By Bryan Eneas

Prince Albert National Park staff reflect on Rabbit Creek wildfire

Sep 12, 2018 | 1:38 PM

In the spring, staff at the Prince Albert National Park started a controlled burn, which eventually got out of hand and turned into the so-called Rabbit Creek wildfire.

Now, they’re reflecting on internal processes and policies, while assessing how the land has changed due to the blaze.

Park Ecologist Dustin Guedo helped set the parameters and objectives of the prescribed burn, and helped in assessing and controlling the fire and planning out how to suppress the blaze once it got out of control.

He said staff carefully planned the initial controlled burn and ensured everything was up to standard.

“We’ve been doing prescribed fires regularly now for over 10 years now,” Guedo said. “For us, when we look at planning and starting a prescribed fire, it takes us quite a long time. It’s a very serious process, a very safety-orientated process.”

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Guedo said the national park has guidelines set out which they follow when it comes to conducting a prescribed burn. When it came time to conduct the controlled burn, he said all of the criteria were met before work started.

In the aftermath of the wildfire, Guedo said the National Park will be working to increase the level of communication with surrounding RM’s, communities and stakeholders about the planning processes in place.

“As a park, and working with our partners, we’re going to do a review of what happened this year and see if there’s any actions we can take to use in the future to improve the safety and better improve the outcome of meeting our objectives on future prescribed fires,” Guedo said.

Burn benefits animal habitats

One of the objectives of the prescribed burn was to create fire disturbance in an area which hasn’t seen much fire in the previous century, according to Guedo.

“When we put this fire down, it allows us to have the fire burn through the area, and as it burns, the fire’s going to burn in different intensities,” Guedo said. “What that does, is it opens up the forest canopy, it allows sunlight to come in, it creates a variety of forested habitat that increases the amount of habitat for plants and animals to use.”

Over the last century, Guedo said provincial and national parks have been quite successful in suppressing wildfires, which has allowed for many trees to grow and mature. Through monitoring, Guedo said officials have noticed they were losing many so-called “post-fire” areas of habitat, which animals and plants find beneficial.

Guedo said park staff have noticed a variety of animals returning to the area that was affected by the prescribed burn and wildfire in great numbers. He said animals in the grasslands area have returned in force since the fire.

“When we went out in mid-July to look at some of our plots that were burned over, it was very surprising, and really pleasing to see the vegetation coming back,” Guedo said. “Plants were growing back quite vigorously, it immediately had that really vibrant green look to it.”

Going forward, the park’s ecologist said the park’s fire management program is in the midst of reviewing the summer’s fire activity, and they’ll be working on plans to improve their operations. He said there are currently lots of fire management programs on the go, looking at areas where future prescribed burns could be conducted.

Staff are also assessing how to create and implement fuel breaks in and around the townsite while also initiating more fire smart principles within Waskesiu.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas