Lighting or maintaining fires in Jasper National Park, including within the townsite of Jasper is currently prohibited.
Parks Canada and the municipality each issued a fire ban on July 18.
The fire ban covers the entire park including all front country and backcountry campgrounds and day use areas, as well as fires within the townsite.
鈥淭he extended period of hot dry conditions has resulted in a higher than normal risk of wildfires in Jasper National Park. Parks Canada continues to monitor conditions with daily helicopter patrols to check for lightning strikes or ignition of fires. A local initial attack team is ready to respond in the event of a wildfire,鈥� Parks Canada said in a press release.
The park wide fire bans follows a similar ban in Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks as Parks Canada battles a growing wildfire in Kootenay National Park.
Parks Canada officials estimate the Verdant Creek fire may be as big as 2,000 hectares (20 square kilometres) in size, though they said it鈥檚 difficult to get an exact estimate due to smoky conditions and because of its remote location.
A sprinkler system has been set up at Sunshine Village Ski Resort as a precautionary measure because the wildfire is 2.5 km away.
A fire ban has also been issued for Waterton Lakes National Park and Mount Revelstoke National Park.
The last time Parks Canada implemented a fire ban for the mountain national parks was in 2015 during the Excelsior Wildfire along the flanks of Medicine Lake.
That fire began on July 9 and burned approximately 1,000 hectares before it was declared under control by July 20.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
