Parks Canada withholds wildfire management details prior to Jasper blaze: report

Parks Canada is withholding all information of the Jasper blaze until May 2, 2025, including the acreage of dead pine left standing and its budget.

Parks Canada withholds wildfire management details prior to Jasper blaze: report
The Canadian Press / Amber Bracken
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Parks Canada will not disclose details of its forest management prior to a July 24 wildfire that burned down a third of Jasper, reads an agency statement. Managers four years ago warned of “dead trees and the fuel load” at Jasper National Park.

On Thursday, Parks Canada said it would withhold all information of the Jasper blaze until May 2, 2025, including the acreage of dead pine left standing, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. “Assigning employees to retrieve records at this time would disrupt the institution’s fire management and recovery priorities,” it said.

Parks Canada in a 2021 Briefing Book acknowledged from 2015 it reduced the number of controlled burns that would fuel any wildfire. No reason was given.

“Obviously one of the big concerns is the dead trees and the fuel load,” Darlene Upton, vice-president of Parks Canada, testified at 2020 hearings of the Commons environment committee. “We are ramping up our efforts.”

However, agency documents indicate they were slow to eliminate the risk with tree cutting or controlled burns. 

The number of controlled fires in national parks was reduced from 28 annually to just 13 in the period from 2015 to 2019. That fell further during the pandemic. 

Blacklock’s requested the number of hectares of dead pine left in Jasper National Park to 2023, and the amount of  clear cutting or controlled burns from 2020. Parks Canada granted itself a 240-day delay to respond, citing “emergency response efforts.”

Parks Canada warned Environment and Climate Change Canada of the obvious fire risk two years ago, expressing concern that 44% of Jasper’s Whitebark Pine forest was killed by pine beetles. 

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault claimed the damage would have been much worse if not for “years of preparation.” The agency would not detail precautions it took in Jasper.

On July 29, Guilbeault refuted claims that Parks Canada mismanaged fire preparedness. It was “simply not true.” 

However, vice-president Upton acknowledged there were thousands of hectares of dead trees left at Jasper following a prior pine beetle infestation.

“Is there any sense of urgency?” asked Conservative MP Dan Mazier. “We have developed with partners a specific management plan in that particular area,” replied Vice-President Upton. She did not elaborate.

“Are there deadlines?” asked MP Mazier. “They are defined by the funding we have available in part,” replied Upton. She did not elaborate on the timeline.

Parliament in 2021 budgeted $100.6 million fire preparedness in national parks over five years, including $2.2 million a year to combat beetle infestations blamed for killing pine trees. 

“There is still much work to do to mitigate Mountain Pine Beetle related impacts particularly in the forests surrounding communities within the Rocky Mountain National Parks, e.g. Jasper,” said the Briefing Book.

Blacklock’s also requested figures on how much money Parks Canada budgeted for fire preparedness and forest management at Jasper in the five years prior to the July 24 wildfire. That information was not disclosed either.

“You could light a match and it’s going to practically explode,” said Peter Scholz, a former senior planner for the National Park. He claimed overconfident staff members allowed dead pine to build up at the park. 

Ron Hallman, CEO of Parks Canada, acknowledged the agency cleared “thousands of hectares” of dead pine deemed a fire risk. He did not specify further.

“Obviously we are all devastated that the fire breached the town despite best efforts,” he said. “The simple fact is sometimes there are no tools or resources capable of overcoming a wildfire.”

Parks Canada boasted at 2020 environment committee hearings that Jasper National Park was “one of the very few places” where the agency cut trees to reduce fire risk.

Very few seedlings were planted after the fact. Parks Canada could not explain the inaction.

Scholz has accused Park staff of caving to ecoactivists who opposed cutting down dead trees. “The level of ignorance in that community about proper forest management is rather extraordinary,” he said.

He left in 2008 after five months' employment, claiming his “time would be wasted.”

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