Last week, the province of Nova Scotia, facing an extreme risk of wildfire caused by hot, dry weather, banned people from entering forests and national parks as a precautionary measure. …New Brunswick followed suit on Saturday with an open-ended ban on commercial and recreational activity on Crown land. Private landowners were asked to follow suit. …But we note that, as of Sunday, Newfoundland – where fires have forced … government to declared a state of emergency in one part of the province – had not gone to the extreme of banning responsible citizens from the woods. We respectfully suggest that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick’s decision to cancel summer in early August is draconian, and that their over-abundance of caution may speak to the fact that, like the rest of Canada, they do too little to prevent forest fires in the first place, creating a higher risk of intense and dangerous events. …Canada needs to develop a national regime of prescribed burns… [A Globe and Mail subscription is required to read the whole story]