By all accounts a prescribed fire carried out by Parks Canada near Fiddle Creek last week was a raging success.
Approximately 40 personnel and four helicopters carried out the prescribed fire along Highway 16 near the east boundary.
The fire was initially expected to be postponed until the fall because of damp conditions, but Parks Canada opted to carry through with its plans on May 30.
The prescribed burn is part of a series of planned fires in the Athabasca Valley near the Park鈥檚 eastern boundary to slow the spread of the mountain pine beetle into neighbouring lands and to create a fireguard to prevent wildfire from spreading beyond the park.
The Fiddle Complex is a series of five sub-units designed to remove susceptible pine trees at a pinch point in the valley between Boule and the Fiddle Ranges. Once all five units are burned, Parks estimates it will eliminate a total of 660 hectares of susceptible pine habitat.
鈥淢any of the ecosystems within national parks are fire adapted. In these ecosystems, fire helps maintain forest health and biodiversity. Parks Canada uses carefully planned prescribed fire to safely restore and maintain this important ecological process,鈥� wrote Steve Young, a communications officer with Parks Canada.
鈥淭hrough safe and effective fire management, we are reducing the danger of wildfire to the public, infrastructure and neighbouring lands, while improving the ecological health of our forests and grasslands.鈥�
No other prescribed fires are planned for the rest of spring or summer, however work may resume in the autumn when conditions permit.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
