How wildfires are disrupting traplines and raising questions in northwest Sask.

Kelly Patrick wonders how different the boreal forest in northwest Saskatchewan would look if a big push to protect a large swath of it used for trapping and hunting hadn't failed.

Patrick led a group that endeavoured to conserve 22,000 square kilometres of forest in the Île-à-la-Crosse area known as N-14 Fur Block, an area home to more than 100 trap lines.

Recent wildfires decimated forest habitats in the northwest region, burning up to 90 per cent of N-14 Fur Block, according to one local estimate.

"It's devastating," said Patrick, who was executive director for the Sakitawak Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) , the group that sought to protect N-14 Fur Block until project funding dried up.

"It's devastating because of the lack of respect for First Nations and Métis in