Canadian researchers also have been funded by NIH, either in their own right or as subcontracts on larger studies within the U.S., and for the most part, that has been ended, which is very problematic. So we have a number of very good Canadian researchers in all fields that have lost substantial funding, and we don't have the resources in Canada to replace that. One of the big question marks is the impact it's going to have on the number of Americans that are going to be able to attend the conference. And I don't know the answer to that yet. Let's talk about Canadian researchers. What role are they playing within the broader effort? Canadian researchers are leaders internationally in these fields of study. There's really significant work being done by Canadians in the biomarkers area, so the diagnostic area. We have a lot of expertise around how to develop and promote new methods for supporting caregivers and persons with dementia. Alzheimer's trial brings at-risk patients hope for the future, but new doubts in the present We've got outstanding Indigenous cognitive health researchers that are developing new culturally safe and appropriate diagnostic and caregiving methods. And we do have some very good work going on around pathogenesis, looking at changes in the brain during aging and how that may lead to loss of cognition. That's important because you really need to understand where those earliest changes come from. Those are the targets where you need to develop drugs and therapies. This interview has been edited and condensed.
