Parks manages “successful” blaze

Blankets of thick black smoke towered over Jasper Monday after Parks Canada ignited a controlled fire in a 380-hectare area 13 km north of town.

The site of Parks’ first completed burn of the season is called Henry House and is a triangle bordered by Snaring River on the north, Snaring Road to the west and the railway along the east.

“This was a very successful fire, we had absolutely no excursions, nothing left the area where we had planned,” said Dave Smith, fire and vegetation specialist for Parks Canada. “We were able to override the poor weather conditions and get the fire behaviour we were looking for.”

Flames raged well into the evening of May 19, and with the help of rain workers planned to use the days following to extinguish the site.

Communications officer Kim Weir said Parks considers several criteria before beginning a controlled burn, including relative humidity, topography, dryness of forest fuels, weather and atmospheric stability.

“All of of the conditions must be met, so there’s a short window,” Weir said. Parks jumps on opportunities to assist these “natural disturbances” in an effort to help balance the natural ecology.

Monday’s fire had several objectives. First, prescribed burns protect nearby towns and other facilities by slowing natural forest fires.

Wardens who were assigned to extinguish natural fires over the past century left the area very dense, which results in poor animal habitats. “With open grassy areas hopefully this will draw elk and other animals away from our backyards,” Weir said.

Fires also rejunevate the landscape by creating younger, stronger forests that are more resilient to threats such as the pine beetle. One reason pine beetle populations have swelled is because they prefer the thicker bark of older trees.

“Wind, avalanches, floods, we think of all of those things as catastrophic events,” said Weir. “But they’re also really important parts of the ecosystem to help renew, regenerate and strengthen the ecosystem.”

The smoke may have made some onlookers nervous, especially after a wildfire caused some 150 Newbrook residents to evacuate their homes over Victoria Day weekend.

“What we’ll do now is monitor the fire,” Smith said. “But it’s one of the most successful burns we’ve seen so far.”