Time to talk about how Alberta’s forests are managed

Like everyone else in Alberta, the forest industry was saddened by what happened in Jasper. Our industry has held our annual conference in the park for longer than anyone can remember. The people of Jasper are the best hosts in the world and it is agonizing to see what has happened to their community.

There is a conversation to be had and a way forward. Just the other day, I was looking at an opinion piece that our association penned in the Edmonton Journal in October 2017. Here is an excerpt from that piece: “If you ask a professional forester where the next devastating fire might happen, they’d probably point to Hinton and Jasper. That’s because a massive pine beetle epidemic has killed much of the pine in Jasper National Park and is surging towards Hinton.”

The article proceeded to talk about the value of managing our forests sustainably. We know that younger forests are more resilient and that the key is achieving a healthy mix of young and old forests. It offered constructive solutions, like identifying and harvesting at-risk pine stands and regenerating them with younger forests. This is a concrete step we can take to safeguard our communities and environment.

There is a perception that our forests will be the same forever if we leave them untouched. Alberta’s forests age and die. Just like people, when trees are young and vibrant, they are less susceptible to pests like the mountain pine beetle. The risk of fire in younger stands is also lower. As trees age, their “immune systems” begin to weaken and the risk of fire and pest infestation goes up. Sadly, in Jasper, this risk became reality.

It is time to have a broader conversation on how our forests are managed. We need to integrate knowledge from a broad cross-section of society. We know that Indigenous communities have lived on these lands from time immemorial and have knowledge that is highly valuable, but underutilized. We know that our foresters are on the land every day and supplement their practical experience with a strong scientific and educational foundation. And we know communities that are in the forest connect to the land base in an intimate way.

What we should not do is impose top-down solutions that apply to very different land bases. One frustration I hear frequently in our industry and communities is that federal policy on items like management of our national parks or protection of species at risk is top-down, hard to implement at the ground level, and focused on single values that do not recognize the interconnected web of ecosystem services that forests provide.

It is also often predicated on the assumption that we can leave our forests unmanaged. That’s not to say that this policy isn’t well-intentioned. We all share the same goal of healthy landscapes within parks and thriving wildlife species. If this is the goal, the way to get there inevitably leads through conversations at the community level and more active management of our forests supported by a more complete understanding of the ecological values that can be achieved through sustainable forest management.

If we don’t have this conversation now, we risk another Jasper. Forests that are unmanaged will continue to age and to build up fuel. And when that fuel gets a spark from lightning or an unextinguished campfire, we will relive the nightmare of Jasper again.

As an industry that lives in forest communities and is deeply tied to the land base, we are ready to have this conversation. The future of communities we love depends on it.

Jason Krips is president of the Alberta Forest Products Association. The AFPA is the voice of Alberta’s forest industry.