Dear editor,
Mr. Fehr remained silent and for more than three weeks he ignored not only articles written in the Fitzhugh about Jasper's fire threat but also residents' letters personally addressed to him. It took him however, just 82 minutes to reply to a possible protest to be held regarding this serious issue. I’m very pleased as I also noticed that the Information and Fire Updates web page was updated twice and the first time was on June 1, exactly two days after I sent that email to him. Did you know we now have a link to the current fire danger rating which was updated on June 4? I wonder if it is only a coincidence.
The “Mountain Pine Beetle Jasper National Park Management Plan 2016" recommended by Mr. Rasheed, resource conservation manager and approved by Mr. Fehr mentioned by myself on May 17 states that because the MPB pose a threat to the national Parks and also Jasper townsite, intervention is necessary:
“Active management is recommended when the structure and function of an ecosystem has been altered and manipulation is the only possible alternative available to restore ecological integrity. Intervention is triggered when there may be adverse effects on neighboring lands, major park facilities, public health or safety will be threatened or the objectives of a park management plan cannot be achieved.”
I now therefore know for a fact that Mr. Rasheed and Mr. Fehr proposed and approved, on July 22, 2016 to apply Parks Canada’s “Guiding Principles and Operational Policies” (Section 3.2.3). The plan states as well: “Ensure that threats posed by mountain pine beetle to Jasper townsite and visitors coming to Jasper are mitigated to the extent possible.” The total failure of Parks Canada to put strategies in place to reduce the wildfire risk on Pyramid Bench as planned for Fall 2017 is simply unacceptable. We most definitely need more than one plan that is ready to go at any given time when you consider the speed with which this disease is spreading around our town and throughout the park.
These two gentlemen also agreed on the importance of “educating”, “informing” and “ensuring” that the public understands the state of the MPB as well as the actions that should be taken by Park Canada to neutralize the situation: “Parks Canada will continue to contribute to visitor, Jasper residents, and adjacent community understanding and support of the Jasper National Park Mountain Pine Beetle Management Plan.”
Well, judging by the fact that only by chance did I find the plan by using the right key words when Googling it, it becomes quite legitimate to wonder whether these two gentlemen have had done their job properly over the last two years.
I am still, as others residents, waiting for Mr. Fehr to coordinate an evening session. Is this not an important part of the plan that he approved to keep, among others, residents informed, to keep people aware? Even though we notice this week some effort to update Parks Canada’s Fire information and updates web page, we are still far away from what should have been done. Do visitors know what to do in a possible evacuation? Are visitors aware of behaviours to avoid, such as being responsible with their cigarette butts? As suggested by Mr. Ken Hodges, professional forester in his letter on May 30, why not have signage throughout the park regarding fire conditions, the fire ban and behaviour to adopt in relation to the risk?
Furthermore, despite the fact that Mr. Hodges and Mr. Begin (two BC researchers) have never provided any reports only letters and emails to Parks, it is hard to understand why Mr. Fehr does not consider their expertise and recommendations as they wrote letters more than once to express their concerns about the fire threat to the town of Jasper. Between the two of them, they have over 80 years of forest management experience in BC and they think Jasper is due for a catastrophic forest fire (CBC news, Jasper National Park not prepared for potential forest fire ‘catastrophe’, researchers say, April 10, 2018). According to Mr. Hodges in his letter May 30: “Seasoned BC firefighters had never seen the explosive fire behaviour or ecological damage when fighting recent fires in forests exhibiting similar conditions to those in Jasper.” Still according to him “Parks actions should include more efforts in protecting the community and infrastructure by setting priorities for logging strategies throughout the park this summer.
As also stated by Mr Allan Carroll, Jasper national park decided to consider the pine beetle a “native disturbance agent” and because of that, was not intending to do much about it (CBC news, Pine Beetles from Jasper National Park now infesting commercial forest, Nov 17, 2017). This article also states that “Foresters along the park's edge have seen a tenfold increase in beetle infestation in just months, and some scientists wonder if Parks Canada could have done more to control the invasion a few years ago”. I suppose we can all answer that question.
Not only does Parks Canada have the authority to go on with logging because of their Guiding Principles and Operational Policies, Mr. Fehr has the responsibility to protect the town of Jasper, period. Updating their website is one thing; they have to start logging right now.
Mr. Alan Fehr, Mr. Salman Rasheed, we are giving you the chance to do better by not holding a protest next Saturday since you seem to be taking action as we speak. It is the time for you both to shine, to prove and demonstrate that you have and will have the situation in hand. Are you the two who will be known for having taken the right measures in order to keep our town safe or are you going to be remembered as those who failed and let our town burn?
Marie-France Miron
Jasper
