Historic wildfires | “Significant social impacts” to be expected

Last summer’s historic forest fires had a significant impact on the amount of wood that will be possible to harvest in the coming years, particularly in the Nord-du-Québec region. The Chief Forester also fears “significant social impacts” for local communities.


Responsible for establishing the forest possibility, or the quantity of wood that it is possible to harvest in public forests in Quebec, the Chief Forester, Louis Pelletier, presented an update of his forecasts on Wednesday.

Normally, these are established for a period of five years, but the historic forest fires which ravaged the province last summer forced its teams to redo their calculations.

Taking into account the effects of forest fires, the Chief Forester therefore recommends that Quebec reduce by 619,400 m⁠3 per year the quantity of wood that should be harvested throughout the province, starting on 1er April 2024.

PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES

Province-wide, this is a decrease of approximately 2% in the total volume of wood that would be harvested by the end of the current period in March 2028.

If this volume seems low, the Chief Forester foresees “significant social impacts” in certain regions particularly ravaged by the flames, including Nord-du-Québec.

Approximately 17% of the exploitable area has been allocated there so that Louis Pelletier recommends reducing the quantity of wood that should be harvested there by approximately 13%.

“For some regions, it hurts”

“It’s a region that is heavily dependent on wood processing and forestry development. [Quand] we look at the 2% at the provincial level, it may seem minimal, but when we look at the location and the concentration of volumes, for certain regions, it hurts,” he explained during a session information Wednesday.

For the most affected regions such as Nord-du-Québec, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Mauricie, the Chief Forester explains that he is waiting for “new information” to come in the coming months and which could further modify these forecasts in the coming years. .

PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS

In total, 1.3 million hectares of forest were affected by forest fires last summer in Quebec, the equivalent of the Lanaudière region. Of this number, 920,000 hectares were considered “under forest management” and are taken into account by the Chief Forester in his calculations of the volume that can be exploited.

Informed of the Chief Forester’s recommendations on Wednesday, Quebec quickly announced the creation of a special committee to “support the workers, communities and companies in the forestry sector concerned.”

The latter “will make it possible to support the players in the forestry sector most concerned by the recent modification of the forestry allowance in order to ensure the vitality of the affected regions and the sustainable development of our forests”, explains the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina.


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