Fire -our best friend or worst enemy?
This summer it was our enemy. Every year here in the boreal forest of Saskatchewan's far north it's the same -people wondering- is this the year my cabin burns?
Fire here is constant and normal, always expected. It's just the location of the next one that's unknown.
We have hundreds of forest fires here every year.
An approaching thunderstorm one evening has me cast a nervous eye it's way, with
my worst fears coming true -lightning and lots of it. Right in the general area of my cabin.
Strong winds precede the much needed rain. I'm hopeful that enough rain will fall to stop any lightning strike from becoming a wildfire. But all too soon the rain stops. The next day will bear watching , as the bush will need to dry out a bit before any potential fire can get a start.
The next morning is clear and bright, another beautiful day. By day's end that all changes as smoke is seen billowing up, getting more intense by the minute. It's not long before I see this over the tree tops, already starting to block the sun
I get in my boat and head towards the smoke, wanting to get a better idea as to the fire's location relative to my cabin. This is what I soon see: a wall of fire coming my way
At the height of the fire, the roar of it can be heard more than a mile away.
Late in the day the winds drop. The evening coolness helps slow the fire as does the increasing night time humidity. When the winds diminish, the smoke rolls in
The day's strong winds have spread the fire in several different directions, turning one fire into many. Here it burns along the lake shore at night in one of many places
Morning comes, hot and dry yet again. The wind picks up once more, then changes direction, burning areas that would have been safe if it would have stayed from the same direction as the previous day.
Day after day it burns, the smell of smoke is everywhere. A thick haze limits visibility. There is no escaping the smoke as it blankets vast areas of the north.
This fire is just one of many burning across the province.
The winds keep blowing like mad, every day changing direction -often more than once- making the fire determined to consume everything in the whole area.
Finally, some very welcome rain comes, putting most of the fire out, but too late really as there's not much left to burn.
The cabin is saved -I don't know how. But for that I'm immensely grateful. It's been a long and exhausting ordeal. I've never been one to believe in miracles but when I look around it becomes clear -that's what it was. How else to explain it?
The little bit of green around the cabin is all that remains of what was once a beautiful landscape. Now, there's just blackened forest.
Black, desolate and empty. My heart goes out to all the birds and animals. The lucky ones have lost their homes, the unlucky their very lives.
Although this is natures way, a way of renewal, it's also utterly devastating to all things living that made this place their home.
I will never see this area again as it was, nor will my children. Perhaps a grandchild in their old age will see it as I did, or possibly a great-grandchild, as things grow very, very slowly here.
Only a few days after the fire has passed, I see the first sign of life: a spider web on the ground near the hole where it survived
What was once green is now black
Another survivor: a spruce grouse clings to a black spruce that miraculously didn't burn
Here a shed caribou antler lies, with a bog area behind looking unnaturally green
The spruce and pine needles continue to fall from the fire killed trees
The ground is littered by pine cones that have been opened by the heat, starting the renewal of the forest as the cycle continues
Here a pine waits to drop it's opened cones
Some places have burned completely as seen here. Even the tree stumps have burned down into the ground
Here is the location of an old cabin. Before the fire all that remained of it was the outline of the foundation. After the moss and other vegetation has been burned away, this revealed itself
An old puck stone
What a difference! From this cluster of birch amongst the black spruce, beautiful...
To this: this is what it looks like now. This is the exact same bunch of birch, shown
from the same general direction
Although I'm truly thankful for coming out of such a terrible fire relatively unscathed, at the same time I feel a deep sadness at so much destruction. But such is nature's way, it's life in the bush...
This summer it was our enemy. Every year here in the boreal forest of Saskatchewan's far north it's the same -people wondering- is this the year my cabin burns?
Fire here is constant and normal, always expected. It's just the location of the next one that's unknown.
We have hundreds of forest fires here every year.
An approaching thunderstorm one evening has me cast a nervous eye it's way, with
my worst fears coming true -lightning and lots of it. Right in the general area of my cabin.
Strong winds precede the much needed rain. I'm hopeful that enough rain will fall to stop any lightning strike from becoming a wildfire. But all too soon the rain stops. The next day will bear watching , as the bush will need to dry out a bit before any potential fire can get a start.
The next morning is clear and bright, another beautiful day. By day's end that all changes as smoke is seen billowing up, getting more intense by the minute. It's not long before I see this over the tree tops, already starting to block the sun
I get in my boat and head towards the smoke, wanting to get a better idea as to the fire's location relative to my cabin. This is what I soon see: a wall of fire coming my way
At the height of the fire, the roar of it can be heard more than a mile away.
Late in the day the winds drop. The evening coolness helps slow the fire as does the increasing night time humidity. When the winds diminish, the smoke rolls in
The day's strong winds have spread the fire in several different directions, turning one fire into many. Here it burns along the lake shore at night in one of many places
Morning comes, hot and dry yet again. The wind picks up once more, then changes direction, burning areas that would have been safe if it would have stayed from the same direction as the previous day.
Day after day it burns, the smell of smoke is everywhere. A thick haze limits visibility. There is no escaping the smoke as it blankets vast areas of the north.
This fire is just one of many burning across the province.
The winds keep blowing like mad, every day changing direction -often more than once- making the fire determined to consume everything in the whole area.
Finally, some very welcome rain comes, putting most of the fire out, but too late really as there's not much left to burn.
The cabin is saved -I don't know how. But for that I'm immensely grateful. It's been a long and exhausting ordeal. I've never been one to believe in miracles but when I look around it becomes clear -that's what it was. How else to explain it?
The little bit of green around the cabin is all that remains of what was once a beautiful landscape. Now, there's just blackened forest.
Black, desolate and empty. My heart goes out to all the birds and animals. The lucky ones have lost their homes, the unlucky their very lives.
Although this is natures way, a way of renewal, it's also utterly devastating to all things living that made this place their home.
I will never see this area again as it was, nor will my children. Perhaps a grandchild in their old age will see it as I did, or possibly a great-grandchild, as things grow very, very slowly here.
Only a few days after the fire has passed, I see the first sign of life: a spider web on the ground near the hole where it survived
What was once green is now black
Another survivor: a spruce grouse clings to a black spruce that miraculously didn't burn
Here a shed caribou antler lies, with a bog area behind looking unnaturally green
The spruce and pine needles continue to fall from the fire killed trees
The ground is littered by pine cones that have been opened by the heat, starting the renewal of the forest as the cycle continues
Here a pine waits to drop it's opened cones
Some places have burned completely as seen here. Even the tree stumps have burned down into the ground
Here is the location of an old cabin. Before the fire all that remained of it was the outline of the foundation. After the moss and other vegetation has been burned away, this revealed itself
An old puck stone
What a difference! From this cluster of birch amongst the black spruce, beautiful...
To this: this is what it looks like now. This is the exact same bunch of birch, shown
from the same general direction
Although I'm truly thankful for coming out of such a terrible fire relatively unscathed, at the same time I feel a deep sadness at so much destruction. But such is nature's way, it's life in the bush...
