Fire plan being made for Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks

Parks Canada is looking for public input on a Fire Management Plan for Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks.

Spokesperson Jane Park says the plans are typically re-worked every 10 years and this is the first time the three parks will be combined for the plan.

"The reason we did that is largely because a lot of the overarching management principles and strategies are all common among the three parks," she said.

"And because we share a boundary and share a geographical space, we decided that it was more efficient to do one plan for all three parks as opposed to three individual plans that have many similarities."

The new plan is expected to be revealed by mid-summer.

Public input is being gathered online through Parks Canada's "Talk With Parks" feature.

Fire has ripped through the parks several times in recent years.

Last August, a fire spread from B.C. into Alberta, burning more than 1,100 hectares in Kootenay National Park forcing highways to be closed several times.

Flames also spread across the U.S. border from Montana into Waterton Lakes National Park weeks later, eventually reaching more than 1,400 hectares in size.

Waterton Lakes National Park was also scorched by a fire in 2017 which reached more than 42,000 hectares in size, which affected as much as 80 per cent of the park's popular hiking trails.