OUTDOOR LIVING
Rebuilding Jasper in a( Fire) Smart Way
Duane Radford Article and Photos
The Jasper wildfires of 2024 represented Mother Nature’ s way of forest succession.
The forests in and around the Jasper townsite were dominated by mature lodgepole pine, which have a lifespan of 150 to 200 years but can even reach 400 years. The sticky scales on lodgepole pine cones are held closed by a resin bond and are opened when exposed to the heat from a wildfire or from direct sunlight, releasing pine seeds. Each cone contains forty to sixty seeds.
A lodgepole pine tree has thin bark and can be killed by a ground fire. The Jasper wildfire was so hot that it burned the branches off the pine trees and scorched the bark on their trunks. Winds were so strong that many trees were toppled, exposing their roots. Along the road to Maligne Lake, the topsoil was burned down to the subsoil by the intense fire. This devastation provided the conditions for the forest to rejuvenate itself and start a new generation of lodgepole pine trees.
Pine beetles can kill lodgepole pine trees within a month of infecting them. The forest around the Jasper townsite had thousands of hectares of dead trees as a result of the mountain pine beetle
SUMMER 2025 | 17