Jasper National Park of Canada

Jasper National Park E-News • October 2008

FireSmart - ForestWise

For the sixth year running, a group of ambitious young Métis men and women will be mastering fire and forest management skills while making the forests of Jasper National Park safer and healthier places through Jasper’s Firesmart – Forestwise program.

Funded through a grant from the Métis Nation of Alberta, the group of young Métis between the ages of 18-30 will spend the next six months thinning and treating the forests in Jasper National Park of Canada, to mimic natural fire patterns and create safer, healthier forests in the process.

At the same time, these young Métis, as fire management technicians, will be developing valuable skills and qualifications for future careers in industry, through training, certification and real-world experience provided by Parks Canada.

In what’s being called a win-win situation for everyone involved, the Firesmart - Forestwise program has turned out dozens of experienced firefighters and forestry workers, some of whom have returned to the program in leadership roles.

Crews have spent the last few weeks completing basic training, certification and team-building excercises at the Blue Lake facility, near Hinton, and now have a busy and exciting winter ahead of them.

They will begin their season with hand-thinning and brush-piling on Pyramid Bench over the week of November 3rd. Then, as the month progresses and weather permits, they will take up their torches and move on to burning activities on Pyramid Bench, around Old Fort Point, Jasper Park Lodge and Lake Edith, with mechanical thinning work to follow into winter.

For more information, contact: Alan Westhaver, Fire and Vegetation Specialist, 780-852-6169

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Flying Syringes – The Wardens’ New Tranquilization System

The recently acquired Dan-Inject tranquilization system, which uses a novel delivery method based on air-pressure rather than explosives, has been helping wardens more humanely sedate animals in recent months.

Where a warden would once select a gunpowder-based charge to propel and inject doses of sedatives, they now dial a pressure, based on distance, into the rifle. This allows the system to be fine tuned to deliver the dart over an exact distance, while two-barrels allow for the instant selection of different sized darts, depending on dosage required.

Although the delivery rifle is a fascinating piece of technology, the darts themselves are perhaps the most interesting part of this system. Old darts were not only fired using gunpowder charges, they also used a gunpowder-based ballast inside the dart that would, upon impact, explode and drive the plunger forward. This meant that injections themselves were done at high speed, sometimes resulting in tissue damage around the site of impact.

The Dan-Inject dart, however, is more like a flying syringe than a rifle cartrige, since it is primed with air instead of gunpowder before being fired. The result is that once the dart hits its target, the air pressure slowly drives the plunger forward, similar to the way a syringe would be slowly depressed by a doctor.

Even the tip of the dart is engineered to be gentler. Instead of a single stream of sedatives firing out the tip of the dart, sedatives come out several holes in the sides of the needle, also reducing trauma to surrounding tissues.

The system was most recently used for successfully collaring and tagging elk around the Jasper Townsite.

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It’s a wrap: Maligne Canyon trail work complete!

After a summer of hard work, the Maligne Canyon trail improvement project is complete. Crews have worked long hours under various weather conditions to paint railing and benches; install stairs and fences and level and rehabilitate the trail. The task was long and hard (it’s a long way down to haul equipment), but the result is remarkable! The trail is now much safer and more accessible to visitors and the impact from so many footsteps has been reduced.

Some of the main improvements include:

• Areas of poor traction have been paved and are safe and enjoyable to walk on.
• Stairs have been installed in places where trail users had to climb over rocks.
• Sections where water erosion had exposed roots and rocks have now been covered with gravel and asphalt, minimizing the slipping/tripping hazard.
• Concrete ditching and water drains have been installed to mitigate water erosion.
• Some areas have been rehabilitated in an effort to reduce the ecological footprint.

Another example of your fees at work

Park entry and camping fees collected in the park stay in the park. They help operate and maintain visitor facilities like the Maligne Canyon day use area and help keep important services and programs operating. The improvements in this area ensure visitor safety, improve the facility and restore natural growth in areas where erosion and trail braiding has occurred. Coming soon–new interpretive panels along the trail!

Information Centre conservation and rehabilitation work

Exterior work has started and progress is on schedule. The roof is 80 percent complete and expected to be finished by November 8. Excavation is still in progress with a few more weeks to go before freeze-up. The occupants of the building were relocated to interim work space including the Information Centre desk which is now in the lobby of the train station for the duration of the project.

Upgrades of underground facilities (water and wastewater lines) at Whistlers and Wapiti campgrounds

The tendering process closed on October 21 and it's expected that the contractor will be able to complete about four weeks of work before freeze-up. Work will stop for the winter and then resume in the spring when the frost is out of the ground.

Wapiti Campground washroom replacement

On site work began on Wednesday, October 22, with tree removal and excavation for the foundation of the building. Work will continue through the winter and is expected to be finished by March 31, 2009.

Information: Amélie Rivera, Communications Officer, amelie.rivera@pc.gc.ca, 780-852-1381.