Today, the media got a firsthand glimpse of what the forest looks like in the Weyakwin area a year after flames came through, burning up everything in its path during the northern Saskatchewan forest fires.
In some spots near Weyakwin, flames reached around 70 feet tall, but now the vegetation is starting to come back. Michael McLaughlan is a Forest Ecologist with the Ministry of Environment. He says when you are driving by and see the damage in the Weyakwin area, it might look bad, but there are a lot of positive signs.
“It’s actually a renewed forest — it’s actually growing again and there’s young trees starting out,” said McLaughlan. “If you get down on your hands and knees, you can see there’s young seedlings starting out or young suckers of aspen or young sprouts of birch that grow.”
1.7 million hectares were burned during last year’s wildfires in Saskatchewan, which forced the evacuation of thousands of people in the North.
Dave Young is a Forest Protection Officer at the Weyakwin Base, he acknowledged that predicting what will come this fire season is a fluid situation.
“All we can do is just rely on what our guys can do for training,” said Young. “It all depends on what happens if we get lightning fires, and if we react to them in a timely manner, we can probably control them to the best of our ability.”