Never one to let a good crisis go to waste, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith escalated her criticism of Parks Canada’s approach to fire management in Jasper National Park yesterday, suggesting the province could do it better by paying loggers to clear firebreaks and letting ranchers graze cattle in the parks to keep the breaks clear.
Premier Smith made the comments during her Your Province, Your Premier radio program, but they followed logically from her sly inference during a Government of Alberta news conference on Thursday that things would have been better for the Town of Jasper if Alberta rather than Parks Canada had been leading the fire suppression efforts.
At that news conference, the premier emphasized Alberta’s use of drones, waterbombers and helicopters. Yesterday, she broached the idea of logging by private timber companies to protect towns like Jasper and grazing cattle to keep the logged-off areas clear of undergrowth.
Ms. Smith also told the show’s always agreeable host, Wayne Nelson, that she has instructed Forestry Minister Todd Loewen to “do an assessment of (Alberta’s) forest stands from the top to the bottom, to identify the areas that are at the highest risk of burning because of their age.”
“We’ve got forest management agreements with all of our forestry companies,” she continued. “There’s no reason why we can’t say, ‘Hey, guess what? Can you prioritize cutting here? Can you prioritize building fire breaks in this way?’ Once we’ve built the fire break, can we use it, either by having cattle on there to graze it, so that it stays, uh, capped, so that’s it’s managed year after year?
“Those are all things that we’ll be doing with our own forest management areas,” she said, “and then hoping to apply some of those lessons federally.”
Because of Parks Canada’s policy of implementing no unnatural management techniques within national park boundaries, this idea is unlikely to go far, but Ms. Smith may expect attitudes to be more congenial toward such notions after the next federal election. She did not elaborate on that aspect of her strategy, however.
In a response to a caller later in the show who described himself as a rancher, she returned to the cattle-grazing idea. After congratulating her for the idea, the caller said, “I understand it wouldn’t work in the national park, but, anyway …”
“Well, maybe it could,” the premier interrupted. Then, seemingly as an afterthought, “if they used bison to, uh, graze that area. It’s not impossible.”
“That’s one of the things we noticed in Fort McMurray as well, that we cleared a fire break, but you do need to do the maintenance, otherwise, some of that underbrush can grow back and also be an avenue for fire to come in,” she said. “There needs to be some kind on ongoing maintenance and the easiest way to do it, I think, is … using some animal help.
“So that’s something that we’re contemplating,” she continued. “We’d like to give it a trial run and see what kind of support that there is for it.”
Count on it, there would be support from loggers and ranchers. Perhaps not from anyone else, but since when has that kept the United Conservative Party from pushing a bad idea with profit potential?
Earlier in the show, Ms. Smith also raised prospect of Alberta taking over national parks within the province – supposedly as a joke, but not necessarily.
When she and Mr. Loewen first met federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, she claimed, she asked her sidekick, “‘Did you talk to Minister Guilbeault yet about how we’re gonna be takin’ back the national parks?’ I laughed. He didn’t.” (I’ll bet. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Guilbeault has any recollection of that conversation.)
“It was a joke at the time,” Ms. Smith rambled on, “but I can tell you that I think we have the capacity and the on-the-ground ability to respond in a way that should be more unified. If that requires us to be a bit more assertive in trying to change some of the rules around how they manage their parks, how they manage the prescribed burns, how they manage the cuts. I do know we’ll be very, very active in pressing that along.”
Unsurprisingly, since the show is essentially a free advertisement for the premier and her party provided by Toronto-based Corus Entertainment Inc., Ms. Smith did not take the opportunity to address her dubious claim to a podcaster Friday that she fears the federal government may try to use the fire to shrink the footprint of the Town of Jasper.
“We don’t want the parks to use this as an opportunity to shrink the footprint of Jasper, and I know there have been some voices that would certainly call for that,” she told Ryan Jespersen on his podcast. “And we don’t want to see that. We wanna make sure that the townsite gets rebuilt as it’s been established.”
There is no evidence for this claim. Remember, Parks Canada sees its mandate as protecting special places for people, not from them, and so is committed to the need to encourage Canadians to visit our national parks and to have an enjoyable time when they’re there.
As the preamble to the National Parks Act says, “The national parks of Canada are hereby dedicated to the people of Canada for their benefit, education and enjoyment, subject to this Act and the regulations, and the parks shall be maintained and made use of so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Indeed, the social license required to create and fund the park in perpetuity – which is a huge economic generator for Alberta – hinges on providing a positive experience for visitors.
So there’s no way Parks Canada would try to make it more difficult to enjoy the experience of Jasper unless there was hard evidence of a pressing need to prevent ecological damage taking place because of the layout of the town.
And there’s also no way putting such national treasures the hands of a group of people who have just tried to pass off a scheme to let foreign billionaires hunt threatened grizzly bears in Alberta as a way to manage “problem wildlife,” will preserve our parks unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.
How I regret the years I put into earning a postgraduate degree in ecology. And the effort that went into writing all of those peer-reviewed papers. If only I’d known that listening to Danielle Smith would tell me everything that I needed to know about such things.
Maybe you should have put your efforts into a Economics/Management degree Lars. In 2008 Loewen’s Outfitter company took a pack of Utah jackals to kill 16 bears. Look, that is where the real money is, your ecology degree ain’t gonna cut it in the real world. “You so “woke”.” I hope you realize I am being sarcastic.
wow, how rude of you. to say to an person that is educated.
The UCP government is helping future versions of you avoid that mistake by destroying Alberta universities with drastic underfunding and cuts.
I know. I’ve been watching it happening at first hand.
Please keep Dani out of the national parks . If you want to compare of her capabilities. Look what she’s done to HC chased away doctors and nurses. Underfunding and giving money for privatizing . She’s turned Alberta into a mess
I know she is one of the worst premieres I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. I moved to BC a few years ago, coming back to Alberta due to parental care. I am super nervous because I see how Premiere Daniele has dismantled beatiful Alberta. You need to vote her out, she is dangerous.
Marlaina sure loves the sound of her own voice even if the words are just lies and uninformed gibberish.
Linda, at least Lars has a degree, instead of trash talk, add some educated information instead of baseless opinion which is the point Lars is highlighting. we need to make decisions base on experience / knowledge and not opinion or popularism.
And I am in agreement that the ucp ( due to their track record
) would ravage our long standing world renowned national parks for a quick buck ( then blame the feds )
There is still time to complete the Provincial Parks survey. “CPAWS Northern and Southern Alberta are very concerned that both the framing of the survey, and the questions themselves, appear to prioritize economic development, motorized recreation, unsustainable levels of tourism, and the potential for resource extraction and other profit-driven activities, at the expense of the conservation and ecological integrity of our provincial parks.”, says Katie Morrison, Executive Director, CPAWS Southern Alberta.
The survey: https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=90540EA032289-0BB1-F7AC-EF647E549A4D0170
And a handy guide to filling it out: https://cpawsnab.org/all-news/province-releases-plan-for-parks/
I’m not really hopeful that they’ll pay any attention but maybe slow down the process as for the APP.
Ranchers- seems to depend on the industry. https://dds.aer.ca/EPS_Query/ProceedingSubmissionSearch.aspx?ProceedingID=444
Also worth considering; who is allowed to ‘enjoy’ our national parks? https://cpaws.org/on-the-100th-anniversary-of-wood-buffalo-national-park-chief-allan-adam-sets-the-record-straight-on-park-founder-who-starved-indigenous-people/
I was going to ask what had happened to Kenney’s plane to sell off Provincial Parks. I’d hate to think of this UCP/Reform party getting control of National Parks.
Dingy Smith never ceases to amaze. At every opportunity she jumps on the Federal Government about staying in their lane, claiming they are encroaching on Provincial responsibility. Perhaps Dictator Danni should stay in her own lane, let the Feds deal with the National Parks as they have for a very long time and accept and deal with climate change.
Fire is not the biggest threat in Jasper.
One of those tall mountains could topple over. Or just a big landslide.
We need to level those mountains before they hurt somebody.
Call in the Australian coal companies. Yep, there’s coal in them thar hills.
There used to be coal mining around Jasper, until the feds shut it down in 1930.
Ottawa trying to shut down Alberta’s economy.
Plus ça change …
The feds should mine their own business — and let us mine ours.
Or grind Mount Edith Cavell up into gravel.
We are going to need lots of gravel to build that six-lane highway over Howse Pass into B.C. The zombie project that never dies.
A big boost for UCP zombies in central Alberta.
“Unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”? That’s a laugh.
As every environmentalist knows, Ottawa does a terrible job of managing the mountain parks. The parks are overrun by people. Wildlife is forced to run a gauntlet of perils. Visitors to Banff outnumber caribou 4.3 million to zero.
Just imagine if the parks were under the control of the Alberta Government!
Bears, elk, wolves, caribou, mountain sheep, deer, cougars, and chipmunks are extremely dangerous. Wildlife poses a clear and present danger to the hot dogs and marshmallows left out on the picnic table.
Get the hunters in there to rid the park of unnecessary hazards.
Replace the dangerous critters with docile UCP voters and cattle.
Which not even Danielle Smith can tell apart.
Geoffrey: No need to imagine what the mountain parks would be like under Alberta jurisdiction. Banff, the first national park, was made a park in 1885 specifically to prevent the Town of Banff from turning in to another Niagara Falls, which was already pretty tacky then. If the Smith Government took over Jasper, it would look like Niagara Falls in five years. Only without the falls, of course. That’s Niagara Falls now, not in 1885, and we all know what that looks like. Another example, in the 1970s, there were two hotels in Cancun. Now there are well over 1,000. Do we want 1,000 hotels in Banff? DJC
Has Danielle Smith ever seen a cow?
I don’t live in Alberta but I did grow up on a dairy and beef farm.
I suppose if you put in huge amounts of fencing on those fire breaks then cows might work. If you want to do a really good job, you would use goats but I doubt if there are enough goat herders in Alberta to affect the vote.
Only in her bathroom mirror.
Jerry: I am honestly shocked by this comment! DJC
Yes, Smith is the type to use a crisis to her benefit or to advance her ideas. Anyone shocked or surprised by this does not understand Smith.
Fortunately for her, this fire occurred in a part of Alberta not completely under provincial jurisdiction, so she could be very critical and of course her base loves it when she criticizes the Feds. However, chances are next time she will not be so lucky. Although her ability to turn tears on and off at will may still be helpful then.
However, she and her supporters are also the type to not let the facts get in the way of her arguments. I don’t think this fire was the type to be stopped by more of a fire break. The Feds have using controlled burns and thinning the forest, ravaged by pine beatles, for years. But hot dry conditions and winds strengthened by the fire created an unstoppable force.
Of course Smith also didn’t dwell on other preventative measures such as more people in towers to spot fires early or a rapid response fire crew to put them out that Alberta used to have and which I have personally witnessed the effectiveness of. No, bringing this up would have exposed the shortcomings of Smith and her government.
So Smith should be careful if she wants to continue to play the blame game and use this crisis to advance her agenda, because actually there is plenty of blame to go around.
Albertans may start to get upset at those politicians who continue to do nothing to solve real problems except blame others.
I didn’t see one tear come out of her sad eyes as she gasped in grief for Jasper, just like not one tear rolled down those cheeks when she made her beleaguered speech on the kids in day care who became severely ill from E. Coli food poisoning. I might have thought her grief was authentic, genuine, had she actually shed a tear but with both tragedies she exhibited a very poor acting performance of empathy.
Sure, let’s graze cattle in landscapes on which live cougars, bears, and wolverines. Ranchers will be quick to complain of predation. The UCP will be equally quick to demand open hunting of “problem” predators.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Wouldn’t Jasper and Banff have the fattest, healthiest carnivorous wildlife in Canada preying on all that beef and veal or buffalo meat grazing out in an open pasture where a a fire break has been cleared. They would keep down the brush and new tree growth, wouldn’t they? I don’t think Smith knows cattle don’t graze on brush and trees.
After a few complaints from ranchers I’d expect her and the UCP to put a nice big bounty on the head of every bear, wolf and cougar seen in the park pastures and close by.
Smith hasn’t got a clue
One factor underpinning the risks to home and livelihood, risk to emergency responders, increasing costs of insurance and recovery is the pressure to live on desirable, fragile ecosystems subject to fire, flooding and other natural disasters. It’s time for a real discussion of how things got where they are in the first place otherwise the government will put the wrong solution in place yet again.
Once again, it goes back to the big picture. When the floods of 2013 hit Calgary, was it a coincidence that they were preceded by clear-cutting in the headwaters of the Elbow River? Never before had the Bow and Elbow flooded simultaneously in such a way. Trees hold in slopes. Trees protect our water. Clear-cut vast stands of trees and make way for slope erosion and floods.
Clear-cutting vast stands of forest will not stop the pine beetles. Climate change is what’s at the root of the problem. Would cutting down all the trees get rid of the beetles? One problem creates a host of other problems.
It all goes back to climate change, as our host pointed out the other day. Unless we face this problem head on, immediately, the only thing certain is doom for humans and all other creatures on earth. It really is that bad. Ego and denialism will be our end. It’s happening as we stand by and do nothing.
What part of National doesn’t she understand?
How much money have the UCP cut from the budget for AB forest fire suppression?
It’s April Fool’s Day every day in Alberta, but the joke’s never funny.
I said a while back here that Montana and some other states have been lobbying to allow grizzly bear culls in national parks south of the border. I do not doubt for a minute that the UCP would happily allow this if they took over national parks in Alberta, via the Conservative Party of Canada, in the event it comes to power. Imagine all the trophy heads of grizzlies and eventually all the other animals in the national parks that could grace the walls of luxury “cabins” made from protected stands of old growth forests in our national parks for millionaires and billionaires. Wouldn’t it be lovely? Of course, millionaires and billionaires who choose Montana to hunt use packs of large (European) hunting dogs to pursue wild animals to exhaustion, whereupon they come in for the kill. Those exciting chases up to national park boundaries and international borders are rather disappointing to them right now. Wouldn’t it be nice if those hunters could just barrel across the border into our national parks, too? If you think I’m kidding, answer me this: how many times have UCP leaders met with the governor of Montana on cozy terms?
Alberta logging, despite the glowing ads , follows the same profit plan as oil . Buy a lease (N.B. lease areas are already prescribed by G of A ), sign a contract to log, clean-up and restore with treeplanting. Commence logging and when the trees are off and sold , take the profit, go broke and leave the mess piled and treeless for Albertan s .
I have been told that the same players come in year after year under different names and limited company numbers and do it over and over.
Cute note;
When the oil companies were negotiating access to land leased from (owned by) the government to cattle ranchers circa. 1990, they paid the money not to the alberta government but to the rancher involved .
Leasing a couple of sections for grazing sometimes paid off 8-10 million.
Alberta caste system. There is a club and you’re not in it.
We are managed by inept charlatans who surround themselves with the security of paid-off sycophants masquerading as proud heritage, salt of the earth, peaks of humanity, guardians of the land and the tinny echo of our “very stable genius” to the south.
I do wonder where that woman’s brains are. When did she finish her Masters in Forestry? The grand Smith plan calls for fire breaks created by loggers. Are they going to do that for free? Who gets all the money for the sale of the trees. Some large trees go for up to a thousand dollars here in B.C. Don’t think they’ll go for any less in Alberta unless government fixes it so it does.
I’d suggest Smith and gang would have a difficult time wresting Jasper National Park away from the federal government even is PP was P.M. Canada is know for its National Parks and she’d like to wipe that out so her logging buddies can make more money? That’s not going to work. B.C. had the war in the woods, I’m sure a few of those protestors will have no difficulty getting to Alberta
Fire breaks can work but if a fire is too large it will jump the fire breaks, so much for that. Candling can be a problem.
If you want to keep vegetation down you don’t use cattle or buffalo, you use goats. More efficient and its unlikely some one will steal them. Cows wandering around with no supervision in a forest, what the rustlers don’t get the bears and cougars will. Perhaps it would be best if we asked a University in Norway to send over their courses on maintaining forests.
Smith is clearly out of her league. If she can’t say anything intelligent she out to shut up.
Smith needs to be reminded often that most Albertans are loyal Canadians unlike her and her separatist advisors. All Canadians share in all national parks, Albertans are just the lucky ones who live close to the mountain parks.
For all the talk of how the UCP gov’t budgeted more money for firefighting this year, they seem to be spending it on more expensive libertarian practices like bringing in international firefighters instead of paying Alberta firefighters a decent wage and benefits, and instead of funding programs to prevent wildfires from growing like more lookouts and that rappel group they cut.
I would also like to see how much of the budgeted funding has been spent and if it includes paying internet trolls to lie about the causes of the fires and about the management of the parks.
Also, would someone please tell Todd Loewen the convoy supporter to stop cosplaying like a firefighter. He should be dressed like a ditchbilly with a ratty beard, smelly unlaundered clothes and his nose in his cell phone all the time.
I agree with your comment regarding playing Mr. Dress-up in a firefighter suit. It is one thing to wear a hard hat for a photo op when OHS rules might* have required one, but this issue is not a photo op – at least it shouldn’t be one.
*It is not unusual to see the people in the background without one.
“Count on it, there would be support from loggers and ranchers. Perhaps not from anyone else, but since when has that kept the United Conservative Party from pushing a bad idea with profit potential?”
Another done deal, because . . .
. . . It is a one act play performed by a seriously misguided and well programmed market fundamentalist/lobbyist /talk show host that has thoroughly internalized the entire ideological doctrine of the surrounding power system (where spending power and its influence equals political power). Self interested subservience means that if you think and act in the right way you will be rewarded.
A society that remains committed to the crumbling mythology of the dominant political/economic religion means that extractive profit and unlimited growth are all that matters; and where, any multiple nasty retrograde reactions (biodiversity loss, ect.) acting as feedbacks, or negative spillovers will be hedged in the usual way, or simply ignored and the PR campaign for business and industry interests will be conducted by the government and its representatives acting as lobbyists in the usual way. That is,
“One of the “cons” heard continuously from range conservationists and repeated by uninformed media is that grazing can help preclude large “mega” fires by “reducing” fuels. This is one of those many assertions that have a grain of truth but is nevertheless misleading. Whenever you read such pronouncements, be skeptical. Almost all the “evidence” for the value of grazing to reduce wildfires comes from government apologists with connections to the livestock industry.”
https://www.thewildlifenews.com/2020/12/14/does-cattle-grazing-preclude-large-blazes/
A footnote:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-grazing-leases-review-calgary-1.3409117
I remember many years ago tales of a rancher with a grazing lease who claimed he had “improved” crown land by allowing a logging company to clear the trees and keeping the money for himself. Where there’s a grazing lease…
We live next to the Bow River just a few K south of downtown. Usually at this time of year, one could almost walk from shore to shore it’s so low. This year, the river is a raging torrent more like spring runoff – and it’s almost August. Why? Because extreme heat is melting the mountain snowpack and the annual snowfall can’t replace what’s lost. But I’m sure our premier has a better explanation involving wind farms or carbon taxes or….
Danielle Smith has ideas that are very farfetched and illogical. If more trees are cut down near the mountains, expect more severe flooding. That’s what Calgary and the surrounding areas of the city experienced in 2013. The Alberta PCs didn’t learn from the 2005 flooding, and allowed clear-cut logging operations to continue near the mountains.
Hello Alkyl,
Thanks very much for the link to the Wildlife News. I had never heard of the idea of cattle grazing on firebreaks. George Wuerthner explains why this an ecologically damaging practice that does not help to prevent wildfires.
I have signed up for articles from the Wildlife News and I’m looking forward to interesting and informative articles in the future.
D. Smith is at least trying to implement a plan… make decisions on the Fed’s mismanagement. What’s the @#$¢ carbon tax going towards? Proxy wars ( corrupted Ukraine). Other social demoralization programs by the Libs. These fires are partly natural, required, but also mismanagement by bad fed policy. Why would anyone defend, even remotely, the Liberals? They literally hate Canada, hate humanity.
Lyndon– the ‘feds’ ;
The Government of Canada commits significant funding
https ://www.canada.ca>2023/09
Sept 8 2023 …The fighting and managing wildfires in a changing climate program provides $256 million over 5yrs….
As part of the agreement; Alberta purchased additional firefighting equipment including incident supply trailers , ignition trailers, drone units, personal protective equipment, water delivery units, firepumps and chainsaws. The total project cost is $2,266,500 shared equally between the Government of Canada and the government of Alberta.
Single and multi year agreements with Alberta, BC,NS,SK,NWT &YK will support the efforts of provinces and territories ……
Press Progress– May 11 2023
Alberta’s UCP government has cut tens of millions ….
In 2018-19 budget was $130 million . In 2019-20 it boasted that the budget was $117.6 million.
By 2022-23 reduced it’s wildfire management to $100.4 million.
All told that’s a $30 million cut against rising inflation.
And how much does she care about Jasper, when she posts on the government website a picture of Jasper Strong….
but it’s a picture of “BANFF ”
Like seriously???
Parks Canada is an arms length non partisan organization, there is a difference between legislators and services provided to taxpayers by the federal government (with their tax dollars).
Folks like you seem to have a hard time holding two concepts in your head at the same time. There has been two major changes in alberta parks in the recent history that have made it much harder for Canadians to enjoy parks; Steven Harpers government (what he called it, not me) changed the rules for foreign companies booking package tours in the national parks, making it nearly impossible to get a site unless you book well (a year ?) in advance, or take your chances with the few sites that cannot be reserved. Jason Kenney brought in a 90 dollar fee for albertans to enjoy Kananaskis; the alternative many albertans who enjoy the outdoors were pushed to with the congestion in the national parks.
Both reactionary conservative governments? What do you know Kenney was even in Harpers cabinet at the time. Why would anyone support conservative governments in this country, they literally hate Canadians, papa Steve even famously said so in an address to our American “friends” down south.
But yeah something something federal mismanagement because Trudope and we’ve only ever had liberal governments in this country right ?
Figures.
Lyndon Nickel: The mismanagement is from the UCP. With the carbon tax, it’s origins are in Alberta, circa 2007, from Ed Stelmach. Oil companies have shown support for the carbon tax, because they know it works.
“Alberta Premier Danielle Smith escalated her criticism of Parks Canada’s approach to fire management in Jasper National Park yesterday”…and in so doing completely distracted the dialog away from the fact that she is actively pursuing policies that will ensure that the next fire in Jasper will happen sooner, and be even worse.
Danielle Smith spent years in a radio studio, espousing all sorts of different ideas that were intended to generate interest, and ratings, of course. I do wonder if, when she finds herself in the same environment on a Saturday morning, she sometimes forgets she is no longer a radio host inspired by ratings.
Jasper is one thing. Banff is another. Here’s an ominous headline: “How an oil tycoon plans to transform the iconic mountain town of Banff”.
https://financialpost.com/feature/how-oil-tycoon-plans-transform-banff-iconic-mountain-town
Will provincial funding be diverted into “transforming” Banff instead of providing public transit for one quarter of the city of Calgary via the Green Line? Why get vehicles off the roads in the city, when public money could be transferred to private hands and set a precedent for further “transformation” within national park boundaries, by none less than an “oil tycoon”. Those “mucky mucks” and their inconvenient rules!
It’s all to ease overcrowded parking lots, you see, and darned if those grizzlies aren’t getting in the way of packs of hikers.
https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/smother-nature-the-struggle-to-protect-banff-national-park/
It’s a good thing Banff National Park was established two decades before Alberta became a province. It’s a good thing there are no land sharks in the mountains.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/national-park-funding-alberta-government-banff-jasper-1.6655795
As always, what is happening south of the border and what could happen there with a change of federal government, followed by one here?
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/oil-drilling-coming-national-park-or-monument-near-you
And on top of all that, if you strip mine the whole range, there will be nothing to burn.
Queen Danielle is a DeSantis level genius.
DS refuses to seek the advice of qualified experts in any area.
DS exhibits signs of the Dunning-Kruger effect:
-Are poor performers.
-Are overconfident.
-Lack of appropriate skills.
-Lack knowledge.
-Lack of the ability to be self-aware.
John Cleese, the British comedian, once summed up the idea of the Dunning–Kruger effect as, “If you are really, really stupid, then it’s impossible for you to know you are really, really stupid.”