Jasper Wildfire Aftermath

Jasper Fire a Further Wake-Up Call for British Columbia
Another town partially lost to wildfire, and this one close to our border
Wildfire has been top-of-mind in recent years for Parks Canada and Jasper residents at their annual public forum held each spring in that community. The risk became increasingly apparent when whole mountainsides turned red with mountain pine beetle-killed trees. However, the danger was already there as a result of century-long changes to the fire regime. The shift away from historic indigenous cultural burning, and increased suppression of naturally-caused wildfires meant that the grassland, shrub and young, open forests of the early 20th Century slowly gave way to late-succession conifer forests. The resulting abundance of mature conifers posed an increasing fire danger to Jasper, but it took the pine beetle and our increasingly hot summers to make that starkly clear to everyone.
Beetle-killed trees brought an added threat: As we learned in BC, the dry loose bark of dead conifers can result in burning embers flying several kilometres in strong winds, causing spot fires in many locations and overwhelming fire-fighting efforts. This was likely a factor in Jasper.
In response to the increasing wildfire risk, Jasper National Park undertook significant mitigation actions over the past two decades. Concern about fire threat from BC as the mountain pine beetle spread into the adjacent Mount Robson Provincial Park led to the large Moose Lake controlled burn a decade or so ago in the Yellowhead Pass. With many agencies and individuals involved from Federal and two Provincial governments, plus the need for ideal burn conditions, it took almost ten years to plan and execute safely. It had the desired effect of creating a natural fire break in the Highway 16 corridor west of Jasper National Park.
Further, Jasper undertook a multi-year logging program on the benches immediately above and west of the town. The logging was carried out by a private forest company on a for-profit basis but to higher ecological standards. Mutual trust and respect developed during the project led to rapid, innovative decision-making between company foresters and Parks Canada, helping protect the town from fire on its windward side.
Later, as the pine beetle spread farther into Jasper National Park, the fire risk became very evident south of the town with vast swaths of newly dead trees. Given the scale of the changes, it was obvious that these trees couldn’t all be removed, but much work was done clearing dead trees from the three main front country campsites immediately south of the town. However, in the face of southerly winds reportedly in excess of 100 kph driving the blaze rapidly north, that wasn’t nearly enough.
Looking at the map of lost and damaged property in Jasper, it is tragic to see how much was destroyed, but also a relief that most of the town and key infrastructure is intact; and with no loss of life among the 25,000 residents and visitors who were evacuated in the middle of the night. Tragically, one firefighter died a few days later after being struck by a falling tree.
The planning and mitigation work, together with the remarkable job that firefighters did in extreme circumstances, plus the successful nighttime evacuation of the town, nearby campsites and, later, backcountry trails had paid off to this extent. The fire, while disastrous to the town, could have been so much worse.
The key point is that Jasper appears to have punched above its weight relative to other forest communities with respect to wildfire preparedness, but it wasn’t enough. This disaster should, therefore, be a further wakeup call to BC communities to step up our wildfire preparedness. A lot of good work has been done in BC over the past 20 years, but much more is needed, and soon.