Wildfires a concern

With the fire last Tuesday evening at Disaster Point along Hwy 16 and the wildfires raging northeast of Edmonton, the issue of fire bans has become a topic of discussion.

Dave Smith, fire and vegetation specialist with Parks Canada, said that Alberta “generally has fire bans earlier than we do.” Not only does the issuing of fire bans depend on weather, but it depends on regulations as well. 

Unlike many areas in the province, “we actually take care of human fire control through regulation,” said Smith. “We’re very controlled [in Jasper National Park] where people are allowed to have fires,” he said, adding that “people are allowed to have fires in designated fire pits in the backcountry setting and at frontcountry campgrounds.”

One of the reasons the province, outside the park, has more issues with human-made fires “is because a lot of other activities go on in the province that we don’t have,” said Smith, such as driving motorcycles and ATVs in the backcountry, and burning grass, slash and leaves as well.  

The Disaster Point fire proved that “the fire potential is here right now, there’s no doubt about it,” said Smith, adding that we’ve “had hardly any precipitation over the last month. However, “the thing that sort of saves us is that we’re just coming into the green-up right now and all the fresh shoots are starting to come out, so that will sort of ease the fire danger that we’ve been seeing lately,” he said. 

As of May 7, the province of Alberta had issued 38 fire bans.