Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Nahanni Butte (Aug 06/04) - A couple of rings of fallen trees has one Nahanni Butte resident wondering if aliens have paid a visit.

While flying, Earl Hope said he noticed two "huge" circles of downed poplars, snapped at their trunks, near the Grainger River between Blackstone Territorial Park and Nahanni Butte.

"There's two circles, one's about 500 feet round, the other's about 300 feet round," Hope said, adding he didn't have a camera with him to get a picture.

"All the trees are pointing to the middle... It's like somebody took a pot from way above and dropped it in those trees."

There were reports of a UFO sighting in Fort Liard earlier this year.

Hope said he's sure he witnessed a UFO in flight last year as well.

"I was out on the river and this was at night. I could see the outline of the mountain," he recalled. "From behind the mountain, this big, white light came out, stopped about halfway up the mountain, stayed there for about five to 10 seconds and then it just took off. It was gone."

Nic Larter, regional biologist, has also seen such circles of fallen trees, but he has an alternate explanation.

He said extreme weather is likely behind the phenomena.

"The big winds that we had, plus the waterlogged terrain, all of a sudden these trees just kind of whacked over," Larter explained.

'Poof, it's gone'

"They tend to be these round things because the water forms around, and if you start getting sinkholes or stuff akin, permafrost starts falling in. It works its way around and poof, it's gone."

Dust devils or dirt devils -- intense rotational winds -- can also cause such damage, according to Larter.

They touch down like "circular drill bits," he said, adding that it's just his best guess as he's not a meteorologist.