This picture shows the final stages of the massive Syncline Ridge Fire above the Athabasca River and Talbot Lake. This fire was started as a prescribed burn but escaped control and grew into one of the largest fires in Jasper's history.
There are many critics of prescribed burns and uncontrolled wildfires, but this photo confirms one of the ideas underlying the "let it burn" philosophy. Notice that on the ridge in the background, there are fingers of undamaged forest between the burn areas. Seldom does the entire forest burn.
Those open spaces provide grazing habitat for wildlife. Uninterrupted forest provides little forage for herbivores like deer and elk.
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