Every summer for 61 years, tourists have piled onto Jasper's SkyTram to see the boomerang-shaped town nestled inside the sprawling Rocky Mountains. It'll happen again this summer, but the view will be different.

The red cable cars will skim over thousands of trees poking up from the ground like charred matchsticks. From the top, a third of the town's structures have vanished from sight.

It doesn't change that Jasper is still open for business, and that's what matters as the town prepares for its …