The Remainder of a Burning World

On April 1, 2025, the 2024 Jasper wildfire was finally declared extinguished by Parks Canada, marking an end to the nine-month-long struggle against Jasper National Park’s largest wildfire in more than a century. Thanks to the selfless first responders who protected the jewel of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, the town’s spirit remained resilient. Professional wildland firefighters, RCMP officers, municipal staff, and volunteers under the Jasper Volunteer Fire Brigade (JVFB) helped protect structures, conduct search and rescue, and distribute supplies. More than 70% of the town’s buildings remained standing, and most of the park’s attractions survived.

However, the containment of the fire obscures a larger truth: the Jasper wildfire did not emerge from nowhere. Below is a critical reading of this event, and it reveals how environmental neglect, bureaucratic inertia, and systemic failures combined to create a disaster that was waiting to happen.

Climate Change

Parks Canada, climate researchers, professors, and journalists commonly identify climate change as the most significant factor driving the disaster. Prolonged dry periods, abnormally high temperatures, and strong winds accelerated the conflagration.

On July 21, 2024, one day before the wildfire began, the temperature reached 38℃, more than 10℃ higher than the average and close to Jasper’s highest recorded temperature of 41.2℃.

Factors such as pine beetles, which kill mature pine trees and turn forests into fuel, are also direct consequences of climate change. Warmer winters increase beetle larvae survival, while drought-stressed trees produce less resin to defend against mass attacks.

Taken together, these traits transformed Jasper into a landscape primed for ignition. The wildfire was not merely intensified by climate change, it was, in a sense, structurally produced by it.

Misleading Policies 

In addition to climate forces, decades of fire-suppression policy greatly magnified the intensity of the wildfire. Historically, Jasper’s valley ecosystems rely on frequent, low-intensity fires to maintain balance. Such fires reduce shrubs, dead wood, and young densely packed trees.

However, under overprotective policies, these natural burnings are extinguished immediately once spotted. This interruption of the natural cycle allowed fuels to accumulate year after year, creating a dense, volatile landscape.

Research on fire-suppression policies demonstrates a consistent conclusion: when natural fires are repeatedly extinguished and fine fuels accumulate, future wildfires become more destructive—not less.

Right now the government’s emphasis on “building fire-resilient infrastructure” offers only short-term protection. Without addressing the long-term causes including fuel accumulation and climate instability, the same conditions will almost certainly continue to produce large-scale fires.

Canada’s Environmental Assumptions

Canadian environmental governance shows a tendency to prioritize appearance over sustainability. Fire suppression policies were justified as “protection,” yet ultimately made the park less safe. 

While tens of thousands of residents and visitors were safely evacuated, the deeper causes of the wildfire remain unresolved. Climate change continues to accelerate. Pine beetles continue to expand. Fuel continues to accumulate. The containment of the 2024 wildfire, while admirable, does not free Jasper from future risk.

The wildfire in Jasper has forced a confrontation with many popular assumptions: that suppression equals safety, that infrastructure can outpace climate change, and that environmental disasters are “natural” rather than policy-shaped. Jasper has shown the Canadian people that we can no longer rely on historical management strategies.

A Path Forward

The wildfire may be extinguished, but the crisis is far from over. More than 25,000 residents and visitors were evacuated, thousands displaced, and countless ecosystems permanently altered. 

Prescribed burns, climate-adapted forestry practices, and policies aligned with ecological realities are essential. Infrastructure-focused resilience cannot substitute for structural environmental reform.

The Jasper wildfire stands as both a warning and a lesson: environmental disasters are no longer purely natural. They emerge from the intersection of climate change, policy decisions, and our collective hesitation to reform outdated systems.

Unless Canada confronts these overlapping forces with honesty, Jasper will not be the last national park to burn on such a scale. The Jasper wildfire demonstrates the limits of a management system built for a climate that no longer exists. The wildfire’s legacy should not simply be one of destruction, but an opportunity to rethink how we understand and manage our environment in a warming world.