{"id":61593,"date":"2024-05-29T17:49:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T17:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/29\/logging-in-canadas-most-famous-national-park-to-save-it-from-wildfires\/"},"modified":"2024-05-29T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T17:49:35","slug":"logging-in-canadas-most-famous-national-park-to-save-it-from-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/29\/logging-in-canadas-most-famous-national-park-to-save-it-from-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Logging in Canada\u2019s Most Famous National Park to Save It From Wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/27\/world\/00canada-wildire-banff\/00canada-wildire-banff-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Logging in Canada\u2019s Most Famous National Park to Save It From Wildfires\" title=\"Logging in Canada\u2019s Most Famous National Park to Save It From Wildfires\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The loggers\u2019 work was unmistakable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Flanked by dense forests, the mile-long, 81-acre expanse of land on the mountainside had been stripped nearly clean. Only scattered trees still stood, while some skinny felled trunks had been left behind. A path carved out by logging trucks was visible under a light blanket of snow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The harvesting of trees would be routine in a commercial forest \u2014 but this was in Banff, Canada\u2019s most famous national park. Clear-cutting was once unimaginable in this green jewel in the Canadian Rockies, where the longstanding policy was to strictly suppress every fire and preserve every tree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But facing a growing threat of wildfires, national park caretakers are increasingly turning to loggers to create fire guards: buffers to stop forest fires from advancing into the rest of the park and nearby towns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf you were to get a highly intense, rapidly spreading wildfire, this gives fire managers options,\u2019\u2019 David Tavernini, a fire and vegetation expert at Parks Canada, the federal agency that manages national parks, said as he treaded on the cleared forest\u2019s soft floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still reeling from its worst wildfire season on record last year, Canada is now confronting the quick start of a new one. So-called zombie fires, which smoldered under snow-covered ground during the winter, have sprung to life and forced thousands to flee from affected cities and towns in Western Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Coming out of Canada\u2019s warmest winter in history, communities near forests are bracing for another tough wildfire season, and for a future increasingly prone to wildfires as a result of climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Long-planned measures meant to protect against wildfires \u2014 like the fire guard in Alberta\u2019s Banff park and other projects in the town of Banff \u2014 have taken on a greater sense of urgency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, a dozen fires were ignited, mostly from lightning, in Banff and two adjoining national parks, including three near the new fire guard. They were quickly extinguished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But across Alberta, the impact of last year\u2019s record wildfire season was \u201cmassive,\u2019\u2019 said Katherine Severson, director of emergency services in the town of Banff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The increased number of fires in sparsely populated areas of Canada has affected not only nearby communities, but also distant ones, with the intense smoke they have generated floating into southern Canada and into the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s now normal \u2014 every single day, cities and towns are making decisions on whether they can hold outdoor activities because of smoke,\u2019\u2019 Ms. Severson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, wildfires scorched 18.5 million hectares, or 46 million acres, of land in Canada, more than doubling the previous record set two decades ago, and sending smoke as far away as Europe. Fires spread uncontrollably across the country, not only in Western provinces accustomed to blazes, but also in Quebec and the Maritimes, where such large fires are rare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This spring, much of Alberta is facing drought conditions. In the Rockies, the snowpack was \u201cexceptionally low,\u2019\u2019 said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/water.usask.ca\/about\/profiles\/people\/john-pomeroy.php\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">John Pomeroy<\/a>, a hydrologist based near Banff and the director of the Global Water Futures Program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAs a setup for this time of the year, it looks worse than last year,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Pomeroy said. \u201cBut I qualify that by saying that lots could change. Last year, we also had record heat and lack of rainfall.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Extreme heat and unusual weather patterns helped create the conditions that led to last year\u2019s record wildfire season, said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/kamino.tru.ca\/experts\/home\/main\/bio.php?id=mflannigan\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Flannigan<\/a>, an expert on fire management at <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tru.ca\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Thompson Rivers University<\/a> in British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cLast year was a real outlier,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Flannigan said. \u201cSo statistically, it\u2019s unlikely that you\u2019ll get another outlier.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, wildfire firefighting agencies across the country \u2014 which traditionally hired personnel only during fire seasons and included university students on summer jobs \u2014 are starting to employ professionals year round as fire seasons grow longer, Mr. Flannigan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In British Columbia, Mr. Flannigan said some \u201coverwintering zombie fires\u2019\u2019 were so big that firefighting crews could not extinguish them along their perimeters, and they are now actively burning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe fire season ended so late last year that they didn\u2019t have time to do as much mop up as they would have liked,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In northern Alberta, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation reserve is one of many communities beefing up their firefighting capacity against the growing threat of wildfires. Its fire agency now has 20 volunteers, up from seven last year, said Shane Bair, the fire chief and director of emergency services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, a human-caused fire on a ranch inside the reserve burned 157 acres of land and came within half a kilometer, or 540 yards, of homes. Residents of 23 houses were evacuated as firefighters struggled to control the fire, fed by powerful winds and extremely dry conditions, Mr. Bair said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To reduce the risk of a repeat, Mr. Bair\u2019s crew carried out four controlled burns on the reserve this year to get rid of potentially flammable grass in large, open areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt hadn\u2019t burned for a few years, so we really wanted to get that part done,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe saw it as a high-risk, high traffic area.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The community had hoped to perform more controlled burns but was limited by the mild winter, he said. Snow melted quickly and little water was absorbed into the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cUsually, we want to do those burns while there\u2019s still snow on the ground, so our window was very small,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Bair said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the town of Banff, officials have cut down trees in forested areas on the community\u2019s edges to make them less dense and flammable. Embers from advancing fires can travel two kilometers, or 1.2 miles, in the air, igniting fires in areas across bodies of water, said Russ Geyer, the fire chief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Firefighters must protect both residents and visitors to the town of Banff, whose population of 9,000 can swell to 40,000 during summer weekends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Banff National Park \u2014 with its majestic mountains, turquoise water lakes, glaciers and rich wildlife \u2014 is by far Canada\u2019s most popular national park, drawing more than 4 million visitors each year from all over the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the town of Banff, fire officials are encouraging homeowners to make their homes safer by trimming low-hanging branches on conifers, installing sprinklers and upgrading wooden roofs with fire-resistant material, Mr. Geyer said, adding that some initiatives had started two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe started slow and people saw that as something we were doing, but it wasn\u2019t that urgent,\u2019\u2019 Mr. Geyer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In recent years, a rethinking of how to manage forests against fires has also been underway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Banff National Park, which was created in 1885 and is Canada\u2019s oldest, officials until 1983 hewed to a strict policy of fire suppression, rather than take significant steps to prevent or manage fires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The result now is a landscape of dense forests dominated by conifers, which are extremely flammable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Historical photos of the area before the park was established show a greater variety of trees and more open spaces, said Mr. Tavernini, the fire and vegetation expert at Parks Canada. Lightning and controlled burns by the local Indigenous people regularly thinned out the forests, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In recent years, parks officials have carried out controlled burns. But perhaps nothing is as large and visually dramatic as the 81-acre fire guard, which was completed last year, along a main road inside Banff park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An even larger fire guard was finished this winter in adjoining Yoho National Park. Work on a third one \u2014 near Lake Louise, one of Banff\u2019s most popular spots \u2014 could get underway later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A logging company was hired to cut down the trees on the first two sites, carrying out the projects in return for the lumber. Parks Canada also got a total of 80,000 in Canadian dollars from the sale of the harvested lumber at the two fire guards, said Shelly Tamelin, project manager for wildfire risk reduction at Parks Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cleared of flammable conifers, the fireguards are designed to stop advancing fires from spreading beyond them. They also provide staging areas for firefighters to directly attack fires by drawing water from nearby ponds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, parks officials were aware of the need to move gingerly with clear-cuts in cherished national parks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re trying to pick areas,\u2019\u2019 Ms. Tamelin said, \u201cwhere we have to remove the fewest amount of trees to create the widest open space.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/29\/world\/canada\/canada-wildfires-logging-banff-climate.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The loggers\u2019 work was unmistakable. Flanked by dense forests, the mile-long, 81-acre expanse of land on the mountainside had been stripped nearly clean. Only scattered trees still stood, while some skinny felled trunks had been left behind. A path carved out by logging trucks was visible under a light blanket of snow. The harvesting of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/27\/world\/00canada-wildire-banff\/00canada-wildire-banff-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6379,19217,59482,4372,6381,1119,5907],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61595,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61593\/revisions\/61595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}