2023 prescribed fires
Prescribed fires help to return fire to the landscape, restore healthy forests and grasslands, enhance habitat for wildlife, and reduce the risk of wildfire to our communities.
Banff National Park
Compound Meadows
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 300 hectares total
Location: On either side of the TransCanada Highway, adjacent to the Town of Banff and Cascade Mountain.
Additional details: In Spring 2022, Parks Canada successfully burned 125 out of 300 hectares within the Compound Meadows prescribed fire unit.
Prescribed fire operations will reduce the amount of pine and spruce trees within these meadows, stimulate aspen and grass growth, and restore wildlife habitat in an important wildlife corridor. Additionally, the prescribed fire will help to decrease the wildfire hazard to the Town of Banff by reducing the build up of flammable vegetation.
Fairholme II
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 4,469 hectares
Location: In the front ranges of Banff National Park, between the Banff East Gate and Johnson Lake area, and the Trans-Canada Highway.
Additional details: Previously burned in 2003, the Fairholme II prescribed fire will improve habitat for wildlife like grizzly bears and will reduce the risk of wildfire to local communities, including the Hamlet of Harvie Heights and the Town of Canmore.
A re-burn of the site is required to reduce lodgepole pine regrowth, restore montane grasslands, and open forests that historically occupied this area.
To help ensure smoke impacts are minimized and to protect local communities during fire operations, a smaller scale prescribed fire may be conducted in the spring of 2023 with the main prescribed fire unit to occur later in the fall. Both operations are dependent on favourable weather conditions.
Upper Red Deer Meadows
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 200 hectares
Location: Upper Red Deer Meadows - Red deer valley between Scotch Camp and Sandhills Cabins.
Additional details: Prescribed fire will restore native meadow habitat in Banff National Park. These meadows provide critical year-round habitat for grizzly bears, wolves, elk, deer, and bison.
Wigmore Meadows
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 880 hectares
Location: In the Wigmore Valley, south of Windy Warden Cabin.
Additional details: Prescribed fire will restore native meadow habitat in Banff National Park. These meadows provide critical, year-round habitat for mountain sheep, goats, grizzly bears, wolves, elk and bison.
Glacier National Park
Flat Creek
Date: To be confirmed
Size: 580 ha
Location: Base of Mt. Smart and Mt. Fidelity
Additional details:
The objective is to introduce fire to the landscape where fire suppression has reduced burnt area. This will generate habitat for fire-dependent species such as whitebark pine, various species of bats, and olive-sided flycatchers. It will also reduce wildfire spreading potential within the Flat Creek and Illecillewaet River drainages, protecting the transportation corridor.
20-Mile
Date: To be confirmed
Size: 3,200 ha
Location: Southern Glacier National Park within the Beaver Valley
Additional details: The goal of this prescribed fire is to introduce fire to the landscape in a controlled fashion where fire exclusion has occurred. This will help facilitate whitebark pine regeneration, protect neighbouring lands and encourage habitat for others species at risk.
Jasper National Park
Bench Lakes
Date: Fall
Size: 420 ha (6 units)
Location: Adjacent to fuel reduction work completed in 2019 on Pyramid Bench, west of the townsite.
Additional details:
Burning next to areas where mature pines were removed will reinforce the fuel reduction project completed in spring 2019 and create a landscape level fire guard.
Fiddle Complex
Date: Fall
Size: 300 ha (4 units)
Location: Four sub-units in the Athabasca River Valley, near the East Gate to Jasper National Park and about 30 kilometres west of Hinton.
Additional details:
The objective of this prescribed fire is to provide a landscape-level fireguard across the Athabasca Valley and to restore an important natural disturbance to a region with a historically short fire cycle.
Southesk
Date: Spring/Summer/Fall
Size: 925 ha
Location: The Southesk Valley, in the southeast corner of Jasper National Park, upstream of a wildfire in the valley in 2006.
Additional details:
The ecological objective of this prescribed fire is to promote natural regeneration of lodgepole pine forest. Lodgepole pine is a fire-dependent species and the southesk valley contains healthy cone-bearing lodgepole pine for re-seeding post-fire, unlike much of the pine forest that has sustained heavy mortality from mountain pine beetle in Jasper National Park. This southeast corner of the park is a remote area that does not have significant values at risk, which extends the season for prescribed burning to be more representative of the historic fire regime.
Talbot Lake
Date: Spring/ Fall
Size: 3600 ha
Location: South of Rocky River and east of Talbot Lake, in the Athabasca River Valley.
Additional details:
The objective of this proposed prescribed burn is to restore grassland and aspen forest habitat through a re-burn of 2003 Syncline fire slopes.
Douglas-fir Hillsides
Date: Spring
Size: 283 ha
Location: Seven sub-units, all within close proximity to the Jasper townsite, in an area known as Pyramid Bench, west of the Jasper townsite.
Additional details:
The objective of this prescribed fire is to restore Douglas fir savannah-structure habitat and reduce the risk of wildfire to the community of Jasper through enhancement of natural fire barriers on these south facing open slopes.
Backcountry Meadows
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 493 ha (22 units)
Location: Many small units across the backcountry of Jasper National Park.
Additional details:
The goal of burning in these backcountry areas is to restore lower subalpine meadows, shrubs and grass dominated features in the subalpine need periodic disturbance to persist in this heavily forested ecoregion.
In development
Community Fireguard
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 5-10 ha
Location: The area along the Community Fireguard (trail 8e) in the Pyramid Bench area, west of the townsite.
Additional details:
The goal of maintaining this community fireguard is to reinforce community protection in a FireSmart maintained feature. This cleared fuel break along the Cabin Lake fire road acts as a significant operational feature to manage a potential wildfire and as a line of defence for firefighters to carry out suppression activities to protect the community.
Kootenay National Park
Kootenay Crossing Meadow
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 38 hectares
Location: Near Kootenay Crossing warden station, in central Kootenay National Park.
Additional details: The Kootenay Crossing Meadow prescribed fire is part of a larger meadows restoration plan. This prescribed fire will restore open meadow and grassland. It will do this by encouraging re-growth of native grass and shrub species.
McLeod Meadows
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 1.8 hectares
Location: Adjacent to McLeod Meadows Campground, in the southern end of Kootenay National Park.
Additional details: The McLeod Meadows prescribed fire is part of a larger meadows restoration plan. This prescribed fire will restore open meadow and grassland. It will do this by encouraging re-growth of native grass and shrub species.
Redstreak Mountain
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 235 hectares
Location: West-facing slopes on Redstreak Mountain, along the southern boundary of Kootenay National Park.
Additional details: This prescribed fire will create a fire break (a gap in fuel that is a barrier to fire spread). The fire break will help protect the Village of Radium Hot Springs from wildfires. Open grassland and Douglas-fir forest ecosystems will also be restored. These ecosystems provide important habitat for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
Vermilion Guard
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 75 hectares
Location: Near Vermilion Pass, in the northeastern corner of Kootenay National Park.
Additional details: Two large wildfires have burned through Vermilion Pass in the last 50 years. This prescribed fire will create a long-term fire break that helps protect communities in the Bow Valley from wildfires. It will also improve habitat for species at risk like grizzly bears and whitebark pine.
Mount Revelstoke National Park
Parkway Bend
Date: To be confirmed
Size: 150 ha
Location: Meadows in the Sky Parkway, Mount Revelstoke National Park
Additional details:
The goal of this prescribed fire is to reduce the risk of wildfire spreading on the front face of Mount Revelstoke and protect neighbouring lands by creating a safety zone for staff and visitors in the event of a wildfire in Mount Revelstoke National Park. It will also reintroduce fire in a controlled fashion to an area where fire exclusion has occurred.
Lower Parkway - Fuel Modifications
Date: Ongoing
Size: 19 ha
Location: Lower Parkway & Park Boundaries
Additional details:
This is risk reduction work, including thinning, tree-clearing and brush pile burning. This project is being carried out in partnership with British Columbia Wildfire Service and the City of Revelstoke in support of the City of Revelstoke’s 2015 Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Waterton Lakes National Park
Y-Camp
Date: Spring
Size: 1,170 ha
Location: East of Lower Waterton Lake, south of Chief Mountain Highway, and north of Stony flats.
Additional details:
The goal of this prescribed fire is to restore and maintain the historic fire cycle, protect people and facilities from wildfire, and restore the health of ecosystems. This prescribed fire will help restore native prairie by reducing aspen and evergreen tree expansion onto fescue grasslands.
Yoho National Park
Kicking Horse Meadow 1
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 20.3 hectares
Location: South of Field, in central Yoho National Park.
Additional details: The Kicking Horse Meadow 1 prescribed fire is part of a larger meadows restoration plan. This prescribed fire will restore open meadow and grassland. It will do this by encouraging re-growth of native grass and shrub species.
Float Creek
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 830 hectares
Location: South and west-facing slopes on Mount Owen, in central Yoho National Park.
Additional details: The natural fire cycle in Yoho National Park has been altered. This prescribed fire will restore young, fire-regenerated habitat where species at risk like grizzly bears and whitebark pine can thrive. It will also create a fire break in the continuous forest, helping prevent the spread of wildfires.
Porcupine Valley
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 3,300 hectares
Location: In the Porcupine Valley, along the western boundary of Yoho National Park.
Additional details: The natural fire cycle in Yoho National Park has been altered. This prescribed fire will restore young, fire-regenerated habitat where species at risk like grizzly bears and whitebark pine can thrive. It will also create a fire break in the continuous forest, helping prevent the spread of wildfires.
Ice River
Date: Spring/Fall
Size: 2,986 hectares
Location: In the Ice River Valley, east of Hoodoo Creek Campground near the southern boundary of Yoho National Park.
Additional details: The natural fire cycle in Yoho National Park has been altered. This prescribed fire will restore young, fire-regenerated habitat where species at risk like grizzly bears and whitebark pine can thrive. It will also create a fire break in the continuous forest, helping prevent the spread of wildfires. Additionally, this fire will be part of a research project on prescribed fire and mountain goat habitat.
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