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Parks Canada should be liable for flawed fire control
Letter to the Editor
Parks Canada should be made liable for the millions of lost dollars that they are causing the East Kootenay with their flawed fire “control” plan in our national parks.
You would have thought they would have learned a lesson after the disaster they caused in Kootenay National Park in 2003 by letting a lightning strike fire burn without immediate action to bring it under control. No doubt the result will once again be our tax dollars funding propaganda like those placards at Marble Canyon trying to justify the 2003 acts of stupidity that cased the destruction of numerous park facilities, the loss of tourism and peoples livelihoods, a severe weather event triggered by the fire causing damage in Calgary, not to mention the long term heath effects the smoke causes when the federal government does not respond in the proper manner.
It is amazing that all of the people living in this region, (East Kootenay) if involved in the backcountry or not, know that there is no such thing as a controlled burn during the months of July through September.
The loss of tourism dollars due to their complete ignorance in the dangers of wild fires and lack of consideration is again costing a tremendous hardship on our economy, health and quality of life. If they wish to monitor rather than put out fires in the national parks to possible burn off beetle kill etc. then they should limit that practice to non-summer months.
The closing or our main highway to Alberta and their handling of this matter is disgraceful. When the lightning storm occurred that started this and other fires – all fires outside of the park were immediately dealt with as the province understands the importance of rapid response. The federal government “experts” spent a week monitoring the Verdant Creek fire as it grew from a few acres to 200, at which a time a limited amount of resources, compared to what they are now spending, could have seen the blaze extinguished. The fire has now burnt 11,000 hectares and is completely out of control, creating grass fires on the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Alberta.
The tourism dollars that keep our economy going throughout the year left when the smoke came into the valley and they will not return until the air clears. Unfortunately for many that will be too late.
R.B. Walker,
Invermere
