We’re just one month into the forest fire season and the fire hazard is high across northeastern Ontario. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has reported 45 fires have burned 85 hectares of land across our region so far. The region covers from Haliburton in the south, to Cochrane in the north. Many forest fires are…
Wildfire ranger Dan Gorzeman directed a crew as it put out hotspots smouldering beneath the boreal forest northeast of Slave Lake, Alta., in August 2015. But he wasn’t on the ground. He was hundreds of metres above the blackened bush in a helicopter, staring at the screen of an infrared scanner. “These scans show us where these ground fires are and we relay them on a map…
Alberta Forestry’s wildfire experts are at the mercy of the weather when forest fires burn out of control. The Fort McMurray blaze that at first seemed manageable turned into a raging inferno bearing down on the city in less than an hour. Here’s a rundown of how a destructive fire wound its way into northern…
We’re just one month into the forest fire season and the fire hazard is high across northeastern Ontario. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has reported 45 fires have burned 85 hectares of land across our region so far. The region covers from Haliburton in the south, to Cochrane in the north. Many forest fires are…
In the fight against climate change, forests play a critical role — drawing more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere than they emit. But when they burn, much of those stored gases are released back into the atmosphere. So far, the fires in Fort McMurray have released the equivalent of roughly five per cent of…
The city is preparing for another bug invasion. Winnipeg’s Urban Forestry Branch is conducting an inventory of Ash trees on private property in hopes of helping to prepare the city for the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle. “The Emerald Ash Borer is a destructive invasive pest that feeds on and kills all Ash…
There were two new fires confirmed in the Northwest Region by the evening of May 11. Thunder Bay Fire Number 14 is under control at 1.0 hectare and is located near Kajander Lake. Thunder Bay Fire Number 15 is not under control at 5 hectares in size. One fire of note is Kenora 018, in…
The provincial government has green-lit a logging project it hopes can strike a balance between appeasing the needs of industry and respecting the territorial rights of the Waswanipi Cree. Last week, the Liberal government authorized the construction of two logging roads that cut deep into Cree territory but imposed a number of environmental safeguards on them. The…
Whipped up by wind and fuelled by tinder dry conditions, the wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., grew to about 1,000 square kilometres on Friday. An expert said it’s a dangerous fire because of its location, not necessarily because of its size. “Let’s put this into perspective. That is a high-priority area,” said Marc Mousseau of…
Tucked in the Rockies, the mountain towns of Banff and Canmore are built in a long, narrow valley surrounded by forests of Lodgepole pine, Douglas fir and spruce trees along steep slopes. The Crowsnest Pass, which was spared in the Lost Creek fire in 2003, sits in a low-elevation mountain pass in the middle of mature trees down in southern Alberta. Each community — and dozens of…