DRYDEN — The lack of snow in the bush this winter “is certainly on our radar, for sure,” said Chris Marchand, a fire information officer at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s regional forest fire management headquarters in Dryden. Northwestern Ontario has received much less snow than normal by this time of year. “There’s some discussion of how this could affect things, but at the same time, looking more than 10 days into the future and betting on the weather is a bit of a dangerous game,” Marchand said. He noted the forest fire season doesn’t officially begin until April 1. …According to the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority, the snow depth at various monitoring stations around the city was just over 20 cm at the beginning of February, or roughly half the long-term average.