To put words and images to the damage caused by this summer’s historic wildfires, The duty visited the scene of a fire that occurred in June, in Mauricie. Specialists from the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests accompanied him on the ground.
The small convoy of 4x4s raises a cloud of dust behind it. For around forty kilometers, green trees pass by on one side or the other. Then, on a hill on the horizon, scorched and blackened evergreens appear. These are the remains of “fire 308”, which burned at the very beginning of June.
The site of this fire, located near the Matawin River, northwest of Shawinigan, has been transformed into a forestry site in recent weeks. To access it, vehicles squeeze between immense piles of logs with charred bark. Three months after the fire, workers have already harvested most of the economically viable dead wood.
That said, thousands of dead trees still stand. Some were left there to delight mushrooms, insects and birds. Others were too small to produce timber: they were therefore not harvested. In fact, only a third of the 410 hectares affected by the fire are harvested.
In an area at the end of the construction site, the fire hit particularly hard. Frail conifers, black as night, still stand upright there. Maryse Le Lan, professional intern in forestry engineering from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests of Quebec (MRNF), scrapes the ground with her fingers. Mounds of white ash disintegrate.
“It’s quite special here,” she observes. The fire completely burned the organic matter lying on the ground. The trees stand on raised roots, a bit like stilts. Their black tentacles snake above the ravaged ground, where a few ferns peek out.
The mixed forest found here is not representative of the vast areas of black spruce that burned in the northern part of the province. When a fire encounters a patch of hardwood trees, as we find in the south of Mauricie, it slows down. Fire 308 therefore resembles a quilt of embers and greenery. In this region, fires rarely strike.
“This fire started on 1er June, explains Milène Beaudoin, from the fire management department of the MRNF. It was contained around June 15, and extinguished at the end of June. » On the satellite image displayed on M’s phoneme Beaudoin, we see the tortuous shape of the affected area. “It’s very heterogeneous, this fire,” she notes.
In the distance, we can see coniferous trees which were brushed by the blaze, but spared by the flames. However, they do not come out unscathed. The sap in their breasts boiled: they died instantly. These softwoods now exhibit a reddish or orange tint.
All around, the remains of the fire clearly show that the fire, when it passes, only licks the surface of the trees. The flames devastate dried vegetation and branches, yes, but—as anyone who has ever tried to start a campfire with green wood will understand—they leave the trunks intact. Under the charred bark, the wood is impeccable.
Good regeneration in sight
Nature does not seem like the end of the world here. Pretty purple flowers emerge here and there, through the charred branches. Forest fires are part of a natural cycle, the accompanying experts will repeat all day The duty.
However, it had been at least 100 years since such fires had struck Quebec. Their scale — 1.5 million hectares in the “intensive zone”, south of 51e parallel — is such that, presumably, not all of this wood can be harvested by industry. On average, 150,000 hectares are cut per year in the province.
“If we don’t harvest the burned wood, it decomposes and no longer captures CO2explains Mme The Lan. The best solution, if we think in terms of carbon, is to turn it into planks and put it in a house for the next 150 years. And to quickly promote regeneration so that carbon is captured again. »
Near the group of visitors, a large jack pine died. The twisted branches at its top give it a scarecrow-like appearance. Perched there are hundreds of pine cones which, thanks to the heat of the flames, have opened to release their seeds. This species of conifer reproduces in this way, with the help of fire.
The mature spruce trees have also left, at their summit, a small bouquet of cones, which will ensure succession. Killed deciduous trees, for their part, will be able to create new shoots from their roots. Where the charred stems have been harvested, planting will likely take place in the years to come.
With climate change, conditions suitable for mixed forests will expand northward. The proportion of deciduous trees could therefore increase here following the fire. Only time will tell, however: there is always an element of uncertainty with nature.
Race against the longhorned beetle
With sharp blows of his axe, forestry engineer Simon Fortier peels off a large larch tree. He is looking for black longhorned beetle larvae. “It’s fascinating: this insect is attracted to fires. It is capable of detecting them from hundreds of meters away,” explains this insect pest specialist at the MRNF.
The tree he found today is full of larvae. These dig galleries under the bark, before diving into the heart of the wood. We hear them chewing. They carry out this work for two years. At the foot of the tree, a pile of fine wood fibers expelled by longhorned beetle larvae accumulates.
A larva falls under Mr. Fortier’s axe. He catches this tiny white worm, which wriggles in his hand. “There are still little larvae left,” he said. For now, the damage is low. » The galleries will be wider and deeper next year. Most adult insects will emerge in spring 2025.
Here as elsewhere in Quebec, it is a real “race against time” to harvest the dead wood before the larvae of the black longhorned beetle make holes in it, explains Jonathan Dallaire, the head of forestry operations at Arbec, the company which harvested firewood 308.
“When I see so much sawdust on the ground, I worry a little about sales…” he says, a stone’s throw from a tree abundantly nibbled by larvae. Even if wood pierced with longicorn holes loses none of its mechanical qualities, it is less popular with buyers.
In Mauricie, the recovery of burned wood is progressing well. More than 200 workers — the majority of the region’s field workforce — have been at it for weeks. Mr. Dallaire is hopeful that this wood will be put to good use before it is too late.