Prince Albert National Park under wildfire emergency advisory
In a wildfire update on Monday, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said the Buhl fire has entered the northeast corner of the park and is 35.5 km from the town of Waskesiu as of Monday afternoon.
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Residents and visitors are under a pre-evacuation alert and are asked to be prepared to leave if necessary.
In an update, the park said it is 'accepting reservation cancellations during the current pre-evacuation alert with waived cancellation fees. Please call the Visitor Centre at 1-306-663-4522 to cancel your reservation.'
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CBC
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'It's like a ghost town': Waskesiu businesses take hit after wildfire pre-emergency alert
Social Sharing A restaurant owner in Waskesiu, Sask., says wildfire smoke near Prince Albert National Park is causing confusion and panic, and hurting local businesses during their busiest time of year. Poor internet connection? CBC Lite is our low-bandwidth website. Erin Barber, who owns Happy Campers Bar and Grill in the lakeside resort community, said she supports public health advisories, but believes a recent emergency alert about smoke was misunderstood by many as a fire evacuation notice. "There's no fire evacuation going on," Barber said. "So as far as we are all concerned, the media has created widespread panic and we are now losing out as businesses." Parks Canada issued a wildfire pre-emergency alert on Sunday evening due to the Buhl Fire burning about 40 kilometres away from the Waskesiu townsite, located about 200 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. The alert warned of deteriorating air quality and visibility from smoke, and encouraged people with lung conditions, young children or elderly residents to consider leaving temporarily. Barber said her restaurant has seen a sharp drop in business since the alert. She said many visitors packed up and left the community Monday morning, even though there has been no official evacuation order and no immediate threat to the townsite. "It was busy. It was like a normal summer day," she said. "And now it's like a ghost town." Barber said she understands why vulnerable people might choose to leave, but that public messaging should have been clearer. "There will be an emergency alert that goes out that every single person will get if there's any risk to the townsite," she said. "That hasn't happened." 'Not as bad as people would think': Waskesiu Trading Company Further up the road, the general manager of the Waskesiu Trading Company said the smoke in Waskesiu is not as bad as people perceive. "We're still actually able to just barely see across the lake there right now,"Jason Carroll told CBC early Tuesday morning, lifting his phone to show what looked like a light fog in the air. He said the community had "nice clear skies" Monday until smoke kicked in toward the afternoon, "but still not as bad as people would think." The pre-emergency alert was a surprise to Carroll, who said conditions are much worse elsewhere. "I've talked to some people over the phone who are in Prince Albert," said Carroll. "The smoke is actually a lot worse there than what it is here." While the business is still running as usual, it is a lot quieter than is typical on a day in July. "It's like how it is in spring and fall," said Carroll, who has baked at the business over the last five summers. "Definitely a dip down for sure compared to usual." Carroll said the alert won't take as large of a toll on his business, which often serves food to firefighters in these kinds of situations, as it will for non-food related businesses like the local gift shop and liquor stores. He said there could have been better communication around what the alert really means. "I feel like from my understanding the alert was more for the smoke, for people with, you know, asthma, the elderly, stuff like that," Carroll said. "[Tourists] are worried about the fire rather than the smoke." David Archer, co-owner of the Waskesiu Trading Company, echoed the need for better communication from Parks Canada. He said the wildfire travelling in the community's direction is not likely, based on previous years. "Winds tend to move westerly in this part of this area," Archer said. He said there should be daily updates to better inform businesses and visitors. "People plan their vacations months in advance," he said. "Let them continue with their life and make informed decisions." Parks Canada speaks on evacuation confusion Greg Walker, an incident commander for Parks Canada, said the alert was issued as fire encroached into Prince Albert National Park. "Although there's no immediate threat to the communities of Waskesiu and the nearby outlying ones, there still is a threat from the wildfires up to the northeast of the park," Greg Walker said on CBC's Saskatoon Morning Tuesday, He said the park may not be a stranger to wildfires, but weather conditions are different this year. "There's a long standing drought in this area of the country. And so the wildfire activity and extreme fire behaviour that's happened throughout the province of Saskatchewan, Manitoba this year is related to that," Walker said. Walker said Parks Canada wants to be proactive in its evacuation efforts. He said a pre-emergency alert makes things run smoother if a full evacuation order is issued. "If we evacuate, there will be congestion. There will be people with special needs, will be susceptible people," Walker said. "The other pieces, the air quality and the smoke is going to affect some people." In the meantime, Parks Canada has brought in specialists, including the Saskatchewan Public Safety Association, to present a unified front in fighting the fire. "We expect the communications to improve. We'll dedicate a number of people to that and the communications will become quite a bit more regular," Walker said.
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Jasper campers take in radically new landscape, one year after wildfire
Social Sharing Camping in Jasper National Park may be a surreal experience for returning visitors and a startling one for first-time tourists, nearly one year after wildfire ripped through sections of the park. Two of Jasper's biggest and most popular campgrounds — Wapiti and Whistlers — have few trees. "The landscape will look quite different," said Graham Wylde, Jasper's visitor experience manager with Parks Canada. "It is radically changed in terms of the viewscapes." On the mountain slopes flanking Highway 93 peering over the Wapiti and Whistlers campgrounds, trees stand stiff like charred match sticks. "Everyone will come to it in a different way in terms of their previous connection to it or their perception of what a fire impacted area is," Wylde remarked. Parks Canada crews have been working since last fall to get the park ready for visitors by clearing debris from trails, roads, grounds and facilities; taking down hazard trees, reconnecting utilities, reinstalling signs. Many of the washrooms were undamaged and didn't have to be replaced, but Parks rebuilt more than 1,000 picnic tables this past winter. "There's a whole gamut of work that needs to be done," Wylde said in an interview with CBC News last week. With the little tree cover now, people should plan to bring wind shelters or sun shelters, Wylde said, with the heightened exposure to the elements. About 30 per cent of the Wapiti Campground, or 120 of the 400 sites, are open for campers this season. Down the road at Whistlers, 100 per cent of sites are open. Nearly 25,000 people were evacuated from the town and the park on July 22, 2024, as the wildfire that was started by lightning quickly turned into a monster fire and destroyed a third of the town's structures. Regular and first-time visitors Of the available sites to rent at Wapiti the week of July 7-13, 97 per cent were occupied, while 99 per cent were booked at Whistlers, Wylde said. The campgrounds had their regular visitors, like Yudit Normandeau from Edmonton, who makes the trip every year with her extended family to their favourite site in Wapiti. "There's no privacy, that's true," Normandeau said of the new landscape. "But if you walk around, everybody says hello to you, good night or good morning." Aside from the family tradition of visiting Jasper and Wapiti, the family is showing its support by going into town to shop and dine, she said. "We're here — there's no trees, there's nothing but we are here." Myra Dawnay, 17, remembers the campgrounds before the fire. "It's definitely more windy because there's no trees and we couldn't put up hammocks," she said. "It was kind of disappointing not to see squirrels or bears, or animals besides crows." Ash Odsen, 9, is part of Normandeau's extended family and recalls Wapiti two years ago. "I was kind of sad for the trees because they all got burnt," Odsen told CBC News at the campground. "It was still really fun because I got to see the river, and I got to walk to the park and it was amazing." Heather Kindopp arrived with her family from California Tuesday night after a stop at Banff National Park. "That was shocking last night that there's no trees left," Kindopp said. "There's nothing to separate you from your neighbours, it's pretty open." It also struck her because of the family's experience in California, where the Camp Fire of 2018 that devastated the community of Paradise. "That's the same with our fires — you see the news and you can't understand what it's like until you're in it [and] you see what has happened and what's been destroyed." Tourism is necessary to rebuild the community, she added, and that the family would be going hiking and to see the glaciers in the park. Parks Canada is planning to rebuild Wapiti within three to five years to restore it to 100 per cent capacity, and will close the campgrounds completely to do so. Hundreds of trees had already been cleared from Wapiti in 2021 because of mountain pine beetle damage. Farther south on the Icefields Parkway, several smaller campgrounds with 20 to 50 sites are still surrounded by trees, including Honeymoon, Jonas, Kerkeslin and Wilcox campgrounds. Miette Campground east of the townsite is also open and fully-forested, Wylde noted. Wabasso Campground and Whirlpool Group Campground remain closed. A renewed landscape Wylde said the new landscape is an opportunity to get a closer look at what lies beneath. "Previously, what was hidden by the trees is now laid bare and the incredible mountain views are right out your tent or your RV door," Wylde said. On the slopes of the mountains are valleys, ridges, waterfalls and streams. "It's quite a stark difference but there's a renewed beauty to this area now post-fire." Normandeau is also looking at the landscape as a reflection of life. "Sometimes we go through times where everything is green and then everything is brown and burned and devastated but only from there we can actually rise up again," Normandeau said.
