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Wildfires are spreading fast in Canada — we must strengthen forests for the future

As wildfires become more frequent and severe, efforts to improve the resilience of forests must be grounded in data and led by Indigenous Peoples.
By
  1. Christopher Mulverhill

    1. Christopher Mulverhill is a forest monitoring researcher at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

  2. Nicholas C. Coops

    1. Nicholas C. Coops is a professor of forest science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and holds a Canada Research Chair in remote sensing.

  3. Yan Boulanger

    1. Yan Boulanger is a forest ecologist for the Canadian Forest Service in Quebec City, Canada.

  4. Kira M. Hoffman

    1. Kira M. Hoffman is a fire ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and a fire practitioner in British Columbia.

  5. Amy Cardinal Christianson

    1. Amy Cardinal Christianson is Métis and works on Indigenous fire stewardship with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative team in Rocky Mountain House, Treaty 6 Territory.

  6. Lori D. Daniels

    1. Lori D. Daniels is a professor of forest dynamics and head of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

  7. Maude Flamand-Hubert

    1. Maude Flamand-Hubert is a historian at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada.

  8. Amy R. Wotherspoon

    1. Amy R. Wotherspoon is a climates and forest management researcher at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

  9. Alexis Achim

    1. Alexis Achim is a professor of forestry and wood science and vice-dean of research at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

A wildfire-devastated residential neighbourhood with a burned car in the foreground in Jasper, Canada.

A July wildfire in Jasper, Canada, devastated homes and forced 25,000 people to evacuate. Credit: The Canadian Press/Alamy

At the end of July, a wildfire driven by extreme winds blazed through Jasper National Park in Canada, forcing the evacuation of 25,000 citizens and visitors. For a month, more than 350 firefighters worked to control the fire, which grew to cover 33,000 hectares, making it the largest wildfire in the park in at least 100 years. Last year’s fire season was also catastrophic: about 4% of the nation’s forest area burnt (15 million hectares) — more than twice the previous record, set in 19891.

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Nature 633, 282-285 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02919-z

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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