Last summer’s historic wildfires had a significant impact on the amount of timber that can be harvested in the coming years, particularly in the Nord-du-Québec region. The head forester also fears “significant social impacts” for the local communities.
Posted at 4:08 p.m.
Chief forester Louis Pelletier, who is responsible for determining forest potential, or the amount of timber that can be harvested from public forests in Quebec, provided an update to his forecasts on Wednesday.
Normally these are set for a five-year period, but the historic wildfires that devastated the province last summer forced teams to revise their calculations.
Therefore, taking into account the impact of forest fires, Quebec’s chief forester recommends reducing the amount of wood that should be harvested across the province by 619,400 m3 per year starting April 1, 2024.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVE
Nationally, this represents an approximately 2% decrease in the total amount of wood that would be harvested by the end of the current period in March 2028.
If this amount appears small, the chief forester expects “significant social impacts” in certain regions particularly hit by the flames, including Nord-du-Québec.
Around 17% of the usable area is intended there, so Louis Pelletier recommends reducing the amount of wood to be harvested there by around 13%.
“It hurts for some regions”
“It is a region heavily dependent on wood processing and forestry development. [Quand] If we look at the 2% at the provincial level, it may seem minimal, but if we look at the location and concentration of volumes for certain regions, it hurts,” he explained during a briefing session on Wednesday.
For the more affected regions such as Nord-du-Québec, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Mauricie, the chief forester explains that he is waiting for “new information” in the coming months that could further modify these forecasts in the coming years. .
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
In total, 1.3 million hectares of forest were affected by forest fires last summer in Quebec, which corresponds to the Lanaudière region. Of this, 920,000 hectares were considered “forest-managed” and are taken into account by the head forester when calculating the usable amount.
Quebec was informed of the chief forester’s recommendations on Wednesday and immediately announced the creation of a special committee to “support affected workers, communities and companies in the forestry sector.”
The latter “will make it possible to support the actors in the forestry sector most affected by the recent change in the forest allowance, in order to ensure the vitality of the affected regions and the sustainable development of our forests,” explains the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vezina.