A question for our Canadian members.

[Texas Ranger]

Are the fires in Québec a product of little or no adequate forest management as they have been in the US west?  Masses of dead standing timber killed by bark beetles in the mountains was a bad decision.  I understand weather, was bitten on a few burns with weather effects.

[realzed]

I worked in aerial mineral exploration in the Northern Quebec area years ago, hundreds of miles North of Chibougamau near the Eastmain River and up to the Nemiscau and Sakami areas - lived and flew around in thick clouds of smoke from fires for weeks and months on end.
There is a huge area of open land in the North up there that has no roads or settlements or any way to get to any fires that do start nor any possible ways to control or manage these areas and mainly the fires that do start up are left to burn themselves out eventually.
There are some impressively crazy storms that blow in from the West from both bays and those areas have lightening storms I had never before - or since, seen with such intensity, that most often are the reason that most of the fires get started.
Its mostly conifer forest - scrabby Spruce and Jackpine of no value and lots of swampy areas so it doesn't actually burn as much as it sort of just smolders along so there is a huge amount of smoke created (as most everyone South and Westerly can attest to these days)..
It takes weeks of good rainy weather but eventually they do go out usually by late Summer or early Fall.
After a Summer of working in that, it taints your taste for food badly and everything you own pretty much needs to get disposed of - since you never get rid of the smell no matter how much you try!

[Riwaka]

The area of fires in Central Western Quebec does have populated areas & 'managed' forests.

Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Qu (population 2000) was evacuated.
160 fires. Dry and hot weather results in dry vegetation/ duff and dry lightning storms start fires.

(Though BC has stated discarded cigarettes etc have also caused recent wild fires)

NASA map
NASA | LANCE | FIRMS

[petefrom bearswamp]

As far as fighting the far north fires, a number of years ago I was fishing on the Gouin reservoir.
At our outfitter place was a helicopter base with 5 firefighters stationed there.
They flew out every morning and returned  in late evening.
In talking to one of these folks I asked what they did on the fire scene.
The gal replied we mostly just watch the fire burn.

[WhitePineJunky]

As far as fighting the far north fires, a number of years ago I was fishing on the Gouin reservoir.
At our outfitter place was a helicopter base with 5 firefighters stationed there.
They flew out every morning and returned  in late evening.
In talking to one of these folks I asked what they did on the fire scene.
The gal replied we mostly just watch the fire burn.

AFAIK it’s about containment, like if it’s just burning woods and not infrastructure or homes, it’s about attacking the front flanks and head/fingers of fire trying to spread, if they can soak down the perimeter especially on the side it’s growing in, it will less likely spread and rather burn out on itself, any resources trying to put the middle of it out is wasted resources for the possibility they might be needed to fight it spreading further or pop up/ spot fires further ahead from flying embers.

The woods in NS is largely not managed in my area at least. Clear cuts with the exception of a couple seed trees and let er grow on her own. The area the barrington lake wildfire hit was stunted spruce and fir grounds dense understory’s for the most part. The way this fire started was by some early 20 somethings getting high and drunk and stuffing tires with hay and lighting them and rolling them down a hill, during a very dry time in a burn ban. There’s video evidence of it I kid you not they were dumb enough to be posting it online “whatever happens happens” was said

[Texas Ranger]

Thanks, folks, the rolling tires is a new one on me, I have seen many different starts by fools.  The unique one I remember is the coiled no pest strips, light them up and toss into the woods like a Frisbee.

[realzed]

I might add to all this is... there is an air of panic these days mainly because of how our government handles everything including how news gets reported and circulated through the media which for the most part they now pretty much control to get their message out - here in Canada.
Environment Canada is an arm of the government and they promote much of the paranoia that presently everyone gets to listen to and watch, in reporting almost every weather incident as a new or impending 'natural disaster', and of course the fire season and reporting of how many fires are burning and where.
Bush fires are nothing new in Canada and have and will occur forever since we have a lot of open expanse of forest, and there always will be room for fires to burn without good ways to control them.
That all said - we presently now have a 'system' in place to alert everyone of the slightest little fire and make all who care to listen, aware of the 'impending disaster' that is about to occur because of it!
It's mainly a product of our government trying to push its taxation agenda by the thinking that you can control or change the weather and climate by how much each citizen contributes in taxes = thus the more you pay the better these sort of situations will be controllable is the message..  
Of course very little of any taxation increase ever ends up going towards fighting fires or the 'panic of the month' - it just gets wasted on all sorts of 'more important' to the government's - other priorities!
My rant for the day!  

[WhitePineJunky]

I've been waiting for the new "carbon tax because of wildfires" to come out honestly. Some news sites are already alluding to their agenda which didn't take long. For the people around here my answer to that would be the environment doesn't light tires on fire and roll them down hills. 

[KEC]

In another thread, we talked about the effects of mowing hay on birds and animals. The mower helps maintain grassland habitat, but destroys bird nests and kills some critters. Similarly, these fires surely kill some animals(especially young ones) and destroy bird nests, but also creates great habitat. The moose, hares and lynx will thrive when it regenerates; positives and negatives to everything, eh ?

[realzed]

I always found it to be amazing, that while flying around the perimeter of some of the larger fires I've seen - you'd often spot moose, deer, wolves and all sorts of other critters clustered up or actually wading in the waters of small lakes, rivers, and swamps trying to stay wetted down..
When things get dire sufficiently I guess, their last consideration is killing for food verses survival, even between normally predatory groups.

[Dom]

Growing up we were taught that the boreal forest had to burn for the black spruce to regenerate. Interestingly there's now an article that it may be burning too often that the black spruce is losing its dominance in the forest.

Here's a link, feel free to remove if not acceptable:
Forest fires could destabilize Quebec wildlife for years to come, say experts | CBC News

[dustintheblood]

Well, you've asked the right question to the right person.

I have responsibility not only to the forest in that region, but to the Cree people who consider that their homelands.

My entire professional existence for the past six years has been to foster, protect and encourage the responsible development of these lands.  It's my home, my everything.

The Cree have done an exceptional and admirable job of balancing the ecological and economical in a way that still respects their traditional lands.  

The wildfires are part of the ebb and flow of the natural world, and we have no choice but to embrace it as part of our small and insignificant role in this world.  Yes, the SOPFEU is doing an incredible job to contain and shut down the fire impacts, and we are forever grateful for their tireless work.

My friends have been evacuated.  Their homes are at risk.  Their traplines are burning.

Thoughts are with them every moment, and I hope you join me in sympathy as the lands they've called home for millennial are burning.

[dustintheblood]

As a long time contributor and participant (and beneficiary of the wisdom) of this forum, please know the actual impact of the fires in Northern Quebec.

I have personally spent the last six years of my life putting everything I have into helping the Crees of the Eeyou Istchee redevelop their sawmill and modernizing it into one of the most efficient and productive mills in the province.

It's at risk from the wildfires as we speak.

My friends and colleagues are evacuated from their homes.  It's bad.

Their efforts are best illustrated in this video.  Please take a moment of your time to watch and learn about their culture and future:

https://youtu.be/HgyTsb6HYew

[ST Ranch]

Here in BC, and parts of Alberta, there are 3 things I believe are contributing to the unprecedented forest fires occurring this spring;

1. The weather has been unseasonably dry and warm [much of the area already in drought code 4 with 5 being top of the scale and our forest fire drought codes showing late July levels of drought [high to extreme]. Our season is 4-6 weeks early [my vegetable garden, both planted and producing about 5 weeks early] and the daily temperatures have been 5-15 degrees above average for this time of year. Furthermore we have not received our usual April/May rain events that usually green up the landscape prior to the heat arriving.

2. As others have said, much of our un-managed forest landscape has unprecedented fuel loading. - We did a good job at  promoting "Smoky the bear " fire suppression. Added to this is some areas the buildup of dead and down slash that has accumulated from bark beetle outbreaks and no natural fires or logging  operations to remove it.

Both of these factors when you look at the "fire triangle" components - heat oxygen and fuel, two components are at higher that normal levels so you get very large uncontrollable fires.   

3. The other factor is a bit more political and pertains to who and how we fight fires. Over the past 15 or so years, the number of people [loggers and machine operators] who actually work in the bush has diminished drastically. Mechanical felling and processing of logs has greatly reduced the # of loggers and has greatly increased production per man hour worked.  In the past these loggers were often the first on the fires and worked their butts off to get them out. They did not like logging black burnt wood, nor did they want to see their future jobs burn up when fires were in the immature forest. Not so today. 

The Forest Service used to have a 10 AM policy which basically was - get as many possible resources you can to get the fire "under control or contained"  by 10 the next day. It was a team effort and often involved working all night to get it done. This no longer is the case.

Today fire fighting is almost a business, has all sorts of legal certification requirements and is a bit of a protected group of specialists. It has become very centralized and top down, versus the days of local control at the community and old Ranger District level. It appears to have moved from being an on ground operation to almost exclusive use of air craft to support ground crews involved with burning off guards and or do mop up work when safe, after the fire has gotten out of control, rather than a early detection and quick suppression effort.  

I am old school. I believe in early detection [on the ground and areal patrols] following any lightening storm event [we have live satellite lightening detection technology to use to assist this] but fast detection and response is the answer.
Our current fire suppression program that relies heavily on helicopter and air tanker use to control fires and some studies are questioning how effective this is , given the current extreme weather, climate and seasonal changes being experienced today.  

My 5 cents worth - I look forward to hear you folks views on this.

Tom

[SwampDonkey]

All depends of how you define management. The condition and health of the various cover types out there, frequency of and duration of rainfall and so on probably fit into many categories. Clear cutting and leaving to nature is management, as is doing nothing, as is spacing the 'new' forest to grow healthier trees. Spacing old suppressed junk has no benefit to forest health or forest products either. Spacing out rot riddled old suppressed fir isn't making clear saw logs or spontaneously rejuvenating them either. :D You can pick and choose and come up with varying explanations or spins. Our activities on the landscape are just as responsible as the weather.