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Ottawa let wildfire fuel pile up in Jasper for decades
National Post [Canada] ^ | Friday, July 26, 2024 | Jamie Sarkonak

Posted on 07/26/2024 5:41:53 AM PDT by canuck_conservative

Losses have been described as “significant”; from her limited point of view, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith estimated the extent of the damage to be a potential 30 to 50 per cent, but the official toll will come from Parks Canada. And though the fire blew in from Alberta’s forest protection zone, Jasper National Park is the responsibility of the federal government. Thus it’s Ottawa that’s in charge of the park’s forest management and, crucially, fire mitigation ...

Warnings of a mega-fire have rumbled for years in Jasper. Preventing fires has been the priority for many of the years since the park’s inception in 1907, in the interest of preserving the forest. But the forest naturally burns on cycles ranging from 50 to 200 years — old, dead growth must ignite to clear out dead carbon and make way for young trees and grassy meadows.

In the 1980s, some controlled burning was wound into the park’s arsenal of fire suppression tactics to account for natural cycles. It was still far from enough, according to a 2022 Parks Canada report ...

The last massive subalpine fire in Jasper took place over the two summers of 1888 and 1889, depleting 40 per cent of the forests in the area. Tree ring studies give us an idea of previous fires: in 2018, ecologists counted 18 fires from 1646 to 1915 — at which point humans took over, employing a strategy of aggressive suppression.

“For a century the fuel has piled up and only in recent times have managers seen the danger and begun to change course by thinning the woods and defusing built up fuel with their own small fires,” wrote one article about the 2018 study...

Tragically, apparent from the scenes Thursday morning, human efforts didn’t catch up in time....

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: canada; controlledburns; fire; fires; firesuppression; jasper; preventing; preventingfire; preventingfires; suppression; wildfire
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Town of Jasper burned yesterday by a massive wildfire yesterday morning ... extent of the damage not known yet ... everyone there had to do a hurried evacuation west into BC a few days ago

Japer National Park was only established in 1907, with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (Banff NP, to the south, was established in 1886)

Fire used to be a regular, natural occurrence in the dry Western forests (every 30-50 years), Natives even used to do controlled burns to improve the soil (and attract game animals)

But ever since Europeans arrived, stopping ALL fires has been the priority ... letting the dead tinder fuel pile up

1 posted on 07/26/2024 5:41:53 AM PDT by canuck_conservative
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To: canuck_conservative

National parks are not the responsibility of the province.

It should be interesting as to who gets to live in Jasper once they start rebuilding. It isn’t impossible that this fire was deliberate.


2 posted on 07/26/2024 5:46:00 AM PDT by Jonty30 (Trump beat Hilary in 2016. He ended her kill streak in 2024.)
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To: canuck_conservative

But, Wh@remaster Jr is blaming...climate change. Of course.


3 posted on 07/26/2024 5:47:42 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966 )
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To: Jonty30

There’s been over 10,000 lightning strikes in the BC-Alberta area over the last few days, so it was probably naturally-caused

But the leftist kooks are already seizing on it as “being caused by climate change” - not forest mismanagement, the real reason


4 posted on 07/26/2024 5:48:35 AM PDT by canuck_conservative (NATO - now celebrating 75 successful years of keeping the Russian monsters out!!)
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To: canuck_conservative

Perfectly logical artistic development.

5 posted on 07/26/2024 5:48:47 AM PDT by xoxox
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To: canuck_conservative

I was in Jasper in the late 2000’s for a week. Just a beautiful small town in the Canadian Rockies. God’s country. Fantastic fishing.

Wishing them the best and a recovery.


6 posted on 07/26/2024 5:51:07 AM PDT by BBQToadRibs2
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To: canuck_conservative

The government is already desperately blaming climate change instead of their forest management policies.


7 posted on 07/26/2024 5:52:11 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: canuck_conservative

Nice job. The spotted owls have burned to a crisp.


8 posted on 07/26/2024 6:05:43 AM PDT by alstewartfan (Child slavery, rape and drug OD's mean nothing to Roberts and Barrett. )
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To: Mr. Jeeves

The Maui land management team and the Secret Service offered advice.


9 posted on 07/26/2024 6:08:31 AM PDT by alstewartfan (Child slavery, rape and drug OD's mean nothing to Roberts and Barrett. )
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To: alstewartfan

Think Paradise, Ca. Lahaina, Hawaii. Something’s going on.


10 posted on 07/26/2024 6:09:42 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: canuck_conservative
Wild fire fuel? C’mon...it's called saving the forests. It's the same thing that's happened in Kalifornia...where wildfires are an everyday occurrence today.
11 posted on 07/26/2024 6:16:24 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Never Trust A Man Whose Uncle Was Eaten By Cannibals)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

It is quite interesting, that national parks are so often affected by major wildfires.
On the other hand, fire rarely affects private forests.

Live, healthy trees usually do not catch the fire, especially when spaced properly. One need to clean the forest from dead trees, underbrush and even trim living trees to assure proper spacing. Forestry is a science, and when properly managed by qualified forester, fires practically cannot happened.

But thanks to our environmentalists, forest management is banned in national parks and mostly banned in all other government owned forests.
Those people “save the trees but kill the forest”!


12 posted on 07/26/2024 6:20:04 AM PDT by AZJeep
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To: canuck_conservative
We stayed several days in Jasper last September. It was a magnificent place. We drove east out of Jasper into the mountains and went canoeing on Lake Maligne...the most beautiful lake I've seen in North America, by far.

This is interesting...

...the forest naturally burns on cycles ranging from 50 to 200 years

The last massive subalpine fire in Jasper took place over the two summers of 1888 and 1889

So the last big fire was 136 years ago and the average natural fire cycle is 50 to 200 years. Doesn't that mean this big fire is right on schedule?
13 posted on 07/26/2024 6:28:49 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
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To: BBQToadRibs2

—”God’s country. Fantastic fishing.

Wishing them the best and a recovery.”

YES!

We spent a few days in Banff/Jasper en route to Alaska.

Everything was nice, even the weather was good.

But we heard a rumor that speeding was a capital offense and for 10 KPH over they chopped off a finger!
We were in no hurry.


14 posted on 07/26/2024 6:36:01 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: canuck_conservative

Ironically, something we can both agree upon.

100%.

It’s a seasonal battle here in Oregon. I literally just finished an email to a local radio station who just yesterday gave airtime to a hypocritical scientist citing ‘carbon sequestration’ and the need for ongoing fire suppression...a continuation of a century of defective public policy.


15 posted on 07/26/2024 7:13:21 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: AZJeep
It is quite interesting, that national parks are so often affected by major wildfires. On the other hand, fire rarely affects private forests.

Not entirely true. Look closer. I mapped a recent major fire in the heart of Oregon and it blazed across 'managed' private lands, burning 'right up to' the border of the national forest. It was a stunning result, but not unexpected to this guy, nor is it common public knowledge. (neither the government nor private forest interests want the public to think that they CANNOT prevent wildfire, but that their efforts to 'manage the forest' will prove effective. Right now, it's all about $$, the WIC, aka Wildfire Industrial Complex)

16 posted on 07/26/2024 7:17:57 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: canuck_conservative
ecologists counted 18 fires from 1646 to 1915 — at which point humans took over, employing a strategy of aggressive suppression.

THIS! It's the same issue all over North America.

17 posted on 07/26/2024 7:24:36 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Looks like I'll have to buy the White Album again.)
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A cleansing fire. Praying for survivorship.

There have been times that I wished that my life would have been suddenly simplified. But that’s just me... my avocational attention span is not exactly short, but it changes and the clutter ends up going to charitable outlets.


18 posted on 07/26/2024 7:28:13 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: logi_cal869

OH, I stay corrected.
When I was in Spain, we were driven thru huge forest of dead trees.
The guide told us, that in Spain, there are all the rules what to do with forests. Government keeps telling owners what to and what not to do. So owners just torch the forests and problem solved.
Maybe you forest is the same case!


19 posted on 07/26/2024 7:29:39 AM PDT by AZJeep
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To: canuck_conservative

Ditto for California when we get massive, destructive wildfires - one is burning right now in the northern part of the state. Deliberately set as so many of them are.

Trump came into the state and said these fires are caused by “forest mismanagement” - the Gov., idiot Newsom, claims these massive fires are caused by “climate change.” (and therefore we need more taxes and carbon reduction policies).

“Trump pointed to decades of mistakes by government agencies that caused the woodlands to become overly dense and blanketed with highly flammable dead wood and underbrush.

He’s exactly right.

The California state legislature enacted a measure that would expedite the removal of dead trees and use ‘prescribed burns’ to thin forests. In other words: the very same reforms that Trump is now being mocked for proposing.”


20 posted on 07/26/2024 7:44:44 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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