The prescribed burn in Jasper National Park went ahead as planned and the burn so far accomplished all objectives. Jasper National Park Fire Communication Office Kim Weir said that the fire happenedon May 23. It was located 20 km north of the Town of Jasper and 44 km south west of Hinton. The total area…
The Prince George Fire Centre is dealing with a number of forest fires in the Fort Nelson area. The Fire Centre has responded to eight new fire starts in the past 48 hours, two of which have reached over 200 hectares in size. All but one of the fires were started by lightning, and the…
Experts are blaming El Nino for speeding up nature’s clock and forcing firefighters to deploy weeks ahead of normal to battle wildfires across rural Western Canada. They say the natural phenomenon that cycles every two to seven years has been activated early this year and is predicted to accelerate wildfire activity across the northwest. The…
Minister of Communities, Land and Environment Robert Mitchell says he’s pleased two Island firefighters will be helping to battle the wildfires in Alberta. The firefighters will join 20 colleagues from Nova Scotia to provide some relief and extra help as more than 50 fires burn. More than a dozen of the fires are out of…
The trees are in the ground; now it’s up to Guinness Worlds Record to confirm whether the multi-team tree planting record attempt on May 20th was successful. In total, 28 teams from across North America banded together to plant multiple sites in locations ranging from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Washington, D.C. The goal: Plant the…
In order to assist with the massive flames ravaging Northern Alberta, the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch is sending 88 personnel and two fixed-wing aircraft to our neighbouring province. Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson made the announcement on Wednesday that 80 sustained action firefighters and eight support personnel will initially be…
The mountain pine beetle has severely affected pine forests across more than 25 million hectares (60 million acres) of western North America in the last decade. In the aftermath of this epidemic, is there a significant increase in wildfire threat? For many given the task of managing wildfires the answer is a resounding yes. However,…
In the wake of increasing threats to Winnipeg’s tree population, city officials undertook a massive project in 2009 to build an inventory of every tree on public space in order to help better protect its valuable urban forest. Nearly a hundred years of monoculture has made Winnipeg’s trees vulnerable to disease, but the decision to…
Simcoe County Forestry has launched a communications campaign to educate residents, municipalities and stakeholders about steps they can take to protect their ash trees against the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB). The EAB is a wood-boring beetle typically eight to 14 millimetres long. It is bright metallic green with a coppery-reddish or purple colour to…
It stands out when visitors pull into the viewpoint to take in the Hope Slide, 170 km east of Vancouver on the old Crowsnest Highway on the way to Manning Park. Within the mountain vista behind the stark, grey rock swath that marks the path of the massive 1965 landslide is a scraggly, rust-coloured bald…