The mode of exploitation of the boreal forest in Quebec is in the process of eliminating all old forests, which represent a very rich reservoir of biodiversity. For several years now, scientists have been urging the Quebec government to adopt ecosystem-based management of this 98% public forest in order to preserve its mature elements, which are highly coveted by the forest industry, as well as the unique biodiversity they contain.
In Quebec, research has shown that more than 50% of the boreal forest mosaic was historically made up of stands over 100 years old. Since industrial logging began, this proportion has decreased considerably and now represents only 15 to 20%, or even less in certain regions. Hence the concern of scientists, who seriously fear for the species that depend on this type of forest cover.
Since 1996, in Quebec, the forestry industry has mainly practiced clearcutting with protection of regeneration and soils. We cut down all the trees in the forest that are more than 9.9 cm in diameter at breast height, but we protect the regeneration, i.e. the small pre-established trees, as well as the soil, by not moving the machinery all over the cutting area, but only on skid trails.
“This mode of exploitation is not deforestation, because the vocation of the territory remains forest and is not transformed into agricultural land or pasture. But the most pernicious nature of these practices is the fact that they degrade our forests. They degrade them by not maintaining [des forêts de différents âges] territory, which represents the main threat to biodiversity,” said Pierre Drapeau, holder of the UQAT-UQAM Chair in Sustainable Forest Management.
Since the industry prefers to cut the most mature, oldest forests, the majority of our boreal forests have therefore become younger. And the older ones are in serious decline. However, the latter represent the living environment sought by a multitude of species, including the woodland caribou.
The decline of caribou has been making headlines for the past 10 to 15 years, but it’s not the only species affected by the destruction of old growth forests. Woodpeckers (including Black-backed Woodpecker, Spotted Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, and Northern Flicker) could also become infamous, as well as Black-capped Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches that dig cavities in senescent and dead trees, which cavities then serve as a roost and breeding site for ducks, such as the Bufflehead and Barrow’s Goldeneye, passerines, birds of prey, such as the American Kestrel and the Saw-whet Owl, squirrels rufous, northern squirrels (flying squirrels), American martens. Given the destruction of their habitat, all these species are more vulnerable and risk finding themselves on the list of threatened species in Quebec, says Mr. Drapeau, while insisting on the importance of monitoring environmental.
Worried about this unique biodiversity, distinct from that of younger forests, Quebec researchers and scientists have been proposing strategies since 2001 to halt the decline of old forests. They suggested to the government of the time to increase the number of protected areas on the territory of the public forest.
But the disappointment was great in this file, because although “the government decided to protect territories to reach its target of 17% of protected areas, it did so north of the limit of commercial logging. It was very shy in the part under forest management,” laments Mr. Drapeau, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UQAM, and former director of the Center for Forest Studies.
Forestry specialists also recommended diversifying forestry practices by carrying out in certain places “partial cuts, which consist of keeping 30 to 40% of mature trees standing in order to keep forests under cover”, as well as to “stem selection cuts [d’arbres] which aim to collect only a certain number of trees of specific species meeting specific needs”, such as those for making musical instruments, for example.
And they insisted on the relevance of developing intensive forestry near wood processing centers, as the Swedes and Finns do. “In the boreal forest, we produce about one cubic meter (m3) of wood per hectare per year, while in a forest planted and groomed with techniques of growth and soil improvement as is done in Sweden or Finland, we can produce between 5 and 8 m3 per hectare per year. If we do this kind of silviculture near processing centers, we reduce transportation costs and put less pressure on the natural forest,” Mr. Drapeau points out.
In 2021, the members of the Center de la forêt du Québec also campaigned in favor of the creation of an independent observatory of the public forest which would make it possible to “take stock of the situation, to take stock of our successes and our problems and which suggest how to improve everything,” recalls Mr. Drapeau.
There is an urgent need to review our forestry practices, keep repeating the experts.