In an effort to help restore some of the park’s meadows and grasslands, Jasper National Park’s fire management team were out in the backcountry, hard at work, from Sept. 23 to 26.

The team planned to begin small-scale burning in specific sub-alpine meadows in the park’s backcountry over the four-day period, igniting fires near four north boundary backcountry trails — Willow Creek, Little Heaven, Starlight and Rocky Forks — and near the south backcountry trail Welbourne.

Kim Weir, fire communications officer for Jasper National Park, said it was unlikely that  the crew could accomplish the completion of all the sites, but were attempting to get as much done as possible.

“The conditions right now look really good in terms of moisture levels in the vegetation and in the ground,” said Weir before heading out on Sept. 23. “However, weather always plays a factor and in the fall, conditions are always variable. That will determine what we accomplish.”

The small-scale burns were ignited precisely with hand-held drip torches and an aerial ignition device mounted on the side of the helicopter.

“An operator (of the machine) will put what look like ping-pong balls inside the machine and inside of every little ping-pong ball is a little amount of dried chemical call potassium permanganate,” she explained. “As the helicopter flies low over the area, the operator will push a button, thereby releasing as many of the little balls as he or she wishes.”

Just before the ping-pong balls are dropped, they are injected with a tiny amount of glycol creating a delayed chemical reaction of about 20 to 30 seconds, said Weir. Meanwhile, they are dropping to the vegetation on the ground below, combusting on the ground and igniting the vegetation.

“With these two methods, we can be very precise,” said Weir.

Unexpected winds pushed the fires beyond the prescribed zones in the Willow Creek backcountry area, however.

“This resulted in a small excursion of approximately 40 hectares, and led to an increased amount of smoke drifting to areas east,” Parks Canada stated in a news release on Sept. 26. “Though the fire is in a remote backcountry area, downwind smoke concerns and the possibility of growth prompted fire managers to work towards extinguishing this section of forest. ... Today (Monday), helicopters will continue to bucket water on the fire and crews will work toward extinguishment from the ground.”

The operations of prescribed burns like this are typically determined by weather and other variables, Weir noted.

“This is part of an ongoing program to try to restore specific sub-alpine meadows in Jasper’s backcountry,” she said. “Through 70-plus years of fire suppression we lost a lot of important meadows and grasslands in the park.”