Campgrounds hope to salvage the rest of the season as burn ban lifted for most of N.S.

The Department of Natural Resources in Nova Scotia has declared a wildfire in Long Lake to be under control after it burned for more than six weeks.

The Nova Scotia government has lifted the burn ban for all parts of the province as of Friday, except Annapolis County, where the Long Lake wildfire is now considered under control.

The ban, which was implemented on July 30, restricted all open fires in the province due to dry conditions.

Jamie Lee Arseneau is the owner of the LaHave River Campground in Lunenburg County. She says the fire ban has made this season challenging for the business.

“There is obviously a loss of revenue on the business side of things and loss of firewood sales. The lifting of the ban should help our last two weeks for sure. But we also still have a lot of concerns around the state of affairs of drought in the province.”

Clarke Hamilton is an employee at the campground. He said they have piles of firewood sitting on pallets that didn’t sell.

“The burn ban hurt them because we only sold 129 boxes of wood and about 60 to 70 bags,” he said. “We have a whole bunch of wood sitting up on top of the hill. We have probably about 20 to 25 pallets up there, which probably would have been gone by now.”

Arseneau says she was surprised to see the fire ban lifted Friday evening.

“I found out Friday night right as we were closing up shop. Someone came running in looking to buy firewood and saying the ban was lifted,” she said.

“It was a lot of disbelief at first after multiple press conferences this season where the premier said it would take days and days of rain for it to be lifted. We get a sprinkling that’s less then 10 mm and out of nowhere we no notice, late on a Friday night, it’s been lifted. It took us a while to process.”

Camper Haley Slauenwhite said it was disappointing that they were not able to have large community campfires this summer.

“We were sitting around together, all the seasonals would gather together and have a big fire and really brought us together as a community and we weren’t able to do that. So that was unfortunate.”

Arseneau says the fire ban had quite an impact on the camping industry.“We saw a flood of cancellations come through with the fire ban and then the woods ban and just trying to encourage people to still come. We understand the risk was there, the lack of resources to fight fires was there. At the end of the day, it’s good new for our campers, which is good news for us.”

Annapolis County

Annapolis County is the only part of the province where the burn ban is still in effect.

According to the province, the ban will stay in place until the end of wildfire season on Oct. 15., because of the ongoing Long Lake wildfire which is now considered under control.

Annapolis County Deputy Warden Dustin Enslow says the news of the Long Lake wildfire being under control was exciting to hear.

“We are definitely ecstatic and it’s a step in the right direction. I know I was extremely happy to post it on social media to all of our residents. It’s the news we have been waiting for. The fire is under control and we can start moving forward.”

Enslow said there are mixed reactions to the lifting of the fire ban elsewhere.

“I know personally that I am still supportive of the fire ban. We have to look at the fact that the Annapolis County has been really unique for this whole summer. There have been areas around us and neighbouring communities that have received a lot of rain, but the municipality has received very little. So, the forest is still really dry. I know that within time that we will see that being lifted,” he said.

“I know people want to start getting back to a fall lifestyle, but it’s what we have to do. We have to continue to put our residents first. Hopefully, it is sooner rather than later, but I’ll wait for the professionals to make that call.”

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