A density of trees is pictured from the air in northwestern Ontario in July. Approximately 94 per cent of Canada’s forests are publicly owned by provincial, federal and territorial governments.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Rick Doman is chairman of the Boreal Carbon Corporation.
Canada is blessed with some of the largest forests in the world. Unfortunately, it is being increasingly affected by insects, disease, drought, and the effects of a warming climate. These damaged forests now contain significant fuel loads that contribute to large, more intense wildfires, which can spread into adjacent healthy and mixed forests, further degrading one of Canada’s greatest natural assets.
Canada’s forest area is estimated to be 369 million hectares. By comparison, the United States has approximately 310 million hectares of forest area.
These major wildfires are destroying more than our trees. They are releasing massive amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere, reducing future carbon sequestration, damaging vital watersheds, impacting wildlife, and creating hazardous smoke that threatens human and ecological health.
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An overlooked consequence is the loss of the economic value derived from the carbon Canada’s forests store and remove from the atmosphere – a value we rarely account for.
Canadian forests store an average of 205 tonnes of carbon per hectare. Across our forests, this represents approximately 75.6 billion tonnes of carbon stored, which is equivalent to approximately 277.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
While this stored carbon is not reflected on the federal balance sheet, at a carbon price of $50 per tonne of CO2e, this represents approximately $13.9-trillion in carbon value.
In strong sink years, Canadian forests in the past absorbed vast amounts CO2e, reaching as high as 133 million tonnes of CO2e in 1992, while during major wildfire years they are a net source of emissions.
For illustrative purposes, taking an annual carbon sink of 70 million tonnes of CO2e, that would represent a value of approximately $3.5-billion.
These wildfires not only make these figures go up in smoke, Canada also loses stored carbon, future carbon sequestration, healthy forests and one of our largest renewable assets.
While this does not count as government revenue, it shows the economic value of storing and capturing carbon in our forests, and what is at risk when forests are lost. Canada does not currently have a protocol to allow Crown land to be put into forestry carbon projects. Governments could lease the carbon rights on the forest land to restore diseased and wildfire-affected forests.
Investing in healthier forests today will open up tremendous opportunities to reduce wildfire risk while delivering environmental and economic benefits for future generations.
Approximately 94 per cent of Canada’s forests are publicly owned by provincial, federal and territorial governments.
Insects, disease, drought and wildfires do not recognize provincial boundaries. In 2023 alone, more than 17.3 million hectares burned, and over the years more than 18 million hectares have been affected by the mountain pine beetle. These are national challenges that require a co-ordinated national response.
We have solutions. The first step should be to conduct a full, up-to-date, detailed inventory of all Canadian forests to identify areas affected by disease, insect infestations, drought and deforestation, while assessing tree species and how they can be better managed under todays and future climate conditions.
Canada has millions of hectares of unhealthy forests that increase wildfire risk. We should be clearing these damaged areas, then replanting them with healthy seedlings. Currently, forests cover about 40 per cent of Canada. We should have a long-term goal of increasing forest cover, recognizing that healthy forests absorb carbon, cool the landscape, protect watersheds, and support wildlife.
A national restoration strategy focused on restoring damaged forests and replanting them has the potential to create thousands of jobs across Canada, benefiting forestry and Indigenous communities, logging contractors, tree planters, and the thousands of workers affected by the decline of Canada’s forest industry.
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At the same time, we need to deal with the diseased and dead wood that should be removed from our forests. Cogeneration facilities, wood pellet plants, and sustainable aviation fuel production can help convert this damaged fibre into clean energy, renewable fuels, and economic opportunity.
Canada could become one of the world’s largest forest carbon offset opportunities by establishing a value across the country for forest carbon credits, helping finance restoration while expanding Canada’s forests for future generations.
This is not rocket science, it is forest science.
Canada has one of the largest forests in the world, an asset with a significant value. Rather than watching our forests decline rapidly, we should reverse course and invest in growing them. Healthy forests are not only good for the environment – they are good for jobs, investment, economic growth, and Canada’s long-term prosperity, while strengthening the country’s fiscal position.