Restoring Our Forests after Megafires

The Canadian Tree Nursery Association just released a factsheet entitled “From Ashes to Action” ( link at end of article). It highlights their concern for the urgent need of more tree seedling production given the critical change that has occurred in Ontario’s forest due to wildfire. The megafires that our forests are now experiencing often exceed the natural recovery thresholds we relied on in the past. The climate is hotter than it was and the fires are larger in area and the damage to both seed trees and soil layers are substantial. This leads to failed natural regeneration of native forest species and opens the opportunity to aggressive colonizers and even potentially exotic invasives. Their solution, of course, is to introduce an urgent program of seedling production in order to stock the damaged lands with native seedlings.

It is easy to be initially cynical about such a proposal coming from the association whose business is the production of such seedlings for forest regeneration. But one has to realize that the problem is real and linked to the warming climate of the planet. Their concerns for the forest and proposed solutions are sincere! And as someone who has been an observer of this industry for decades, I can assure you there are no fortunes to be made in the nursery trade. It is a tough business to make a living in.

In making their pitch for government action they explain a characteristic of their industry that is well understood by insiders and forest professionals but which bureaucrats and laypeople are negligently ignorant of. There can be no quick response to remediate a destroyed forest landscape. Even if funding is made immediately available, it takes three years or more to have young trees ready to put in the ground. Seed must be sourced, collected, prepped and planted in a nursery. Tree stock is grown in plots for 2 to 3 years before it is suitable for field planting.

Governments are slow to respond to crises and want to show results in the year they allocate funds. This is not possible in forest

regeneration so the bureaucratic culture has to accept that. Hence the urgency in their plea!

Earthroots endorses the appeal of the Canadian Tree Nursery Association. And we truly hope that someone in the government realizes its importance. There are specific implications to Earthroots’ priorities in this situation and these will be discussed in a separate article.