For the second straight year, the wildfire season is starting a month early.
Wildfire officer Whitney Exton says even though there could still be more snow, that doesn’t actually help.
“Snow doesn’t actually act like rain,” she said. “So if the ground was dry before the snow fell, it’s likely going to be dry after the snow thaws, and those dry conditions create really good conditions for fast-moving grass fires.”
Exton says fires covered 375 thousand hectares last year; and most shouldn’t have happened.
“About eighty percent of the wildfires in 2012 were human-caused,” she said, “and that means eighty percent of all wildfires last year were 100 percent preventable.”
She says there are already dry conditions in the northeast of the province as well as the south.
As of today, people who want to burn in protected forestry areas need a permit for anything other than a campfire.
March 1, 2013
