TAYLOR: Did poor forest management contribute to Jasper’s fires?

Hinton-based Stuart Taylor is a retired professional forester. After more than 30 years experience, his last position was with the Government of Alberta as a senior manager with responsibilities for approvals and regulatory oversight for the coal, forestry, gas, oil and recreation industries in the Foothills Area. Did the federal government and local authorities in Jasper fail to apply established forest management techniques diligently in the past, to keep the town’s inhabitants and their property safe? Past pronouncements from government officials seem complacent. Thus for example, “‘We’re quite comfortable with where we are with our own emergency planning’ says Parks Canada.” But they shouldn’t be.In letters to Hinton-area newspapers in 2017 and 2018, I expressed concerns on this topic. One thing that worried me especially was that in 2017, I attended a mountain pine beetle seminar in Jasper and met scientists and forest health practitioners from across the country, especially Western Canada. But I was stunned that nobody attended who had anything to do with Jasper National Park.Later that year, I attended Jasper’s 150th anniversary canoe event and there were many park employees, and I wondered how it was possible for them to participate in a canoe event yet not have a single person attend the pine beetle meeting. If they had attended they would have learned much about the lack of measures in Jasper to deal with the pine beetle issue, especially the way an infestation leaves all kinds of dead dry wood just waiting to catch fire and burn out of control. Also, they would have heard how other national parks — in cooperation with the federal government and local communities — was able to conduct aggressive control treatments along the leading edge of the infestation.I also learned from the many experts to whom I spoke that day, that prescribed burning is not considered an effective control technique, especially in the midst of an infestation. (In fact it seems that prescribed burning over time can alter the species composition without controlling MPB infestations.) Yet it is the exact approach that is generally and primarily being undertaken in Jasper National Park. In 2018, I was even told that control work at Jasper was initially limited due to sensitive soils and steeper slopes in some areas, such as the Pyramid Bench. It seemed incredible that the administration had decided the remote possibility of damage of ground soils was a higher priority than the town of Jasper’s safety.As I said, I wrote two public letters expressing concern about the potential danger and the way it was being handled. In a response delivered in an on-line comment, I was told by a retired National Parks superintendent that there was no mountain pine beetle problem in Jasper (or the Alberta Foothills.) Rather, there was a natural process of change unfolding and nothing anybody can do will stop it.It wasn’t just him. The message we received at the time was that our federal government, via Jasper Parks management, believed public safety must play take a back seat to certain narrow, even exotic environmental issues.Now they’re blaming the fire on climate change. But as Jamie Sarkonak recently wrote in the National Post, it’s bad management forest management that’s behind it. And yes, some of us did try to raise the alarm years ago.Hinton-based Stuart Taylor is a retired professional forester. After more than 30 years experience, his last position was with the Government of Alberta as a senior manager with responsibilities for approvals and regulatory oversight for the coal, forestry, gas, oil and recreation industries in the Foothills Area.

TAYLOR: Did poor forest management contribute to Jasper’s fires?

Related Stories