"Returning to Jasper this summer, I found myself rerooting, as an Albertan who spent most of my adult life abroad." The palette beyond our engine was a blinding white. Not snow, not fog, but something closer to the emptied light that those who brush against death claim to glimpse — a blankness that ...

Part 1: Pioneer species on a fire-affected landscape Driving into the park a month after the 2024 Jasper Wildfire, we braced ourselves for a charred-earth landscape. Emotions of loss, devastation, and trepidation followed us in. So when we passed vibrant patches of green grasses springing from newly...

It’s been six months since Jasper was evacuated due to the threat of a massive wildfire roaring down the Athabasca Valley. On Friday, January 24, it will be exactly six months since thousands of Jasperites learned that their homes, businesses and everything in them burnt to the ground . And on Satur...

A Christmas Carol With a Twist will screen at the Jasper Legion A play about Christmas Past is helping strengthen Jasper’s future. For the last three years, former Jasperite Ryan Chabrel-Davis has been living in Vancouver, trying to break into the acting scene.  That hasn’t been easy, but even harde...

Beneath surface-level discussions and debates around the Jasper wildfire lies a more complex reality. This fire is not just an isolated event, but part of a broader pattern linked to climate change—a result of a century of colonial land use practices and an economic system focused on extraction and ...

Margot Finley’s Uncle Charlie’s house was one of the more than 350 structures destroyed by the wildfire that swept through Jasper, Alberta on July 24, 2024.  But “structure” is a terribly empty word for what's gone, Margot writes. At a dinner last winter I learned that our waiter had spent time in J...

Record dryness, extreme heat, high winds, and a lightning storm. This summer in Jasper National Park, all of the ingredients of a recipe for disaster were in place. Now, two and a half months after that disaster came to pass, another set of circumstances— misinformation, toxic politics and facts-sta...

Upheaval and change One of the most successful TV shows of the past several years has been Succession, a darkly funny drama about an exceptionally dysfunctional family of rich “one percenters” and their competition to succeed the ailing father as CEO of a huge corporation. In ecology, the word succe...

DISCLAIMER: Views, opinions and actions of Jasper Local contributors do not represent those of Jasper Local staff and/or publishers. Monday July 22 was another hot day. The day before was even hotter: at 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) Jasper was the hottest place in Alberta—excluding my apartment! (The ...

Plus: Council endorses recommendation to hire 10 new firefighters to supplement exhausted brigade Freson Bros. have cooked up a mountain of support for the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade. Back in late July, just one day after JVFB members, together with other structural firefighters from neighbouring...

More than 40 millimetres of rain over the weekend has helped wildland firefighters get a handle on the Jasper Wildfire Complex. The wet weather, which started on August 23 and continued throughout the next day, will speed up crews’ ability to extinguish deep, dangerous hot spots throughout key, acti...

On the day of a fallen firefighter’s memorial, the Jasper Wildfire Complex has been downgraded from “out of control” to “being held.” On August 17, as the family and friends of Morgan Kitchen gathered to celebrate the life of the 24-year-old firefighter who died in the line of duty, a significant mi...

As questions arise about the townsite re-entry process, community leaders are assuring Jasperites that their concerns about privacy and security are not falling on deaf ears. On Monday morning, messaging from the Incident Management Team indicated that the scheduled re-entry date of Friday, August 1...

For the most up-to-date information on the wildfire and for information and resources for evacuees, visit the Municipality of Jasper’s  website  and the social media channels of the  MOJ  and  Jasper National Park . Friday, August 16 will mark the start of Jasper’s re-entry phase. On that day, Incid...

Critical details of the staged re-entry into the Jasper townsite for residents will be available on Monday, August 12. Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland made the announcement on Saturday at an 11 a.m. (MST) media briefing. “My hope is that the knowledge of the pending announcement will provide a bridge a...

It took me some time to wake up out of the shock of the fire, to come out of a numbness. Slowly, I began to connect to survivor’s guilt: the guilt one feels for surviving an event that others did not. Survivor’s guilt can present very much like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) , with similar sy...

While some animals will die in a fire, most do not. To varying degrees, species have adapted to fires. Biologist and Jasper Local contributor Mark Bradley explains. The Power of the Burn I can’t help but get emotional when I see social media posts about Jasperites who have lost their homes, the hero...

Increased fire behaviour forces closure of highway, timeline for re-entry still unavailable A wildfire that ravaged the townsite of Jasper continues to burn out of control and recent hot, dry conditions have created more challenges for firefighters actioning the massive blaze. The increased fire beh...

It’s been nine days since the largest wildfire in Jasper National Park’s recorded history started by lightning in extreme conditions. It’s been exactly a week since that fire blew up into an unstoppable inferno and 4,700 residents and another 20,000 or so visitors were forced to flee , in the middle...

For the most up-to-date information on the wildfire and for information and resources for evacuees, visit the Municipality of Jasper's website and the social media channels of the MOJ and Jasper National Park . Jasperites are feeling a mixture of devastation and relief as recent images of their belo...