The fires currently affecting a large portion of the forest territory are unprecedented in the recent history of Quebec. However, the forest has been subject to major disturbances for several years, as evidenced by the recent ice storm of April 2023, the major windstorms (derechos) of May 2022 and the epidemics of insects and exotic diseases which kill the majority of our elms, ashes and beeches.
These increasingly frequent atypical events are directly linked to climate change and the increase in trade allowing the arrival of new insects and diseases.
With these global changes, the intensity and frequency of disturbances are already increasing, and this increase is set to accelerate over the next 50 to 100 years. The Premier of Quebec recently admitted that more should be invested to adapt to the consequences of climate change on forest fires. Obviously, more needs to be done to fight forest fires when they occur, but we also and above all need to act more broadly on the vulnerability of our forests and thus better prepare them for the spectrum of possible threats over the next century.
In order to adopt a sustainable and resilient vision for forests despite the increasingly threatening context, we are proposing a new forest management strategy for Quebec. In this era of growing uncertainty, it is time to review our ways of managing forests and to question our approaches to favoring only a few commercial star species in order to ensure a stable supply of wood of forest species for next 150 years.
Since environmental and economic conditions are increasingly uncertain and changing, this approach is no longer effective.
Some will say that the forest must be left alone so that it can adapt on its own. Considering the speed of anticipated climate change, the low seed dispersal capacity of the majority of our forest species and the growing number of indigenous and exotic insects and diseases that threaten them, a large part of the forests is however at risk of not having the time or ability to adapt naturally.
Faced with this increasingly uncertain future and the constant and unpredictable evolution of our wood needs, forest management should no longer aim to regenerate and produce only a few species according to our current needs. It is now becoming imperative that our forestry interventions integrate a vision of adaptation and resilience in the face of fires and other disturbances that threaten our forests.
“Adaptation and Resilience”
This new approach to forest management called “adaptation and resilience” must go through a modification of the regulations governing their management in Quebec: cutting and forest management should be used as a priority to maximize the diversity of species according to their ability to resist and respond favorably to different disturbances, following the principle of functional diversification, without worrying too much about the commercial use of these species when they become mature in 50 to 100 years. Following the same principle as the diversification of a financial portfolio, such an approach for our forests would reduce the risks associated with disturbances and ensure better resilience and stability of the forest heritage.
This diversification should be done according to the main disturbances anticipated for the different regions of Quebec for the next 50 to 100 years and target particularly vulnerable areas.
In some cases, this would involve planting tree species farther north of their current range, where current and future climatic conditions are favorable for their establishment, in order to aid in the migration of tree species and thus to follow anticipated climate changes.
Such diversification of our forests could also be done within the framework of the strategy of intensification of forest management. However, instead of favoring only plantations of a single “star” species such as white spruce, black spruce or jack pine in the boreal forest, we would rather favor mixed plantations of species with different functions and often missing or under-represented in the region and which would increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of our forests.
In fire-sensitive regions, we would encourage the establishment of mixed stands that would include species that are well adapted to fire, such as jack and red pine and poplar, in addition to maintaining a certain proportion of black spruce, fir and white birch well adapted to other types of disturbance. In the more southern portion of the boreal forest, we could also evaluate the possibility of accelerating the natural migration of new species such as red oak, which is well adapted to fire, or even sugar maple. The increased presence of hardwood species would also have the advantage of reducing the risk of fire and reducing its spread.
So why not a “Marshall” plan for the Quebec forest to accelerate its adaptation and increase its resilience to global changes? By integrating such approaches into forest management, we would collectively ensure that we reduce the vulnerability of our forests to fires and other growing threats of which we are most often the cause.
* Co-signers: Kevin Solarik, Director of Forestry Research, Canada and Northeast/Northcentral United States at National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI); Olivier Villemaire-Côté, forest engineer and research professional at the University of Quebec in Outaouais (UQO); Fanny Maure, biologist, research professional at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and scientific director at Habitat