Chinchaga Wildland Park
| Chinchaga Wildland Park | |
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IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
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 Location of Chinchaga Wildland Park in Alberta
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| Location | Clear Hills County, Alberta, Canada |
| Nearest city | Manning |
| Coordinates | 57°07′59″N 119°32′59″W / 57.13306°N 119.54972°WCoordinates: 57°07′59″N 119°32′59″W / 57.13306°N 119.54972°W |
| Area | 803 km² |
| Established | 2000 |
| Governing body | Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation |
Chinchaga Wildland Park is a protected 800 km2 (310 sq mi) (80,000 hectares) tract of land in the 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi) of the greater Chinchaga wilderness area in a disjunct outlier of the Foothills Natural Region of Alberta , in a remote area of northwest Alberta, Canada, about 140 kilometres (87 mi) west of Manning. It was designated as a Wildlife Park in December 1999. The greater Chinchaga area was identified in 1995 as an Environmentally Significant Area. It was designated by the Alberta Government as a protected area in 2000, under the "Special Places" program. "Elevations in the Park range from 650 m adjacent to the Chinchaga River to 915 m at the height of land atop Halverson Ridge."
The upper course of the Chinchaga River, which forms the Park's northern border, is a provincially Environmentally Significant Area (ESA). The Park extends south to the slopes of Halverson Ridge. The only road that provides access is the Chinchaga Forestry Road, a high grade gravel road running west from the Mackenzie Highway.
The Chinchaga area was mainly used by small populations of First Nations and Métis for hunting.
In the spring of 1950 the watershed of the Chinchaga River experienced drought conditions that extended over boreal regions of northern Canada. At the time of the fire Imperial Oil surveying crew were on site. The fire was caused by human activity. Other sources theorize that slash burning from agricultural clearing could have been the initial spark.
On 1 June 1950 human activity caused a forest fire in the Chinchaga area, one of the largest if not the largest in modern North American history. The ignition point was north of Fort St. John, British Columbia. The fire burned north-eastward nearly to Keg River, Alberta and continued to burn throughout the summer and early fall until the end of October. It destroyed 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft) of the Chinchaga area. Size estimates have varied due to the imprecise measurement techniques of the time period. Estimates at the time ranged from 1,000,000 to 1,400,000 hectares (2,500,000 to 3,500,000 acres). In 2008 and 2009 the final size was considerably larger than previous estimates, placing the total burned area at 1,700,000 hectares (4,200,000 acres). While most likely not the largest fire in the history of the North American boreal forest, it produced the largest burned area of any recorded fire on the continent.
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Wikipedia