Parks Canada protecting Banff and Lake Louise with fire break
Parks Canada is creating a 32.8-hectare fire guard at Protection Mountain on Highway 1A in Banff National Park to reduce the risk of wildfire to the community of Lake Louise and the surrounding area.
The south side of Protection Mountain is a strategic area for Parks Canada, because it's able to make a fire break by mechanically cutting trees.
The swath is 400 metres wide and 1.5 kilometres long and work on it started in December 2022.
Charlie McLellan is the fire and vegetation specialist with Parks Canada and says a lot of work has already gone on around the mountain communities of Banff and Lake Louise, but this project is on a larger scale.
"As a result of over a century of fire suppression, we've got an even age forest going from valley bottom to basically the rock and ice above in this location," said McLellan. "Which created areas without many natural features to manage fires."
McLellan says the effects of climate change have increased the length of the fire season in the park as well as increased the potential for large fires, so projects like this are needed to give park's staff a way to manage the large fires.
"If we get a fire and, in this location of the Bow Valley, we have something we can easily tie it into to reduce the size and spread of it," he said. "At least on one on one side and gain containment, which reduces a lot of impacts to communities or infrastructure or tourists visitation here, but also at a broader scale it will reduce the amount of smoke that we've been seeing in our summer months."
Shelley Tamelin is the wildfire risk reduction manager in the park and says the idea is to do a project like this ahead of the fire season so her department has a lot of time to plan and prepare.
"The location was chosen because we're tying into a natural feature," she said. "There is a rocky scree slope on the hillside that they're tying into, that meant that they didn't have to make the fire guard as big or as wide as you would normally require."
Tamelin says in exchange for doing the work, the lumber that comes off of the mountain side becomes the property of the contractor.
"So we don't pay to have the work done," she said. "He takes the wood as his profit on the project and we also do receive some funds from the logging contractor in exchange for the wood, and we're going to funnel those funds back into a restoration work."
Many saplings of endangered five needle pine trees have been found in the area and are being saved. By comparison a typical lodge pole pine has two needles.
"Every one of these little clusters has five needles," said Tamelin. "We don't know if that's a limber pine or a white bark pine, because it's too young to tell so we call it a fine needle pine."
McLellan says when the fire break is finished in mid-March that it will likely become a popular spot for wildlife.
"For example, grizzly bears in the valley here are often found in open habitats where they can find important food resources," he said. "Unfortunately, many of those areas often occur in areas with increased mortality along the highway or along the railway so this area provides a safe area for grizzly bears to forage."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
Expert warns of food consumption habits amid rising prices
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
Ex-tabloid publisher testifies he scooped up possibly damaging tales to shield his old friend Trump
As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye.
Here's why provinces aren't following Saskatchewan's lead on the carbon tax home heating fight
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye make it four NFL drafts with quarterbacks going 1-3
Caleb Williams is heading to the Windy City, aiming to become the franchise quarterback Chicago has sought for decades.