BANFF – In the wake of the wildfire that destroyed one-third of the Jasper townsite this summer, the communities of Banff, Lake Louise and Canmore are all planning to build significant fireguards to protect the Bow Valley.
The Town of Banff, with support from Parks Canada because their fireguard would have to be constructed on federal land outside the town boundary, is applying for a grant of about $150,000 through the provincial Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA) community fireguard program.
Officials say wildfire remains the top-rated hazard to life, property and critical infrastructure within and around the Bow Valley.
“The concept area will have to be reviewed in person in joint consultation with Parks Canada’s fire vegetation management team to determine the most effective locations for the fireguard,” said Banff fire chief Keri Martens at a council meeting Monday (Sept. 9).
“The true scope and scale of the project will only be established after that work begins.”
The FRIAA community fireguard program is broken into two phases and there is no guarantee of funding.
Phase 1 is project planning – which would include field work, public consultation, Indigenous community engagement and environmental assessments – and could start as early as this fall if the grant application is successful. Final plan development and approval would happen in 2025.
Phase 2 includes clearing the land to construct the fireguard, although approval of phase 2 funding is not guaranteed even if successful in getting a grant in phase 1.
Martens said completion of the project would likely take several years due to many factors, including tree removal is only possible during certain months of the year.
“The plan will be developed specifically for the Town of Banff to determine where the treatments will go and how they will be best accomplished,” she said.
“Determinations will be made as to how much timber is merchantable and how the treatments for each unit will be carried out.”
Martens said cost estimates for the phase 1 planning would be approximately $150,000, while it is too soon to know the price tag for phase 2 construction.
“This project is actively being discussed with Parks Canada and will come back for further budget consideration if the grant application is not successful,” she said.
On July 22, about 5,000 residents and approximately 20,000 tourists were evacuated from the Jasper townsite west to neighbouring British Columbia because the other two exits out of town were blocked by wildfires.
Despite heroic efforts of firefighters, walls of flames reaching 100 metres high ripped through the Jasper townsite on the night of July 24, destroying one-third of the national park townsite including homes, hotels and businesses.
The fire was declared under control on Sept. 7, but residents and businesses were allowed to return home on Aug. 16 – the day after the wildfire was declared as being held and not expected to spread into areas of concern.
Katherine Severson, director of emergency and protective services for the Town of Banff, said the Jasper wildfire understandably impacted residents and business owners and operators in the Banff townsite and Banff National Park.
But she said much work has already been done in the townsite on wildfire mitigation.
“The Banff fire department, in particular, and all of our emergency services have been very responsive to the wildfire hazard for decades and have worked tirelessly to prepare through numerous and important engagement and activities,” she said.
The Bow Valley used to see wildfires on a more regular basis, but it has been more than 100 years since the last wildfire came through.
Wildfire spreads more quickly and intensely through mature forest, and making the dangers worse, there is little to no separation between development in the Bow Valley communities and the dense forest.
Long-time Banff resident Marie-Pierre Rogeau, a scientist with 33 years of experience in fire behaviour and fire ecology research, said any effort to seek additional funds for FireSmart initiatives is a step in the right direction and hopes FRIAA will grant the money.
However, she said to create robust guards that truly meet FireSmart guidelines around the town's perimeter, it will cost millions.
“Time is of the essence. Each passing year that we don’t see a fire, means a greater probability of fire for the next year and so on,” she said.
“I don’t believe that we can afford to spread FireSmart fuel mitigation over several years. Worsening fuel conditions, such as large amounts of standing dead and down trees, combined with denser forests, is a reflection of the absence of wildfire in the last 110 to 140 years right around the Town of Banff,” she added.
“Essentially, we have exceeded by 200 per cent the natural conditions of the montane, which used to burn every 30 to 50 years. Manually reducing the fuel load of the forest has now become a monumental, costly task.”
Parks Canada plans to start work on two projects to reduce the risk of wildfire as early as this fall.
Near the Banff townsite, the federal agency is planning to proceed with additional tree thinning in the Tunnel Mountain area to create a more open forest, which aims to to help reduce the wildfire risk to nearby communities such as Banff, Harvie Height, and Canmore.
In addition, logging work is also expected to start as early as November on a large-scale community fireguard for Lake Louise.
Kelsey Eade, a fire information officer for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, said the Lake Louise fireguard is expected to take between two and three winters to complete.
“In total, the fireguard will be 165.4 hectares – equivalent to 1.65 square-kilometres or roughly the same size as 300 US football fields – and span from the south slope of Mount St. Piran behind the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise to the parking lot and ski runs of Lake Louise Ski Hill on Whitehorn Mountain,” she said.
“This project is a continuation of over a decade of wildfire mitigation work around the community of Lake Louise and is a pro-active measure to reduce the risk of future wildfires to the community of Lake Louise and surrounding areas.”
Canmore prioritizes fireguard construction
Neighbouring Canmore was already working on fireguard planning before the Jasper wildlife, although the Jasper blaze seems to have accelerated plans.
While the fireguard from the east gates of Banff National Park to Dead Man’s Flats will protect the hamlets of Harvie Heights, Dead Man’s Flats and the Town of Canmore, most of the work over the next three to five years will be completed on provincial land.
In partnership with the MD of Bighorn and Kananaskis Improvement District, with the assistance of Alberta Forestry and Parks, the Town of Canmore-led project was successful in getting $192,000 through FRIAA fireguard program for high-risk communities.
The municipality has been in the planning phases for several months on conceptual fireguard plans, talking to other municipalities, wildfire behaviour experts, municipal emergency and disaster planners, Alberta Forestry specialists, and Alberta Parks biologists who specialize in human-wildlife coexistence.
They are now applying for a second round of funding to get the work done, which involves a combination of mechanical tree removal and forest thinning. If the funding application is successful, construction of the fireguard will begin as early as October.
While every area within the Bow Valley is vulnerable to wildfire, Town of Canmore officials say work is being prioritized first at Stoneworks Creek, Harvie Heights, and near the east gates of Banff National Park.
They say typical wind conditions and topography suggest that wildfire will spread more quickly in these areas, adding that south-facing slopes pose a greater risk than other slope directions as south-facing vegetation is exposed to more sun and dries out faster.
Mayor Sean Krausert said Canmore council shares the community’s concerns about the increasing danger of wildfire.
“FRIAA’s community fireguard program has accelerated the much-needed work we are ready to undertake to keep the Bow Valley as safe as possible,” he said.
The Town of Banff has been successful in funding before through the FRIAA program, receiving more than $600,000 since 2016 that has led to FireSmart work on about 63 hectares of lands and implementation of public education programs.
Martens said the Banff Fire Department was encouraged to apply for the community fireguard grant; however, it is not clear if the application will be considered because lands surrounding the Banff townsite lie within Parks Canada’s jurisdiction.
“We don’t know for sure that we will be successful in the application because it is federal land and provincial money and all of those intricacies there,” she said.
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno said she is grateful and encouraged this grant application is being done in cooperation with Parks Canada, which is paramount.
“It is important that we can continue work on preventative mitigation and measures that we have been for close to a decade,” she said.
“We’ve shown a lot of leadership in this area but it’s time to really step it up to that next level and I think everything that I hear will help us achieve that.”
