Aidan Jaager
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
When winter ends and the weather warms, crews at Prince Albert National Park know they’ll soon reacquaint themselves with heat, smoke and flame.
The Buhl fire alone has scorched over 96,991 hectares this summer, including parts of the sprawling park. Dustin Guedo, who works as PANP’s vegetation ecologist, says creating public awareness and bringing in resources are crucial to managing intense fires.
Here’s some things to know about the park’s wildfire-prevention efforts.
PROACTIVE MEASURES
Park staff prepares for fire season well in advance.
“Every spring we’re always gearing up and preparing and readying ourselves for the wildfire season,” Guedo said. “We have a well-trained and robust fire management function, with two type-one fire crews on the go.”
Crews there have implemented wildfire risk reduction for decades with residents and cabin owners.
“We’ve been developing the community fuel break. We’ve essentially gone and thinned out all the flammable fuels that includes all the coniferous trees around the townsite of Waskesiu,” Guedo said.
Making sure trees are spaced out is equally important, he added.
“In some areas we’ve had over 95 per cent of the coniferous removed, so that we can remove those flammable fuels and create a workable fuel break. If a wildfire was to ever encroach on the community, we’d have a defensible tool to use to help defend the town.”
FireSmart principles are also vital to the park’s proactive measures.
“Principles like thinning out fuels around buildings and removing flammable buildup like leaves, needles, and clearing cutters are important,” Guedo said. “We also make sure decks have skirting around them, and that firewood is not against houses.”
EMERGENCY RESPONSE CO-ORDINATION
Keeping in touch with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are also key to the fire fight.
“Having planning in place when we have multiple emergencies — like a wildfire going on, or like potential need for evacuating a community — is important to keep the community posted,” he said. “Responding and finding out who needs to be involved is the next step.”
Other measures include creating an emergency co-ordination centre in the park, and having an incident management team to co-ordinate resources for battling wildfire events.
Guedo said it’s imperative for RCMP and local fire departments to work with communities to move people out safely.
Meteorologists can also play a role in assessing fire conditions like wind speed, intensity, rate of spreads and weather.
TECHNOLOGY TO FIGHT BLAZES
Parks Canada uses a variety of tools to assess wildfire risk and danger, Guedo explained.
Weather stations can measure fire danger through a rating system, the overall drought code, and can assess forest fuel moisture, Guedo said.
“They give us information on how dry those fuels are and how likely they are to ignite.”
Helicopters and drones look for lightning strikes, and regularly patrol over the park in periods of high fire danger.
Heat-sensing satellites further aid in looking for hot spots through remote sensing technology.
“We work with SPSA’s remote camera system to see if smoke pops up from wildfire towers. When we get to a point where we’re under a direct attack, we use infrared monitoring at night,” Guedo said.
