A former Parks Canada planner blames agency leadership for last week’s devastating blaze in Jasper, Alberta, which saw approximately 30% of the town’s infrastructure damaged due to inaction.

Peter Scholz, a former senior planner of the National Park, claimed overconfident staff members allowed dead wood to build up in Jasper National Park. “You could light a match and it’s going to practically explode,” he said. “I saw it for myself.”

The agency failed to perform prescribed burns in Jasper despite warning Environment and Climate Change Canada of the obvious fire risk two years ago.

The 2022 Jasper National Park Management Plan warned that 44% of Jasper’s Whitebark Pine forest was killed by pine beetles, posing a wildfire risk. It proposed controlled burns, followed by tree planting to replace the dead pine. 

Very few seedlings were planted and there were no prescribed burns, although Parks Canada could not explain the lack of follow-through.

Who is responsible for the Jasper wildfire destruction?

Lorne Gunter from the Edmonton Sun joined @EzraLevant to discuss the policies and people who hold responsibility for the fires that recently burnt down Jasper, Alberta.

Ezra Levant spoke with Edmonton Sun columnist Lorne… pic.twitter.com/8oNE2QY1eG

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) July 28, 2024

Scholz condemned Parks Canada leadership as “unresponsive” and “politicized” following the devastation wrought by the Jasper wildfires, reported True North.

Estimates show around 30% of the town’s infrastructure was damaged by last week’s blaze. The fire could burn for months, an official said Saturday.

“I did my best to support what I had been told when I was developing land use policy for Jasper National Park,” Scholz said, including prescribed burns.

“But I found the manager of land use planning … and the superintendent himself was unresponsive,” Scholz said. One example he cited includes a conversation with the then-wildfire chief in January 2008. “‘We have become so good at controlling and stopping fires that we just build up dead wood supplies,’” he was told.

Rebel News did not hear from Parks Canada on the authenticity of the allegations at publication.

The total area of Jasper burned or partially burned is over 360 square kilometres, destroying 358 structures.

Guilbeault says "years of forest management" paid off in Jasper.

30% of the town burned.

His own ministry's 2022 Jasper Park Mgmt Plan says not enough was done to clear pine beetle fuel load out of the park. Feds were warned in 2017 about potential for a catastrophe… pic.twitter.com/j7IrALmW5d

— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) July 29, 2024

Environment Minister Guilbeault learned the federal agency failed to act but did not mention management reports in recent remarks. 

“To think … we would not have deployed the resources necessary … to protect the town from a forest fire is simply not true,” he said.

A 2018 CBC Radio feature furthered concerns after foresters warned Jasper was “due for a catastrophic forest fire” because of dead trees. The agency dismissed the broadcast, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

Parks Canada has exclusive authority over Jasper’s zoning and development and all surrounding Crown lands under the Parks Act. 

Scholz concurred that the conditions in Jasper National Park were ripe for a massive fire. “There were enormous amounts of dead fall,” he said, “some dead trees but mainly branches that had fallen off.”

“This becomes very dry timber and it’s very well-aerated because it’s all built up gradually over the years and it’s not compressed in any way.”

https://twittet.com/rebelnewsonline/status/1816947788275470492

The former senior planner went on to resign after five months on the job. He directly blamed the superintendents at Parks Canada and Jasper National Park for the blaze.

“If Jasper Town burns, I blame the bureaucrats of Parks Canada, especially all the Jasper National Park Superintendents since 2005. This is on you,” Scholz wrote in a post to LinkedIn. “Not doing your job because of ecoactivists, who now will blame climate change rather than take responsibility for their own willful ignorance regarding proper forest management.”

He accused Parks Canada staff of caving to the “strong political effort” of environmental activists who opposed cutting down dead trees. “There is a very strong opposition to cutting trees or any kind of burning.” 

The agency conducted only eight prescribed burns in 2023 across six national parks — down from 28 burns eight years prior. 

“The level of ignorance in that community about proper forest management is rather extraordinary,” he said. “A lot of those people [liken] cutting a tree to some kind of murder — they are that emotional about it.”