Forest fires in Canada
A forest is not a static entity. Trees sprout, grow, become enormous and, after a long life, eventually return to the earth. As a result, more light reaches the forest floor, nutrients are released – and new growth becomes possible.
But what happens when the forest burns? Isn’t everything lost then?
Natural renewal
No, of course not! The nutrients are retained in the ash. Light reaches the ground, enabling countless plants to grow. Back to square one and start all over again: nature is used to this.
Particularly in the boreal coniferous forests of northern Canada and Alaska, large-scale fires are not uncommon.
Forest fires are a completely natural phenomenon that the forest ecosystem can cope with without any problems. In the process, the forest adapts in terms of its species composition, whilst individual trees also adapt to the changing conditions caused by human-induced climate change. The original, natural forest does not need our help to do this.
Intact rainforests do not burn over large areas
The original temperate rainforest in our protected areas is relatively well protected from forest fires: it receives around 2,000 millimetres of rainfall or more each year. Furthermore, the trees are covered with epiphytes weighing hundreds of kilograms each. These include, for example, water-soaked mats of moss, lichens and ferns. Fire hardly stands a chance there.
Tree plantations are real fire hazards
The situation is quite different with tree plantations – the monocultures of trees established by the forestry industry. On Canada’s west coast, these ‘forest fields’ consist almost exclusively of Douglas firs. These plantations, which are poor in species diversity, are not only susceptible to insect damage and fungal diseases; a strike of lightning or a tiny spark from a campfire can turn them into veritable fire traps, which burn mercilessly even close to the coast. This is because there are hardly any water-retaining mats of moss and ferns here, very little moisture-saturated topsoil, and plenty of dead branches – in other words, natural ‘fire ladders’.
The impact of climate change
But climate change, to which temperate rainforests are also exposed, is not a natural phenomenon. We humans have caused it through our activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil. This anthropogenic (human-induced), very rapid climate change is having different effects in different regions of the world. In British Columbia, summers are tending to become hotter and drier – and this increases the risk of forest fires. This is particularly true of the region between the Coast Mountains and the Rocky Mountains, which lies in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains.
No need to worry about our protected areas
The Coast Mountains are still less severely affected by the fires, and our forests are well protected, partly thanks to the water-retaining moss.
We are therefore not worried about our land holdings in the Toba Valley and on Porcher Island.