The provincial government is restricting the use of Off-Highway Vehicles due to the extreme fire danger in the southern part of Alberta.

Jim Kerr, Wildfire Information Officer for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry says the restriction covers the Calgary forest area which is from south of the Red Deer River to the mountains to the North boundary of Waterton Lakes Park.  

Kerr says while most OHV users are responsible, this is a tool that they can use to cut down on the number of human caused wildfires.

"A lot of wildfires we've seen this fire season have been started by abandoned campfires, and we have seen some started by OHV's in that area this year. The thing more so than anything else is it's just been so dry down there.  It's been a very, very dry spring and summer in southern Alberta.  We've seen no significant rain in that area for weeks now and the wildfire hazard as a result in the south of the province is extreme."

Kerr says that considering how very dry it is, the wildfire season in Alberta has not been that bad so far this year, and they want to make sure it stays that way.  

"We have one out of control fire at the moment, which is north of Fort McMurray, but up to this point in the season it's been a much quieter wildfire season than we've seen in recent years.  Right now there are eight wildfires burning in the province.  Because of that we've been able to send crews other places but it's important to remember that we have just under 700 firefighters on standby or deployed fighting fires here in the province."

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