My ideas are a little revolutionary': ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics

"Wildfires have become an ever bigger problem in Canada. The 2018 wildfires were the biggest in British Columbia's history, but this record was broken in 2021, and then again in 2023, when fires consumed an area three times the size of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the smoke travelled as far as New York City."

"When logging companies clear forest, they replant it with fast-growing conifer species, but these trees are much more flammable than Canada's diverse, native forest. The country's forests are so huge that for decades policymakers assumed that human activity would make little impact."

"Deforested areas do not fully recover, and thanks to logging, the wildfires and a devastating pine beetle outbreak, Canada's forests, once a vast carbon sink, have since 2001 been a net emitter of carbon."

Ecologist Suzanne Simard experienced a harrowing wildfire encounter in Canada's Caribou Mountains in 2018, narrowly escaping with her daughters and colleague as flames spread rapidly. Canadian wildfires have escalated dramatically, with records broken in 2018, 2021, and 2023, when fires consumed an area three times the size of Nova Scotia. Global heating contributes to hotter, drier conditions, but forest management practices significantly worsen the problem. Logging companies replant cleared forests with fast-growing conifers that are far more flammable than Canada's native diverse forests. Policymakers historically assumed vast forests would naturally recover from human activity. However, deforested areas fail to fully recover, and combined with logging, wildfires, and pine beetle outbreaks, Canada's forests have become net carbon emitters since 2001, reversing their historical role as carbon sinks.

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