Parks Canada plans to light a prescribed fire along a section of Bow Valley Parkway this spring to improve habitat for wildlife in the middle Bow Valley.
The goals of the fire within the Sawback range are to enhance grizzly bear habitat quality and connectivity, reduce wildlife mortality by creating good habitat away from the railway line and roads, restore Douglas fir and aspen grasslands and enhance whitebark pine habitat.
Jane Park, Parks Canada’s fire and vegetation management specialist, said more than 70 per cent of this 2,400 hectare area about 10 kilometres west of Banff has been burned four times over the past 20 years – in 1985, 1986, 1993 and again in 1998.
“The aim isn’t to blacken it from boundary to boundary, but this fire is the latest fire in the iterations of burning there to get us to unimpeded grasslands so wildlife can move freely in that area,” she said.
“We’re trying to create really good habitat for wildlife like wolves, grizzlies and ungulates away from the major transportation corridor. If we can create good habitat, it will draw them away from those areas.”
The prescribed fire is one of the key actions of Bow Valley Parkway action plans, which included the mandatory overnight seasonal closure of a 17-km section on the eastern end of the parkway from March 1 to June 25.
The historical fire cycle for this area of the Bow Valley is said to be 50 to 100 years.
Depending on the weather and snow pack, Parks Canada hopes to do preparation work in April, then start the prescribed burn in late April or early May.
Parks Canada is also taking precautions because the den of the Bow Valley wolf pack is in the area, though not within the burn unit.
“We will have wildlife biologists with us during the burn to assess for any wildlife in the area, including wolves, grizzlies, sheep and goats,” Park said.
“We have contingency plans in case they are closer to the unit. If they are right close to where we are burning, we will move the boundary.”
One of the goals of the fire is to enhance habitat for endangered whitebark pine, which is found within this area.
“One of the main reasons we’re doing the burn in spring is so we can take advantage of the snow higher up in elevation and try to keep high intensity fire out of the whitebark pine,” Park said.
“We can create habitat, but prevent large scale mortality of mature individual trees.”
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