Forest industry | Harvest burned trees before it’s too late

(Quebec) The government and forestry companies will embark on a “race against time” to harvest the trees burned by the forest fires, before they are eaten away by insects and lose all their commercial value. The blazes have already burned nearly four times what the industry normally cuts in a year.

“The ministry is preparing the map to race against time with the insects to allow forestry companies to recover some of the wood affected by the fires,” explained the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina.

When a forest fire is extinguished, the trees are often still standing, and only their outer envelope is charred. “The affected wood [par un brasier] can be harvested, the heart is still healthy, but it’s important to go and harvest it quickly, however, because there are insects that can reach the wood, which loses a lot of value,” she explained. .

Financial aid

In the regions affected by the fires, the action plan that was planned for this spring for forestry activities ends up in the trash.

As usual, to encourage foresters to recover these damaged trees, Quebec will provide financial assistance “for the recovery of forests affected by fire and windthrow”, which takes into account “the additional costs generated by the disturbance of the forest plant, mainly for planning, harvesting, roadwork, accommodation and wood transport activities. It will be defined according to the quality of the trees cut, and their species.

This is what is currently being prepared on the North Shore, where the forest fires are under control thanks to the rain of the last week. “As we have just reopened the North Shore, the idea is to allow forestry activities as soon as it is safe to do so. We are in discussion with SOPFEU to allow operations to resume,” said the minister.

Shut down factories

Because for the industry, the absence of raw material is felt since the cuts are prohibited because of the fires. For example, Resolute Forest Products had to close several factories due to lack of wood: access to the boreal forest is still prohibited throughout the territory. “Due to the ban on traffic throughout the boreal forest, it is impossible to supply sawmills with wood from public forests,” explained Louis Bouchard of Resolute Forest Products by email.

On the North Shore, for example, the Pointe-aux-Outardes plant had to cease operations for a few days starting Friday due to the lack of roundwood stock to saw, underlines Mr. Bouchard. The improvement in the situation in this region suggests that activities could resume at the beginning of next week.

In Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, the sawmills of La Doré and Girardville planned to exhaust their wood reserves on Friday and will take about a week to rebuild it, estimates Mr. Bouchard.

Critical situation in Abitibi-Témiscamingue

But it is in Abitibi-Témiscamingue that the situation is most critical. The activities of the Comtois and Senneterre sawmills are suspended “until further notice”, he says. “On the Senneterre side, our teams have started fire lines to protect the city and sprinklers have been installed at our Comtois plant, but these facilities are not directly threatened by the flames at the moment,” adds Ms. Bouchard.

And in some areas, this race will come up against a sad reality: forestry equipment has been destroyed by the fires. “It’s a race against time, insofar as we have the numbers. We are in the process of evaluating whether we have enough equipment with the forestry companies. We do not yet know the extent [des dégâts] because the companies cannot yet return to the forest,” explained the minister.