Jed Kaplan

…The University of Calgary’s Dr. Jed Kaplan — associate professor in the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment — spoke with the Gauntlet about the role of climate change, as well as the effects of land management and the natural forest ecosystem of Western Canada on the Jasper Wildfire Complex. Kaplan said, “the forests of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and a large part of surrounding areas are adapted to fire. They are forests that have naturally burned for tens of thousands of years. That’s just a part of our product of the climates that we have here in summertime, where we often have periods of warm weather and dry conditions and also lightning strikes.” However, Kaplan also explained climate change has increased both the length of these hot dry seasons and the temperatures themselves, both of which contribute to increasing severity and frequency of wildfires.