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Burn planned for Red Deer valley

Fire crews in Banff National Park are lighting up an area in the Red Deer River Valley this month to boost wildlife habitat and control the spread of mountain pine beetles.

Fire crews in Banff National Park are lighting up an area in the Red Deer River Valley this month to boost wildlife habitat and control the spread of mountain pine beetles.

The burn unit covers an area of 4,800 hectares, although only roughly half of this will be burned this coming month, depending on weather conditions.

The Red Deer River Valley contains the largest area of flat, lower sub alpine forests in the park outside of the Bow Valley, and Parks Canada officials say they want to rejuvenate it.

Dave Verhulst, Banff’s fire communications officer, said fire would create openings in the forest canopy, recycle nutrients and renew habitat for wildlife such as bighorn sheep and grizzly bears.

“The burn is vital to restoring vegetation to more historical types when fire naturally swept through the area every 85 to 130 years,” he said.

“It’s a fairly large section of habitat quite rare in the park. Historically, it’s been much more open, but fire suppression has resulted in growth of more pine and spruce and we’re seeing a reduction of habitat diversity.”

The prescribed fire, to be lit between Sept. 6 and 30, is located adjacent to the park’s east boundary, west of the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch and about 50 kilometres north of Lake Minnewanka.

The fire will primarily be contained by natural barriers such as rocky ridges, alpine tundra, areas of wetter forest and by recent prescribed burns.

To keep the fire from spreading outside the area, however, fireguards have been created over the past few years. Another 200-hectare burn was completed on Aug. 29-30.

During the prescribed fire, firefighters will be on site to monitor all burning, and helicopters will be on standby in the event they are needed to extinguish the fire.

There will also be temporary trail closures in the Red Deer River east boundary to McConnell Creek, Divide Creek, Tyrell Creek, Elkhorn Summit, Snowcreek Summit, McConnell Creek and Skeleton Lake.

Another aim of the prescribed fire is to burn older forest to help slow or stop the eastward spread of the mountain pine beetle.

Verhulst said a recent aerial survey indicated pine beetle numbers seem to be holding steady in the park.

“One of the reasons they’re so successful is because they have a lunch highway,” said Verhulst. “They do well with older pine trees, especially when tightly packed together and that’s exactly what they’ve got there.

“By having a fire moving through that area, it will reduce the amount of area that’s susceptible to the beetles.”

Another reason for the fire is to help prevent a future wildfire from spreading onto provincial lands.

The province, which has a 623-ha burn in the area on its list of prescribed fires, is not moving ahead at this time.

Geoffrey Driscoll, wildfire information officer with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said a fire is not planned, but simply on a list.

“It’s always been under proposal, it’s never that we were planning on it, it’s on our list of things to do,” he said.

Driscoll said as with any prescribed fire, the province consults with all affected groups, from ranchers, to loggers to First Nations.

Pithouse depressions (ancient aboriginal housing sites) have been recorded in the upper Red Deer River in Banff National Park.


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