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WFM fbPage

“I think one of the things that we’re not talking about enough is the risk of worsening wildfire patterns if we’re not managing our forests.

“We hear a lot from the hard green community about not cutting trees down.

“We’re seeing concerns about what pulp mill closures might mean to timber staying standing and aging out. And as those trees get to 70-80-90 years old in the boreal forest which is what we’re surrounded by here, they’re going to be taken down by pests fire, wind, you name it. But these trees aren’t living forever.

“So we need to be we need to be mindful of the biodiversity and the many equal system values issues and concerns, but we need to be thinking more about fire and what is what is the opportunity cost of not harvesting, in terms of leaving those trees up and putting communities at risk, the carbon emissions going up in smoke, and then the impact on forest health and economic opportunity in those communities.”

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COMMENTS

DGP: WestFor mght have pointed out that this video & discussion is about the boreal forest, which has a very different fire regime from the Wabanaki/Acadian forest. Quite misleading to imply it applies to NS.

WESTFOR TO DGP:FPAC highlights the need to actively manage our forests to balance ecological and biodiversity values while protecting communities. While this clip specifically references the boreal forest, WestFor supports active fire prevention measures in all forests, including both boreal and Acadian forests.

DGO TO WESTFOR `Thanks for responding to my comment, thanks for allowing me to post them, we need to have constructive discussion/debate of these issues to resolve them and to ‘get everyone onside’. So let me comment in that context. Your statement that “Unmanaged forests can increase widlfire risks..” in the image above is suggestive that unmanaged forests are in general more fire susceptible than managed forests. One could also say “Forest management can increase fire risks…” (re use of “can”), e.g. by sparks from machinery. There is an argument to be made that spraying/elimination of hardwoods by forest practices has increased fire risk in our forests in NS , also in BC. At least some Old Growth stands may be more fire-resistant than younger stands because they hold more water. There is a lot of site-specificity involved in how fire risk varies with stand type, age etc. and with specific management practices, e.g. in some situations fire risk can be reduced by thinning, in others it may be increased. So I guess I am just suggesting that we all need to avoid sweeping generalizations, and try to be objective and open minded and prepared to change our stance when the evidence calls for it.