Across Much Of Canada, Fires Seem To Be Outpacing Forests' Ability To Regenerate

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More than 200 fires burned across Canada as of Saturday, their smoke sweeping across oceans and continents. More than 80 of them are burning “out of control,” according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Fire is part of the Canadian landscape. Millions of acres can burn each year, and the country’s native plants are hardwired to endure the effects of wildfire — to an extent.

But — as is the case with most wildfire-prone areas — drier conditions and warmer weather due to climate change are making these fires more frequent and hotter. “You’ve got too many fires in close succession,” said Marc-André Parisien, a wildfire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. “The trees just kind of can’t keep up.”

It depends on what kind of tree is facing fire. The white spruce, an evergreen that can grow more than 180 feet tall, doesn’t fare as well in fire-filled environments, said Ellen Whitman, also a fire research scientist with the Forest Service. Other trees, such as the jack pine and the lodgepole pine, are more resilient to fire, she said, but young trees are often the weakest after a blaze. “If you burn that young stand before it has cones, or before it has enough cones, the regeneration will be very poor,” Whitman said.

In 2023, record-breaking fires tore through the country, burning more than 45 million acres in all 13 provinces and territories. The following year brought more conflagrations, including a blaze in Alberta that burned more than 80,000 acres of Jasper National Park, famous for its alpine lakes and thick forests. Months later the trees were still charred, but new greenery had begun to grow, Landon Shepherd of Parks Canada told CTV last year.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/07/11/canada-wildfire-smoke-forests-landscape-change/