FFires

 Copilot:

Forest management; is it true that our forests are vulnerable to massive fires in part, because they are not natural and varied?

Yes — a major part of today’s wildfire vulnerability comes from forests that are less diverse, less natural, and less actively stewarded than they once were. Modern fire regimes in Canada (including Quebec) are strongly shaped by past logging practices, fire suppression, and the loss of Indigenous cultural burning — all of which create dense, uniform, highly flammable forests. 

Why Less‑Natural, Less‑Varied Forests Burn More Severely

1. Loss of natural diversity → more uniform fuel

Historically, forests were mosaics of:

Mixed ages

Mixed species

Recently burned patches

Open meadows and wetlands

Modern industrial forestry often replaces this with:

Even‑aged stands

Monocultures or low‑diversity mixes

Dense, continuous canopies

This uniformity acts like a continuous fuse, allowing fire to spread rapidly and intensely.

2. A century of fire suppression created unnatural fuel loads

Natural fire cycles used to clear underbrush and maintain patchiness.

Decades of suppression allowed:

Thick understory growth

Heavy deadwood accumulation

Dense young trees competing for water

These conditions make forests extremely flammable during drought.

3. Decline of Indigenous cultural burning

Indigenous Peoples across Canada used low‑intensity, frequent burns to maintain healthy, varied landscapes.

These practices:

Reduced fuel

Promoted biodiversity

Created natural firebreaks

Protected communities and wildlife

Research shows Indigenous‑managed lands today have higher biodiversity and lower tree‑cover loss, yet are increasingly threatened because colonial policies restricted traditional burning for decades. 

4. Climate change amplifies the vulnerability

Even if forests were perfectly managed, hotter, drier, longer fire seasons increase ignition and spread.

But when climate stress meets:

dense fuels

uniform stands

drought‑stressed trees

…the result is the kind of extreme fires Canada saw in 2023–2025. 

                                                                                  

What This Means for Quebec and Eastern Canada

Even though Quebec’s forests are wetter than the West, the same vulnerabilities apply:

Large areas of even‑aged black spruce and boreal conifers

Fire suppression legacy

Limited use of cultural burning

Increasing drought cycles

The 2023 Quebec fires demonstrated how quickly these forests can shift from “wet and safe” to “highly flammable” under heat and drought.

Bottom Line

Yes — forests that lack natural variation and Indigenous‑informed stewardship are significantly more vulnerable to massive, high‑severity fires.  

Restoring diversity, reintroducing cultural burning, and reducing fuel loads are among the most effective ways to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk.

If you want, we can dig into:

How Quebec’s forest policies contribute to this

What a “healthy, fire‑resilient” forest actually looks like

How Indigenous burning could be reintroduced in Eastern Canada

Or the science behind fire behaviour in mixed vs. uniform stands

                                                           *     *     *

If we got serious about managing forest fires when they do occur, what could we do better?

Getting serious about managing fires once they’ve already started means shifting from a reactive, overwhelmed posture to a strategic, anticipatory one. Canada can do far better — and the science is very clear on where the biggest gains lie.

Below is a structured look at what “better” actually means in practice.

🔥 1. Attack fires much earlier and more aggressively

Canada often waits until fires threaten communities or infrastructure before committing major resources. By then, the fire is too large, too hot, and too fast.

What works better:

Rapid‑response crews deployed within minutes, not hours

Pre‑positioning aircraft and crews based on fire‑weather forecasts

Treating every new ignition during extreme conditions as a potential major fire

Using night operations more routinely (many countries do this; Canada rarely does)

Early attack is the single most cost‑effective intervention in fire management.

🌲 2. Create strategic fuel breaks before fire season

Fuel breaks aren’t clearcuts; they’re carefully designed zones where fire intensity drops enough for crews to fight it.

Canada has very few of these, especially in the boreal.

Better approaches include:

Thinning dense stands around communities and critical infrastructure

Removing ladder fuels (the “stairs” that let fire climb into the canopy)

Creating mixed‑species buffers that slow fire spread

Maintaining open meadows and wetlands instead of letting them infill with conifers

This is where Quebec could make huge gains — the province has many communities surrounded by continuous black spruce, which is essentially gasoline on a stick.

🔥 3. Use controlled burns at scale

Canada uses prescribed fire, but at a tiny fraction of what’s needed.

Why it matters:

Safely removes fuel

Restores natural fire cycles

Creates patchiness that stops megafires

Protects wildlife habitat

Indigenous cultural burning is especially effective because it’s frequent, low‑intensity, and landscape‑specific.

🚁 4. Modernize aerial firefighting

Canada’s fleet is aging and too small for the size of the territory.

Improvements include:

More water bombers and helitankers

Larger scooper fleets for boreal lakes

Drones for night surveillance and hotspot detection

Real‑time thermal mapping to guide crews

Aerial assets don’t put out fires alone, but they buy time for ground crews.

🧭 5. Use predictive modelling to stay ahead of fires

Fire behaviour can be forecast with surprising accuracy when you combine:

wind

humidity

fuel type

slope

drought index

Canada has the science, but not the operational integration.

Better management would:

Predict where fires will blow up before they do

Move crews pre‑emptively

Close vulnerable areas during extreme fire weather

Prioritize resources based on risk, not politics

🏘️ 6. Harden communities so they don’t ignite

Most homes burn from embers, not direct flame.

Better practices:

Ember‑resistant roofing and siding

30‑metre defensible space around structures

Burying power lines in high‑risk zones

Fire‑resistant landscaping

Community‑level fuel management

This is the “FireSmart” approach, but adoption is inconsistent.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 7. Integrate Indigenous fire stewardship

This is not symbolic — it’s practical, proven, and urgently needed.

Indigenous fire knowledge:

Reduces catastrophic fire

Maintains biodiversity

Protects cultural landscapes

Creates natural firebreaks

Many of the world’s most fire‑resilient landscapes are Indigenous‑managed.

🧯 8. Accept that some fires must burn — but under control

Trying to extinguish every fire creates the fuel buildup that leads to megafires.

A smarter approach:

Let low‑risk fires burn under supervision

Use natural ignitions as opportunities to reduce fuel

Focus suppression on high‑risk zones

This requires political courage, because “letting a fire burn” sounds counterintuitive to the public.

🌡️ 9. Adapt to the new climate reality

Even perfect management won’t eliminate extreme fire years. But it can prevent the worst outcomes.

Adaptation means:

Planning for longer fire seasons

Expanding the workforce

Increasing interprovincial and international cooperation

Building redundancy into equipment and logistics

The Big Picture

If Canada (and Quebec) got serious, we would see:

Fewer megafires

More manageable fire seasons

Lower suppression costs

Less smoke exposure

More resilient forests

The science is not the bottleneck — political will, funding, and cultural change are.

If you want, we can zoom in on:

What Quebec specifically could implement

How to integrate Indigenous burning in eastern forests

The economics of early attack vs. megafire suppression

Or how forest structure (species mix, age, density) changes fire behaviour