There are many reasons forests will go up in flame. So many of these are due a natural cycle – many pine species require fire for seeds to germinate. You see, seeds require a catalyst to germinate. These can be water, heat, fire, frost, light. Often there is a combination. Fire has been a tool of forest rebirth forever. The leading cause of forest fire is lightning strikes. These have increased in intensity due to climate change, especially in the north. Areas that only saw rare violent supercells and lightning storms are now in the path of extreme lightning storms.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about these fires. Without further evidence, it is hard to make claims about exactly what caused, or what is worsening these fires. Fires like these are natural occurrences that usually burn for a time and then stop either due to lack of fuel or rain, or some other force of nature. What is unusual about these fires is the ferocity, the heat, the vastness. Statistically there aren’t significantly more forest fires; forest fires have gotten worse.

Why are forest fires worse?

Climate Change

The leading cause, above all else is climate change. The north is experiencing heat like it never has before. With summer days hitting into the 40s centigrade, and consistent 30s is way outside of any summer experienced in Northern Ontario historically. Combine this with winters that are so precarious that cold isn’t consistent enough to build ice roads in communities that have relied on ice for winter subsistence, and we are looking at a crisis unfolding just in the weather we experience now.

Climate change has caused:

1. Dryer summers – the usual cycles of rain have not happened. Even ancient bogs recorded on 400 year old maps are drying and disappearing
2. Increase spruce and pine budworm – the increase in these insects is because there isn’t a proper winter deep cold to kill off enough of each generation. The same force that is moving ticks northward encourages overpopulation of even natural insects that are usually a part of a cycle. That cycle is broken, and budworm infestations are killing trees.
3. Floods that cause erosion in places where soil is very thin. The erosion of soil increases the dryness of these places.
4. Drought stress – long periods without rain, hot, baking sun drying out trees, and the land. Trees are more vulnerable to insect and fire when stressed by drought.
5. Reduced snow pack has created dryer conditions in the boreal.

Water Damning and Re-routing

There have been several projects that have significantly re-routed entire watersheds, and the way water moves and works in the northern boreal. Keep in mind when reading about dams that in a human lifetime, some seem old. In a forest lifetime, these are in the youth of a northern forest and many can be considered recent for forest lifecycle.

The re-routing of water has created extreme dry zones where healthy bog and forest ecosystems once existed. Many of these have added to the desiccation of vast zones of forests. This is a small list. Comprehensive lists are available as is data on water levels. Unfortunately, there is likely very little data on water levels in bogs and muskeg which comprises a great deal of land in Northern Ontario.

Major Rerouted Watersheds

• The Ogoki Diversion: A mega-project completed in the 1940s that dammed the Ogoki River, completely reversing the natural flow of a significant portion of its watershed south from the James Bay basin into Lake Nipigon, which ultimately feeds into the Great Lakes.
• The Long Lac Diversion: Another major 1940s diversion scheme that rerouted the waters of the Upper Albany River watershed (which originally flowed north to James Bay) southward through Long Lake and into the Great Lakes system to boost hydroelectric generation. 

Regulated Rivers & Basins

Major northern rivers and sub-watersheds heavily manipulated by chains of dams and control structures for hydroelectric power and water management include:

• The French River Basin: Controlled by a network of three major federal dams (Big Chaudière, Portage, and Little Chaudière) that regulate the levels of the massive Lake Nipissing. 
• The Albany River: Heavily dammed at points like Rat Falls and Cedar Rapids, impacting the flow into Osnaburgh Lake. 
• The Moose River Basin: A critical northeastern river system that sees heavy water management for hydroelectric production, with further expansions being explored for future provincial power needs

Other Contributing Factors

Fortress conservation and fire suppression

Natural burn cycles have been suppressed for the sake of conservation in vast tracks where forest fires may have happened and done a short, good burn, but have been put out due to fire suppression in many areas.

While it is true that Indigenous people have used fired and cultural burning practices to protect lands, this does not account for the vast tracks of boreal forests. It does account for the areas around reserves and other communities where fire would have been used as a tool of protection. Cultural burning was aggressively suppressed by provincial governments until the 1990s with only very recent amendments that recognize First Nations practices as legitimate ways of managing forest fires.

Clear cuts, forestry, desiccation through use of Round Up (Glyphosates)

While not the major cause, this should be a contributing factor to the spread and heat of wildfires. I wrote more about this in another post. Not realizing that people would go on to overstate this contributing factor as a primary cause, I didn’t establish my usual thorough list. You can read that post here to understand how desiccating techniques contribute to out of control burning. I include moss, forestry, monocropping, and insects describing the feedback loops that increase desiccation in that post. Please do not make the mistake in thinking that forest fires are caused by moss, or by insects, or by spraying. These contribute to fires intensity, forest desiccation, and scope of damage. These all can exacerbate fire vulnerability.

What are not causes

I have seen wild assumptions and accusations flying.

1. Controlled or cultural burns – not a single fire in the current crisis, or any that I know have been caused by controlled, or cultural burns. The idiocy to suggest that First Nations are responsible, or somehow wanted this to happen is not only a wild claim rooted in profound ignorance, but also reflects anti-Indigenism by the claimant.
2. Cigarette butts and campfires are a leading cause of forest fires – while these can cause forest fires, human related causes in these deeply remote places are more likely ATV exhaust heat on tall, dry vegetation and sparks off of train rails.
3. Climate change, forestry, glyphosates, any of these as the direct cause of forest fires. None of these cause forest fire directly. These all contribute to severity, heat, and spread of forest fires greatly, and the features of these can create conditions ripe for increases in forest fires.