Fire Info Update and Resources

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/ with overlay KDS

Changing gears a bit, a quick touch back on the fires that burn still in Canada.  Some folks back home in the States have been asking about the fires up north because there is nothing in the news down here --  we in the states are very “us” centered.  To be fair, the same can be said of Canadians.  It is what it is.  It has been important to me because it affects me, but understandably, it is way out there and so chances are good, you probably aren't so interested which is ok, but for those of you who are, here is a bit of info.

The reality is that wildfires up there are a way of life and threaten mostly wildlife and wildland a generous amount of time.  This year was an exception with a several towns under threat or burned.  The firefighters don’t always get things under control in time, but they do a great job, and are exceptionally busy right now.  Fires are cyclical and this year is a rough one in Alberta.   I work in an ecosystem that has evolved with consistent fire return intervals and we have learned to expect fires to cycle through an area at least every 100-120 years or so and so it wasn’t a surprise that I was asked the question when our site burned:  didn’t I “expect the muskeg (local for peatland) to burn?”  Yes, fire is a way of life up there, but it is no less dramatic for being so.  That site didn't make it 100 years and we still have sites on the fringe of this large fire to the north. 

Natural Resources Canada is a wealth of information about fires in Alberta and all across Canada.  Already Alberta is way over the 10 year average for area burned even though the number of fires is less than the average (http://fire.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/firereport/graph-eng.php#gr1).  The fire that threatened our sites north of Fort McMurray has now burned over 561,000 hectares of land (some of which are now burning underground).  The image up and to the left shows active hot spots four days ago - the larger open circle of red dots is the fire north of Fort McMurray and it is burning from the center outward and so the entire area within those dots has been burned.   As of this morning with the fire still out of control, over 2168 mi² has burned with this fire alone.  To give you some perspective, this is larger than the land area of Rhode Island (1,044.93 mi²) and even Delaware (1,953.56 mi²).  The fire in Arizona is out of control at less than a third of the size of the fire burning in Alberta (600 mi² http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002247/Wallow-Fire-Arizona-blaze-set-states-worst.html?ITO=1490).  In no way am I minimizing the fire in Arizona as it is affecting vastly more people than the one of which I speak in Alberta (and over half the size of Rhode Island has burned already there- that is big big big).

Smoke from Alberta has been blowing into Saskatchewan to the east (Saskatchewan is now threatened by many fires independently), as well as south and even west and into the US (http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/8161).   If you are into GIS/Google Earth stuff, check out NASA’s stuff – they have a lot… a jumping off spot includes the MODIS Rapid Response System http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/firemaps/ and the USDA has great stuff for both US and Canadian fires (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/googleearth.php?sensor=modis&extent=canada) and is source of this Google Earth image above.  They have a host of KML files at the ready.

One thing is certain...   if this fire encroaches on the Oil Sands area shutting down oil production and affecting the US by creating a scenario with increases in oil and gas prices, we surely will begin to pay attention.  Huge efforts were made to force the fire from the southern boundaries where more industry and human activity dominates.  As you can see from the image at the top of the page, the fires are now burning mostly on the west and east sides further north and that is good news for the oil companies and for the folks still in Fort MacKay who haven't evacuated.  The big oil companies were nervous.  This map on the right was generated by the government of Alberta and if you feel like following the chatter, you'll find a wealth of information on the Alberta Wildfire Info Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alberta-Wildfire-Info/357885625988).  

The world is burning and is bigger than NBC10 can communicate.  Earthquakes, tornados, floods, fires, heat-waves, droughts….   It is only the beginning of June and for now, the fires still burn.  

Smoke and Snow

Ahem....  it is not supposed to snow in June.  Seriously, Alberta?  Freezing temperatures and a newbie-slightly-unprepared field crew ensured a shorter day today.  The smoke didn't help, but it wasn't the limiting factor - at some point, I wasn't sure if what was falling was snow or ash until it melted on my jacket.  oooh boy, it is cold.

After yesterday's bombardment with blackflies, the freezing temps were welcome -- at least until the fingers started to freeze.  It ensured a bug-free environment and the poor spiders that spin their homes in the spruce were collecting nothing but tiny ice balls in their complicated nets. Helicopters flew overhead en route to or from the nearby burning fires, but the sky was clear of biting critters.  This site was threatened by the fire that still burns out of control north of Fort McKay, so we were glad to find it unburned.



Driving into the city last evening, we fought traffic and then a wall of smoke.  All day was beautiful and we spent some lovely time under deep blue skies and puffy clouds.  We parked at our hotel here in Fort McMurray and a wall of smoke and ash pushed over the rise and into the city.  The wind picked up and the sky turned orange as the sun burned through the instantly smokey air.  Road debris and dirt flew with smoke and ash as the sudden winds whipped us in our struggle to the door.  My teeth were gritty.  The hotel was smokey. My eyes burned.  Our rooms are not hermetically sealed.   

Something Wicked This Way Came.  Within minutes it went from sunny and blue to debris filled, smokey, dark and toxic.  Driving through the mines today, the greys were impressively depressive....   it was a bleak cold trip today and a rough re-entry into Fort McMurray. It has been an eventful couple of days.




 

Burned Bog

Utikuma Burned.  It very nearly made me cry - my eyes welled with tears.  I wasn't quite prepared for how attached I was to that bog or my reaction to seeing it burned.  Seeing something so green and vibrant with life turned into burned and charred just makes my heart big and sore. I could be plunked down almost anywhere in it and know where I was before.  If you know Alberta bogs - which I'm fairly confident you probably don't - you would know that that is pretty impressive with all the trees being black spruce.  Today I walked through it and nothing was as it should have been and the smoke was fresh in the air.  I knew where everything was because I know the layout so well and our paths are still ghostly remains, but that didn't matter because the burnt trunks were the only thing blocking the views from plot to plot.  This site was very dense with veg and it is now sooty and black and full of standing dead black spruce trees. While I was moderately prepared for it and there are a bunch of ways to make it a positive thing in terms of the science, it is still very sad to me.

Fort McMurray tomorrow.



  

Dry Run Into Spring

Just about 3 weeks up here and it feels like a lifetime.  I’ve been coming to Meanook for almost 10 years now and it is like a second home.  There have been years where I’ve spent 3-4 months/year up here and so it is quite comfortable from that perspective.  The people are great.  The weather is generally pretty nice.  Bugs usually aren’t too bad at the station.  Lots of green areas to escape to when things get to be too much and quiet time is in order.  All in all it really is quite nice here.  That is probably partially why it feels like I’ve been here forever this year.  The other reasons are not so benevolent.

The workload this year is pretty high with the new project under way and with new projects come new field crews and new ‘discussions’ (read ‘arguments’ on occasion) on which ways are the best ways and wrong ways and sideways.  Tensions have been high for the most part and that is wearing, but we finally have the construction part of it done – except some shed painting and the crew is happy for that.  Now the watering begins and man do we have some cool equipment.  We could fight some fires, ourselves, with all of our fire hoses and pumps.  We will have 2500 gallons of water delivered tomorrow and need to apply it in 55 gallon aliquots throughout the bog and fen.  In all we have about a km of boardwalk.  It is quite the scene….  Yesterday was our dry (wet) run and the water truck got stuck in the ditch -- hopefully, we will be incident free on our first true application tomorrow with all the glitches all being ironed out yesterday.   

Spring is here for sure now – birds are singing and plants are blooming and fully green.  Several white-throated sparrows reside very close to the communal buildings and make a chorus with the local phoebe that resides outside my bedroom window.  Robins are everywhere; as are ravens, and a host of warblers and sparrows.  I have yet to hear the golden crowned kinglet, but hopefully he’ll be back.  He’s my favorite and usually hangs out in the big pines lining the driveway into the compound.  My first hummingbird sighting was two days ago in time for the lilacs that are just thinking about blooming and adding their scent to the cherries and apples that have started to bloom.   Everything is in a rush to get their fleurs out as fast as possible as spring is squished here and leads into summer pretty quickly.  It has been warm except for a few days –was below freezing this morning, for example --  we know to not take it for granted.  It snowed in June last year.  Everyone is hoping for rain for the fires, but for our fieldwork, the lack of rain has made things move forward quite nicely.

So as we continue to make plans and figure out more logistics and prep equipment, the sun still shines.  We are heading out tomorrow for our watering and then to Fort McMurray… which is still plagued with fire, ash, and smoke.   And so while I will be smelling like a wildfire soon, Meanook is now happily smelling of homemade lasagna (homemade sauce, homemade noodles, and all).  Can’t complain about that!  For now, while the getting is good:  bring on the happy hour.

Bad Air

Back from the field today, we find our activities for Fort McMurray area have been suspended due to poor air quality.  There has been an extreme air quality alert now for the northern regions for the past few weeks due to forest fires (particulates are at extremely elevated levels and that is no good for anything).  Also, there is now a fire very close to a road we need to get to a site and if that road went, we wouldn't be able to get back out.  No good there, either. That leaves us with ONE accessible site.  It is the one we have been spending most of our time with, but still....  we have projects that have come to a stand-still.  Roads around Slave Lake remain shut down.

Meanwhile, our new site is replete with boardwalks and we have installed water samplers in the fen and a few in the bog - still ice there, but the ice lens was not that thick.  We can break through without too much effort, but still... a little rough trying to auger through a half a foot of ice.  We have our bear fence up to receive rain collectors and weather station and our fire-fighting hoses are ready to receive the 2000 gallons of water we need to spread about.  We have yet to build a shed out there, but that will be this weekend.   Lots still going on for sure.

Hammer Time

The fires still burn.  The smoke still lingers.  The crap that comes out when I blow my nose is shocking.  We’ve had 2 solid days setting up our plots in the fen/bog complex and I’m afraid the crew may only have one more good day in them before we collapse into big piles of strained muscles and exhaustion.  Thankfully, that may be just what is necessary to get us to where we want to be and then we can then move on to the next step.  We have moved 800 2”x6”x10’ boards plus another 400 (?) Or so 4”x4”s 100m over upland… another 350m through the fen and now need another 200m or so through the bog.   All along we have been building boardwalks with these splintery bruising boards.  My hammer arm is back, but I’m still slow at it.  While some of the longer armed guys pound in the 5” nails with 4-10 strikes, I’m still swinging usually at 15.  Sigh.

Anyway, it has been a long few days and the end is in sight, so that is good all around.  The site was a little smoky this morning as you can see from the picture to the right (taken from the mostly charred upland with a view into the fen).  It was generally hazy all day, but I suspect the smoke was actually from the Fort McMurray fires to our north as the respiratory situation improved with a shifting of the winds to a more easterly direction later in the day.  Fires are still burning everywhere, though they have Slave Lake mostly under control.  Fires are still north, west, and south of Slave Lake and so roads are still closed to the town and to our sites.  I found a detailed map of fire coverage tonight and if my map-reading skills and memory of site skills are all ok and fires chill out, then, our site may have been spared.  Oddly, I wouldn’t have minded if it had burned for the sheer science potential of it all, but it is a site I really like and so that would be painful, for sure, to see it in such a devastated state.  I look forward to seeing how things look up there when this all blows over.

  And so one more full out hammer-and-move-boards-till-my-arms-fall-off-day and that should get us somewhere good.  Days are a little cooler and it has drizzled on occasion, so that has helped with the fire containment.  I haven’t heard of anything around the field station of late and so I think for now things are good.

Early to bed for me today. 

Fire Continued

image courtesy of NASA-EO

Brief update…  Fires are still burning.  We are fairly sure that our site (our major site with equipment, etc) is toast and the roads north of Slave Lake to our sites are still closed as fires still rage.  No one knows when they may be open again or when the fires will be contained.  I believe that is up to the weather and the diligent efforts of firefighters….  More sites in Fort McMurray may potentially be in trouble as a very large uncontrolled fire burns east of our site near the town of McKay.  McKay is being evacuated of folks with respiratory problems.  Smoke is thick there and Oil companies are evacuating processing plants that are in the line of smoke and fire.   No rain yet, just more hot and more wind.  Ironically, the bugs are now wicked as the heavy snow and ice melt here have the wetlands all brimming with water and bugs.  The uplands, on the other hand – dry as a bone.

Smoke came back with a vengeance last night ‘round midnight, 1 AM….   My eyes are burning and tired.  Seems ok now, but I can’t imagine what the firefighters have to deal with.  Here, it is just brief bits of smoke now and again.  

We are off to haul lumber into our fen site two hours north of here on the way to Fort McMurray – interestingly it is a fen surrounded by burned upland.  We just cleared a path there yesterday to get some quads in and I was a mess – full of soot and fine black powder.   Hard to imagine what walking through a fresh site will be like, but I’ll let you know once they let us back in….

Wildfires

And so here I was with a happy little ditty on Fort McMurray and field work and corn nuts all flippantly written up, only to get back to Meanook yesterday from our first expedition (the field station) to learn that basically, the world was on fire.  I’ve grown accustomed to hearing about all of the flooding problems in the US and Canada, but now it is only wildfires on everyone's lips here.

It is interesting to get a new perspective on things now and again and that plays out nearly every time I head to the research station here in Alberta.  I’ve learned that they don’t realize it is flooding in the US and we have no idea it is flooding in Manitoba, either.  They cheer only now for Vancouver to win the Stanley Cup.  For the most part, we could give two flying flips about who wins.  We go about our lives not worrying about wildfires while they are losing everything to the beasts.  If it isn't water, it is fire it seems, here. 

Fire has broken out everywhere in our area and it seems the whole province is on fire depending on who you talk to.  Reliable detailed information is surprisingly difficult to find.  What we do know is that Slave Lake – population around 7000 was evacuated yesterday only very late in the day.  Fires were around the town and fires are fairly common here and so they know what they are doing with the whole firefighting thing.  They weren’t terribly worried and thought they had the fires contained, but Mother Nature decided to bump up the winds to 70-100 kms/hr fueling the fires;  and by the evening, citizens were being told to find large parking lots and to get as close to the lake as possible.  The fires had surrounded the town.  The three roads in and out of Slave Lake were impassable and everyone was trapped.  They got one road open in part with the use of guide trucks forging a flashing trail through the dense smoke and have since safely evacuated everyone.  The fire still burns, but according to the most recent news report, 40% of the town is cinders.

Athabasca, the small town closest to Meanook is now helping hundreds of refugees who are bunking in the local indoor soccer gym…  600 people and their pets have found a home here for now – just a two hours drive from Slave Lake.  More have been sent along toward Edmonton as we cannot house them all, and south is the only way out.  The roads and town are still not accessible.  Winds have died down, but fires still rage out of control.  Fires have sprung up to the east, north, and west of us and smoke permeates the air here at the field station.  I was supposed to lead a group to do some field work at a site we have near Utikuma Lake tomorrow (north of Slave Lake) and have Zero hope of doing so.  There are literally hundreds of hotspots surrounding the roads we must travel and I give it a good percentage that at least one of our sites has burned and no longer even exists as we once knew it.  Ironically, it was once one of our “fire sites” where we studied carbon cycling in bogs based on age of bog…   perhaps we have just reset the clock.   What this all means to us here at the field station remains unclear and the fickle finger of Mother Nature will keep us on our toes for quite some time, I believe.  The helicopter we hired to load equipment into our new site is now being used to fight fires elsewhere and is indeterminately unavailable.  I see a lot of walking with a lot of heavy stuff for a lot of people in our very near future.  Not until a soaking rain, will these fires all be doused.  I am not holding my breath.   I will be heading into the cinder zone as soon as possible, but for now, it is solidly off limits.   We hope for containment for all the fires everywhere here and for now Meanook is smoky but not in the line of fire. 

Be safe wherever you are.  I will keep you updated.