Jasper town fires extinguished, Canadian officials defend forest management practices

By Nia Williams

(Reuters) - Parks Canada, the federal agency managing the country's national parks, on Monday rejected criticism that it left the town of Jasper vulnerable to wildfires by not removing more trees killed by decades of mountain pine beetle infestation.

Nearly a third of Jasper's structures were destroyed when a massive wildfire, with flames burning 100 meters (330 feet) high, hit the popular Alberta tourist town last week.

Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said on Monday all fires in the town are now extinguished, but blazes continue to burn throughout Jasper National Park and there is still no timeline for when residents can return home.

Like much of western Canada the park has been ravaged by an ongoing outbreak of mountain pine beetle that started in British Columbia in the early 1990s and has affected more than 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) of Canadian forest.

Some forestry experts have criticized Parks Canada for being too focused on preserving natural forest ecosystems and not doing more to remove beetle-affected trees around Jasper.

Head of the agency Ron Hallman said pine beetle was a factor in the wildfire, but Parks Canada had done everything it reasonably could to reduce the risk over many decades.

"Pine beetle is through hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and short of bulldozing all of that, or burning all of it or mechanically removing all of it, we work to minimize risk to towns," Hallman told a news conference.

The agency has spent hundreds of millions of dollars since the 1990s on measures including controlled burns, when an area of forest is deliberately cleared by fire, installing sprinkler systems and mechanically removing trees and underbrush, he added.

"I reject the premise of the question that Parks Canada puts nature before people," Hallman said.

The devastation suffered by Jasper has fueled concerns about the risk wildfires pose to other Canadian mountain towns such as Banff.

Milder winters and drier summers due to climate change have enabled the beetle, which leaves dead, highly flammable trees in its wake, to migrate further across western Canada.

Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said the valley in which the town sits was "absolutely full" of dead pine beetle trees, but the reason 70% of structures had not burned was because of steps taken by Parks Canada to protect the community.

"When the attack happened those defenses worked. We suffered casualties, absolutely, and it is so incredibly hurtful, but we did hold our ground," Ireland said.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Sandra Maler)