Paul Whittaker

It’s been a terrible year for forest fires in North America. As I write this, 31 lives have been lost to a massive blaze in northern California. We’ve also seen unprecedented destruction in British Columbia, with some devastating spillover into Waterton National Park. It all brings back painful memories of last year’s Fort McMurray tragedy. There’s an important lesson in all of this destruction, though. We can’t let our guard down on forest management. We need to actively identify areas that could burn and take steps to prevent the next catastrophe. …If you ask a professional forester where the next devastating fire might happen, they’d probably point to Hinton and Jasper. That’s because a massive pine beetle epidemic has killed much of the pine in Jasper National Park and is surging towards Hinton.