A prominent biologist says that nature can cope with the destruction of thousands of hectares of forest that have burned in northern Quebec in recent weeks but she’s not so sure about the effects of human meddling.
Biologist Gaétane Boisseau notes that in Quebec’s boreal forest fires are frequent and often caused naturally by lightning.
Burnt wood promotes regeneration and fires constitute an important element promoting ecological balance, she notes.
Human activity in the forest following a fire often causes more problems than the fire itself, as the habit of building roads to salvage wood from the fire-ravaged areas can be damaging, as hunting and fishing, even poaching and human-caused fires result.
The most vulnerable fauna species include woodland caribou, wolves and wolverines which need large empty spaces to prosper.
A report issued last year suggests that the Canadian woodland caribou population has dropped by 30 percent over the last two decades and that trend is likely to accelerate with further human settlement as the large mammals need undisturbed areas to survive.
The forest industry often comes into burnt out areas to salvage wood, which can be useful if claimed within a year.
The Canada Forest service notes that burnt-out forest areas can not only be tempting to the forest industry, they can also be necessary to harvest to maintain industry supply quotas.
“Scientists and engineers are aware that they’ve got to leave wood to allow for biodiversity but they take too much,” said Boisseau, who said that protecting the few last remaining virgin boreal forest areas in Quebec should be a priority.
