More Than 22,000 Trees Planted as Jasper Forests Recover From Wildfire

Over 22,000 trees were planted across Jasper National Park last year as part of recovery efforts following the 2024 wildfire, but Parks Canada says some of the region's forests may never look the same.

The 2024 Jasper wildfire burned roughly 33,000 hectares across the park and heavily affected forests surrounding the Jasper townsite.

Now, Parks Canada says climate change is shaping how it approaches recovery.

“We are learning that climate change may be affecting this succession, with a tendency toward more open grassland and deciduous forest,” said Marcia DeWandel, vegetation restoration specialist with Parks Canada in Jasper National Park.

That means some burned areas could eventually regrow into more open landscapes with grassland and leafy trees like aspen instead of the dense evergreen forests that previously dominated much of the park.

But despite the large planting effort, Parks Canada says most of the area burned by the wildfire will be left to recover naturally because many Rocky Mountain ecosystems evolved alongside wildfire and can regrow without large-scale human intervention.

“Wildfire is a natural cycle that renews ecosystems,” DeWandel said. “Most ecosystems won’t need help regenerating naturally on their own.”

Instead, crews are focusing restoration work on wetlands, unstable slopes and heavily visited areas where invasive plants could spread more easily. Officials say the risk is especially high in busy visitor areas where seeds can be carried into recovering landscapes on boots and outdoor gear.

“In many areas, the fire left behind nutrient-rich soil,” DeWandel said. “While this soil supports native plant regrowth, it is also appealing to invasive plants that threaten local ecosystems.”

Parks Canada’s annual report says crews sampled 77 monitoring sites in 2025 to study how landscapes were recovering after the fire. Nine of those sites already contained invasive plant species, such as yellow clematis.

Parks Canada’s 2025 annual report says crews planted more than 16,000 Douglas-fir trees and 6,500 whitebark pine seedlings in Jasper National Park last year as part of ongoing wildfire recovery work.

Another 13,000 native plants were planted at the park’s caribou conservation breeding facility, located within the wildfire burn area, to restore vegetation damaged by the wildfire.

The work builds on restoration efforts launched shortly after the wildfire. In 2024, Parks Canada planted more than 5,000 Douglas-fir seedlings and 8,000 whitebark pine seedlings in areas affected by both the 2024 Jasper wildfire and the earlier 2022 Chetamon wildfire.

Parks Canada says it is choosing tree species better suited to survive future wildfires.

“Douglas-fir trees were chosen because of adaptations such as thick bark and deep root systems, which make it better suited to withstand future wildfires,” DeWandel said. “They are considered a post-fire ‘pioneer species’ and thrive in open montane environments.”

DeWandel said Douglas-fir is one of the first tree species to return after wildfire and grows well in open mountain landscapes.

Parks Canada says preliminary monitoring shows newly planted Douglas-fir seedlings currently have first-year survival rates between 70 - 80%.

Whitebark pine is also a major focus of the restoration work.

The endangered high-elevation tree species supports wildlife including grizzly bears, squirrels and Clark’s nutcrackers, which help spread whitebark pine seeds. But the species has been declining for years because of mountain pine beetle infestations, fire suppression and climate change.

Parks Canada’s annual report says 2025 was a rare “mast year,” meaning whitebark pine trees produced unusually large numbers of cones. Crews collected more than 1,200 cones containing nearly 47,000 seeds. These crews also identified 25 whitebark pine trees showing resistance to blister rust, a disease that has severely damaged whitebark pine populations across the Rockies.

DeWandel cautioned visitors not to expect quick recovery.

She said recovery begins with mosses and grasses returning to the burned landscape, followed by shrubs and fast-growing trees like aspen that help stabilize and enrich the soil.

“While forest recovery starts immediately after the fire, it can take hundreds of years for forests to fully regrow,” she said.