{"id":34833,"date":"2024-08-14T18:12:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T22:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/posts-falsely-claim-alberta-wildfires-stop-at-national-park\/14\/08\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-08-14T18:12:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T22:12:02","slug":"posts-falsely-claim-alberta-wildfires-stop-at-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/posts-falsely-claim-alberta-wildfires-stop-at-national-park\/14\/08\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Posts falsely claim Alberta wildfires stop at national park"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Screenshot of a Facebook post taken August 13, 2024<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In 2023,<\/span> social media users repeatedly\u00a0claimed<\/a> arsonists set Canada’s record-breaking<\/a> wildfires in an attempt<\/a> to dramatize the effects of climate change<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Some responses<\/a> to the 2024 Alberta wildfire map\u00a0similarly<\/a> allege blazes have only\u00a0appeared <\/span>in accessible areas because<\/a> bad actors are\u00a0lighting<\/a> them. The August 12 post claims there are “no roads” in Wood Buffalo National Park, bolstering the conspiracy theory<\/span>.<\/p>\n

But the ma<\/span>p shared on social media does not provide a complete record of all fires in the province — national <\/span>parks fall under the jurisdiction of the federal agency Parks Canada<\/a> and may not appear on the fire tracking tool.<\/p>\n

“We don’t put things on our dashboard unless we’ve assigned resources to it,” said Alberta Wildfire<\/a> Information Officer Melissa Story<\/span> on August 13. “So, unless we have folks that are on the ground fighting the wildfire from Alberta Wildfire, then it wouldn’t show up.”<\/p>\n

Wood Buffalo status<\/h3>\n

Spanning<\/span> more than 4.5 million hectares of forest, wetland and prairie,\u00a0Wood Buffalo<\/a> is the largest national park in Canada, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention website (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Wood Buffalo has its own\u00a0fire status dashboard<\/a>, which shows there have been 26 wildfires in the park this year (archived\u00a0here<\/a>). Many are <\/span>holdover fires<\/a> and none were considered out of control as of August 14<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Screenshot of the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard taken August 13, 2024<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Screenshot of the Wood Buffalo National Park Fire Status dashboard taken August 13, 2024<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The park has also<\/a> reported\u00a0wildfire activity<\/a> on its Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Local media reported<\/a> the region’s extreme drought is forcing firefighters in Wood Buffalo to adapt some of their techniques.<\/p>\n

AFP contacted Parks Canada for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.<\/p>\n

No roads?<\/h3>\n

Claims that there are no roads in Wood Buffalo are also false<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Parks Canada reports the\u00a0conditions<\/a> for various paved, gravel and dirt roads in the park (archived\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While <\/span>no roads appear to run through the park in Alberta on Google Maps<\/a> (archived here<\/a>),\u00a0Highway 5<\/a> cuts across the section of Wood Buffalo in the Northwest Territories (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Google Maps also shows the unincorporated community of Garden River<\/a> about five kilometers (3.1 miles) within the park’s boundary at the end of<\/a> a Highway 58 extension in Alberta (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Mutual aid exceptions<\/h3>\n

In late July 2024, a massive wildfire ripped<\/a> through Jasper National Park<\/a> in the southwestern corner of Alberta, triggering the evacuation of thousands of people from the park and a nearby tourist town.<\/p>\n

Unlike Wood Buffalo, the status of the fire in Jasper does appear on the provincial dashboard\u00a0because\u00a0Albe<\/span>rta Wildfire is providing support there.<\/p>\n

“If they do require some assistance they’ll usually reach <\/span>out on a local level, and we may go and drop a helicopter bucket on a fire or something like that,” Story said.<\/p>\n

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Screenshot from the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard taken August 14, 2023<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

According to the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard<\/a>, 44.6 percent of wildfires in the province so far in the 2024 season are suspected to be\u00a0human-caused <\/span>(archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Story said that while investigations take time, the number of arson-caused fires is estimated to be similar to the five-year average of five percent.<\/p>\n

Read more of AFP’s reporting on misinformation in Canada here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n