Right in the centre - Dead wood in many places

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Published on Thursday, August 8, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

The Town of Jasper is but the latest victim of a wildfire. The Jasper situation is really bad, with hundreds of homes burned and the whole town evacuated. 

Many years ago, it was pointed out to the federal government that a national wild fire strategy was needed. How many more homes and businesses have to be destroyed before reality sets in and solutions come to the surface?

I could be way wrong, and would welcome being corrected, but it seems to me that Parks Canada’s efforts to do anything in a correct, pro-active and effective way is lacking in evidence.

I am told by people familiar with the Jasper situation that Parks Canada has been warned for years about how dangerous the dried out dead trees affected by the pine beetle are to the environment. Once the pine beetle has been in a stand of trees the only way to reduce the fire hazard is to harvest them for lumber, for biofuel or to clean burn the area. Clean burn takes out all the little bugs, birds and animals too, so that’s another problem. Some forest areas are almost impossible to access so that is admittedly another problem

From my observations, Parks Canada stumbles around under a burden of internal incompetence and on-going political interference. The politicians, who often don’t know much, are backed by bureaucrats who are more interested in hiring by quota than by competence. It’s a bad mix where citizens, residents and businesses are all seen as annoying hindrances to a political agenda dreamed up by people who are not affected by the outcomes.

There’s also a misconception about Canadian forests, at least prairie forests. There are no “old growth” forests on the prairies. Well, very few anyway. When the buffalo roamed and the indigenous people hunted them, there were very few trees. Between lightning strikes and strayed campfires, the trees never got going very well. When European settlers came, the prairies were, well prairie, with few trees anywhere.  Yearly wild fires didn’t mix well with log/sod cabins, fences and crops so vigorous fire control attempts were imminent. Fire guards were plowed, vigilant watch was kept and the dreaded prairie fires were largely controlled. Trees grew more readily, although a lot were cut down for lumber and firewood over the decades

I guess my point is that Parks Canada is chasing a myth, that is that everything has to be left to nature. I disagree. Trees need to be harvested or burned from time to time. Property needs to be protected. Lightning can’t be controlled but fire fighting could be more effective if the proper planning and resources were applied. It’s very costly to do fire control but who is going to pay for the recent disaster in Jasper. Individuals will bear a terrible emotional and financial load but so will taxpayers and the insurance buyers. You can bet that insurance rates will be higher for everyone after the Jasper disaster. I get very upset when I see how little leadership is provided by our governments. I see a lot of chasing around after some Zebra mussels or pretending that trees live forever as long as we close our eyes and minds. Perhaps the Canadian Forestry Service needs to be strengthened.

A good start to a national forestry policy would be a major house cleaning in the bureaucracies at PC and CFS as the forest isn’t the only place where there seems to be a lot of dead wood.But I think the big housecleaning that is required is the mentality of politicians.  They are very reluctant to spend tens of millions of dollars to reduce forest fire risk in the future...but,...they are very happy to show up with cheques worth of hundreds of millions to give to communities impacted by a forest fire.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the newspaper staff.