Did artificial forest preservation policies turn Jasper national park in to a "tinderbox"?
Thank you for choosing Automatic Translation. Currently we are offering translations from English into French and German, with more translation languages to be added in the near future. Please be aware that these translations are generated by a third party AI software service. While we have found that the translations are mostly correct, they may not be perfect in every case. To ensure the information you read is correct, please refer to the original article in English. If you find an error in a translation which you would like to bring to our attention, it would help us greatly if you let us know. We can correct any text or section, once we are aware of it. Please do not hesitate to contact our webmaster to let us know of any translation errors.
"The recent wildfire in Jasper National Park is often attributed to climate change, but there are other significant factors. The Parks Canada policy of forest protection in the Rocky Mountain national parks has led to an artificial landscape of dense coniferous trees, increasing fire risk", writes Dr. W.J. Byrne, a former deputy minister of Alberta, in the Edmonton Journal.
Historically, natural prairie fires maintained a varied range of vegetation types, but fire suppression has altered this balance, argues Dr. W.J. Byrne, a retired former deputy minister of Canada, Alberta Community Development and of Alberta Advanced Education.
Further more, he says in his recent Opinion Article, provincial officials have criticized this approach, advocating for active forest management like controlled burns and logging to reduce wildfire risk.
According to him, protection of forests by a far too vigilant preservation strategy, which included both protection from (selective) logging and from wildfires, has simply caused too much fuel to accumulate in the forests, and is not, according to Burne, a natural state at all, but rather an illusion that has now cracked open.
Without necessarily denying the further impact of climate change, Burne sees these (perhaps well meaning) policies, which have been in place for more than a hundred years, as the direct cause of the explosive situation in July when half the city of Jasper burned down.
25 years ago, Dr Burne was responsible for managing the Alberta national parks. He recalls a meeting with senior Parks Canada and Alberta officials:
"At that meeting Fred McDougall, the Alberta deputy minister of Forestry, eloquently and passionately chastised the federal officials for their lack of foresight, stating unequivocally that their commitment to maximum preservation as the cornerstone of their forestry management policy was creating an explosive situation they would live to regret".
Dr Burne finished his article with the words:
"I deeply regret that we have apparently learned little from historical realities.... now and instead, we have the reality of the humanly introduced “natural state” of our artificially managed current landscapes in the Rocky Mountain national parks. Massive forests throughout, steadily accumulating deadfall and forest-floor litter, and no relief in sight."
Photo Credits:
Photo above: This photo was submitted to the CBC by an unknown reader., or firefighter. The photo shows buildings in the southwestern part of the town of Jasper being destroyed by fire.
Photo in text: Wikipedia Commons License. Jasper National Park from Mt. Robson offered impressive scenery despite the air being thick with smoke from forest fires in British Columbia.
Date: 5 November 2009, 17:36
Source: Stitched shot of the Canadian Rockies on the south side of Jasper National Park
- Uploaded by Aconcagua
Author: Frank Kovalchek from Anchorage, Alaska, USA