In the 2015 fires in Saskatchewan, The premier at the time thought it was so bad that we needed to bring in the military to help combat it.
I remember this well because later Premier Brad Wall announced an illegal role back on healthcare workers wages to combat the deficient built up with the wildfires. It was illegal because union collective agreements are legally binding and for some reason Brad Wall decided that he could break those agreements and not face repercussions.
The smoke was horrible in the northern communities but it spread through out the province and to neighbouring provinces. I remember hearing reports from the US about the air quality from the Saskatchewan fires.
Yes, some years are particularly bad. And other years they are not. But these are just some things that scream fowl to me as I watch this year’s wild fire situation escalate out of control.
The smoke in the air was 100 times worse. I had clients coming in for help in my holistic practice. Their allergies and asthma were on overload.
I remember not being able to see to the end of the parking lot when I left my day job in Prince Albert. I worked in a basement laboratory during the day and I remember looking down the hall and it was blue from smoke.
I am not saying that it hasn’t got that bad somewhere in Canada but Saskatchewan has not seen that like we had in 2015. It’s amazing how much people forget about that early summer fire(s) when they start rooting on how bad the wild fires are in Canada today.
In Saskatchewan we have several problems that attribute to the fires every year. This year does not seem to be much different.
Much of the Saskatchewan forests are diseased, especially around the Prince Albert area. Dwarf mistletoe is a collective term for a large group of parasites that ravage the pine tree’s ability to take up water and nutrients. It’s easily recognizable. The trees no longer have a nice uniform Christmas Tree look. Instead, their branches look dead, or there are clumps of branches that fan out to look like a witches broom.
There is so much dead wood in these forests. Normally, before colonization, a fire would clean out this dead wood. It was a natural cleaning process for the forest. I am sure the dwarf mistletoe would have remained under control back then if even existed.
Our current methods only promote dead wood pile up and disease spreading. Controlled burns are a way of preventing this and keeping fires under control.
Those who live near the forest and those who work in forestry know if the dead wood pile up. They know of the dangerous fuel laying in wait. And they know the difference between a healthy forest and one that isn’t.
Sure we may have drought but we always have had drought years. No it isn’t more frequent like the government would have you believe. In a way, we should be thankful for fires. They allow a way for the forest cleaning process to begin.
One complains that it destroys the forest. It destroys the trees. It destroys the habitat. I have lived near the forest area long enough to know that isn’t true.
Forest fires pave way for new growth. Some of the coniferous cones do not open up for the seed to come out unless they are exposed to extreme circumstances. Fire is one of those circumstances. So fire is a natural way of replanting the forest.
Regrowth happens incredibly fast. There was a fire in the Torch River area of Saskatchewan in 2002. By 2018, you couldn’t tell there was a fire when you drove along highway 35 and beyond into the gravel road that it turned into. Today that forest area is so thick with young trees that you would be pretty hard pressed to even walk through much of it.
I recently drove through the Canwood fire area of 2009. It is pretty much the same thing. The new growth is so thick that in places you would be hard pressed to even walk through it.
Forest fires may be a pain in the butt to man but they signal a rebirth for the forest and that ecological system in that area. Forest fires have always been a natural cleaning mechanism.
Are they a signal of climate change? I say not. And as I sat listening to a podcast last night in my yard, I noticed something else. I noticed fine thin mechanical ridges of clouds. Is this natural? No it isn’t.
HARRP started in Alaska as a test project decades ago to see if they could control weather. It cooks the ionosphere. But today many universities have one. It’s highly probably that at least one of our Saskatchewan universities have one.
And these were definitely HARRP clouds. Which bears the question of is the drought that some areas are experiencing in Canada truly natural, due to climate change or are they artificially induced.
These are all questions everyone should be asking. Along with the question of why can we all of a sudden not control the forest fires that we always had been able to do in the past even when it got as severe as Saskatchewan’s fire season of 2015?
And those fires around large bodies of water, like Maui, why isn’t there enough fire suppression? There is enough water. Or has our governments severe cut funds for fire suppression so much so to make it look like it is a climate change issue?
These are things that we all should be looking into. I don’t buy it that it’s climate change.
Much of the north Saskatchewan grain belt experience temperature three to five degrees lower than normal this summer yet we still had decreased regularity if rain. It did come in larger amounts when it came but, Why? Is HARRP at fault?
I am no expert but I am an expert of living in extreme conditions in Saskatchewan. I have lived all my live in the province. And this year doesn’t line up. And it doesn’t seem to line up with climate change either.
