this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Is there any evidence of controlled burns being done on a regular basis? Forest fires are, unfortunately, a circle of life thing and are necessary. With the ongoing issues happening more and more, earlier and earlier are they at least considering this option?
Controlled burns made a difference in a naturally regenerating old growth forest
The cycle of deforestation and artificial replanting is not natural any more and the forest everywhere is suffering from the damage without enough time for the forest to naturally protect itself. Add to that climate change is just making things hotter, drier and more prone to wanting to burn anyway.
If the forest is left alone, it naturally burns in areas that are weakest and more prone to burn anyway. It burns away old material and leaves behind ares for regrowth while leaving behind well grown, strong, large hundred year old trees that act as a protection from excessive burning.
When you have a forest full of small saplings that were planted 20 years ago sitting ontop of heaps of dead dry wood from forestry work decades ago ... it's literally a brush pile ready to burn with plenty of fuel.
Look at a Google map satellite view of northern Quebec ... it looks like someone ran a lawnmower at its lowest setting all over the landscape leaving behind thousands of acres of cut over forest and regrown forests .... it's all a brush pile ready to burn. Leave that brush pile to dry in the sun for a few weeks and what do you think is going to happen ... it's kindling ready to burn.
Just have a look at the satellite map around OujΓ©-Bougoumou Quebec where many of the fires are happening...... the landscape looks like it has a disease that's affected the surface everywhere .... it's all cut over forest that has been replanted and recut probably once or twice over the past hundred years
Canada has over 360 million hectares of forest. The notion that controlled burns are some sort of solution seems a bit absurd.
And nothing is going to fix the fact that in some parts of the country, it looks like wild fire season is going to be six months long (that certainly seems to be the case now along the South Coast of BC). With long stretches of hot dry weather, where ignition becomes almost inevitable, I think we're going to have to accept that annual number and intensity of wild fires is going to increase no matter how many resources we throw at forest management.
You don't need to control burn the whole forest, but maybe control burn a 10km buffer around small communities every 15-20 years or so and when a giant fire breaks out it will be easier to focus on protecting the towns while letting the outter forests burn as they should.
Considering the large number of small communities in Canada either in the boreal zones or at least adjacent to it, that sounds like a monumental undertaking. Frankly, with increasingly hot and dry summers, and in some parts of the country, even very dry winters (huge problem in areas like south and central coast of BC), there likely is no real solution other than to get used to smoke filled springs, summers and falls. We've now entered the mitigation stage.
As per the article, the answer is yes controlled burns are happening however as mentioned in another reply, it is not enough and our approach needs to change.