Crowsnest Fire

Aug. 2l, 2003, Fire got out of control and transformed into a giant

fire.

A 6-km wall of flame suddenly

whipping over the slopes,

Equivalent of an atomic explosion every 30 minute.

Elaine Hruby A resident whose husband was working that weekend up north in Fort McMurray. At 10 a.m. authorities told her to leave. Immediately.

“I didn’t know what to take “says Hruby,

recalling her anxious departure. “You start doing crazy things”.

Hruby then drove about 20 km west along the valley, sat down on a rock ledge overlooking1,359-m-high Crowsnest Pass and watched the flames veer down on Hillcrest. Despite her horror, she couldn’t stop looking.

“I felt masochistic, sitting on the outcropping” Hruby recalls. “But

those f lames were like a magnet.”

20,000 hectares of forest….BURNED

SUFFERING BUSINESSES

Timber industry but also

Local businesses.

Tourism

PROSPOROUS BUISINESS local dry cleaners, gas stations, restaurants and office services maintained a steady business.

Spray Lake Sawmills 28% quota of the annual allowable salvage rights in the area and will salvage the lumber they can, so that it doesn't go to waste.

SALVABLE EFFORTS Depend upon the amount of root scorch and the cost to pursue the salvage.

For example, burnt bark is not good, from a lumber perspective but de-barking the trees will keep the chips clean and reduce the carbon content.

ECOLOGICAL PRO’S AND CON’S

Burned area is black and looks devoid of life but over time burned area also creates diversity that wasn’t there before.

Large stands of timber smoother the light and inhibit undergrowth.

A burned area creates ecological diversity and allows for the development of rich undergrowth that wasn’t there before