Not a good situation up there. This is a satellite map of a large fire west of Aikens lake.

I did a trip there last fall...out on the Bloodvein and back on the Gammon. Glad I went when I did, because a bunch more of it has burned or is burning.

I know Atikaki is closed as are parts of Woodland Caribou. Even if Woodland Caribou is open, the smoke has to be horrendous.

I wonder what percentage of the two parks have burned over the last 5 years?

What kind of forest is that mainly-a spruce-balsam forest?

Black spruce is the predominant species up there. And there is a fair amount of balsam. Birch are present, but in lesser quantities.

jcavenagh: "Black spruce is the predominant species up there. And there is a fair amount of balsam. Birch are present, but in lesser quantities."

Lots of jack pine too.

Nearly the entirety of Nopeminig has burned in this fire and now a bunch of South Atikaki. Add in the previous massive fires of Woodland Caribou and Atikaki Provincial Parks along with Pigeon and Berens Rivers the last couple years, and mind boggling acreage has been consumed. Its a dry boreal ecotype that burns often, but the last few years have been relentless.

This area is a wonderland of exposed rock and spruce-jack pine. It won't be the same in our lifetimes. I was planning on paddling the Bloodvein-Gammon loop this year that marsonite mentioned. Going to Wabakimi instead.

Canada Interactive fire map

This map has layers and can show the fire history. I go there every year but not this year. Traveled a lot of the park and sad to see places I loved being consumed. Fire is needed on a rotating basis but too much with the dry conditions this year.

Thank you for the link to the fire maps. Very useful.
How long does it take this area to recover from a fire to the point where it pleasant to camp and paddle through a burned out area?

Aero: "Thank you for the link to the fire maps. Very useful.
How long does it take this area to recover from a fire to the point where it pleasant to camp and paddle through a burned out area?"

Good question. On our Bloodvein trip last fall, we paddled through burns that were about 6 years old. Marten may correct me, but O believe they burned in 2018 (I remember because we had planned to do the trip then but they closed the river).

Anyway, the jackpines were waist to shoulder high, very thick in spots, but lots and lots of standing and fallen dead trees. Not a lot of shade though we did manage to find campsites that were unscathed. But the burns weren’t exactly pleasant. One day paddling through a burn is no big deal, part of the landscape but multiple days trekking through burns gets old fast IMO. I think it’s going to be more like 15 or 20 years to really recover.

Recovery is a real mixed bag. Woodland Caribou did scans to rate fire intensity after their big fires. Usually some small areas that escape being burned. Other areas burn really hot but usually trees left dead and standing. In that shallow soil of the shield the roots soon let go and trees keep coming down for years. Portage crews can clear in such a burn area and a month later you can not find the portage. With.good deep soil areas the Jack Pine can be head high in five years while some areas will be bare red rock. With soil.the Jack Pine will spring up every inch and then.self thin for 40 years. I.will be monitoring the fire maps and then laying out my future trips. Hopefully Atikaki avoids the fate of WCPP.

Moose and blueberries should do well and maybe a few caribou there also?

Pinetree: "Moose and blueberries should do well and maybe a few caribou there also?
"

News article about the fire’s impact on woodland caribou:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/endangered-woodland-caribou-herd-nopiming-fire-1.7542724

I cherry-picked one sentence out of the article.

“In recent decades, humans have been very good at putting out fires. As a result, we have large tracts of mature forest that can create these large, hard-to-control fires," Dupont explained in French.”

This tells me a lot. The natural cycle of fire has changed. Fire is essential to the health of the forest and we have altered that in a negative way.

The good side of the fires is that the forest has burned, fuels are reduced and the forest can regenerate.

Fires also create fire blocks to prevent excessive spread for the next fire.
Tom

Adding to what the researcher said about how hard it will be on the herd is the previous destruction of the larger Woodland Caribou Provincial Park next door in Ontario. No much left there and now more burning up in Atikaki. These parks were set up to provide crucial habitat for the endangered southern herds of Woodland Caribou. A different animal than the Caribou of the far north tundra. Canoe trails were just an added bonus of having these large tracts set aside.