2026 Wildfire Season

[The Bread Guy]

Dear 416/905, at least you seem to be getting some breaks from the smoke here and there ...

 

[FSTO]

One of the CNN commentators mentioned that since most of Canada's Boreal Forest is Government (re: Crown) owned and that most of the forests in the lower 48 are privately owned, that the US does a much better job at forest management. What the CNN crew failed to mention:

The Canadian Boreal forest is 7 times the size of all US forests put together;
99% of the Canadian forest is wilderness and has no road or rail access;
US led Softwood Lumber war has severely damaged Canada's forestry industry and there fore less wood is being harvested; and
Forest Fire Smoke is the Honey Badger of the Atmosphere, it don't give a shit where it goes or who it annoys.

 

[brihard]

One of the CNN commentators mentioned that since most of Canada's Boreal Forest is Government (re: Crown) owned and that most of the forests in the lower 48 are privately owned, that the US does a much better job at forest management. What the CNN crew failed to mention:

The Canadian Boreal forest is 7 times the size of all US forests put together;
99% of the Canadian forest is wilderness and has no road or rail access;
US led Softwood Lumber war has severely damaged Canada's forestry industry and there fore less wood is being harvested; and
Forest Fire Smoke is the Honey Badger of the Atmosphere, it don't give a shit where it goes or who it annoys.

It would be interesting to do a comparetive GIS overlay and show how much of their forest is within, say, five miles of any sort of road, compared to ours.

Privately owned largely = logging = accessible and actively managed. Ours is just woods that for much of it no human has ever touched.

I remember driving from Vancouver to the Yukon many years back. At one point we were stopped at some outlook, I feel like it was up past Fort Nelson, and I was looking out northeast and just marvelling at how much utterly untouched wilderness there was out there. Same feeling driving up across the top of Lake Superior a couple years ago. Canada’s really big.

 

[daftandbarmy]

It would be interesting to do a COMPRWTIVR GIS overlay and show how much of their forest is within, say, five miles of any sort of road, compared to ours.

Privately owned largely = logging = accessible and actively managed. Ours is just woods that for much of it no human has ever touched.

I remember driving from Vancouver to the Yukon many years back. At one point we were stopped at some outlook, I feel like it was up past Fort Nelson, and I was looking out northeast and just marvelling at how much utterly untouched wilderness there was out there. Same feeling driving up across the top of Lake Superior a couple years ago. Canada’s really big.

Bigger than India and, unlike India, largely untouched...

How much forest does Canada have?​

Canada is home to 369 million hectares (ha) of forest, or 3.69 million km2, which is close to 9% of the world’s total forest. To get a sense of the area of Canada’s forests, the land area of India is about 297 million ha. Canadians depend on and value these forests for many different uses including recreation, conservation, traditional Indigenous practices and sustainable timber harvest. Strict rules require harvest areas to be regenerated either through planting or natural regrowth. Canada’s National Deforestation Monitoring System reports that over the last 34 years, less than half of 1% of Canada’s forest has been deforested.

How much forest does Canada have? - Natural Resources Canada

natural-resources.canada.ca

 

[The Bread Guy]

Transport Canada, Transportation Safety Board - UP!

Government investigating CN’s actions after rail crew caught in wildfire | Globalnews.ca

Transport Canada spokesperson Hicham Ayoun says the government is "conducting followup oversight" to determine if CN failed to comply with rules under the Railway Safety Act.

globalnews.ca

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I think that fair is fair:

We get tariffed for our more frequent wild fires sending smoke their way, then they get tarriffed for all the damages caused by wind, flooding, hail and other consequences from the more and more frequent hurricanes they are doing nothing to stop from coming North at us.

 

[YZT580]

Bigger than India and, unlike India, largely untouched...

How much forest does Canada have?​

Canada is home to 369 million hectares (ha) of forest, or 3.69 million km2, which is close to 9% of the world’s total forest. To get a sense of the area of Canada’s forests, the land area of India is about 297 million ha. Canadians depend on and value these forests for many different uses including recreation, conservation, traditional Indigenous practices and sustainable timber harvest. Strict rules require harvest areas to be regenerated either through planting or natural regrowth. Canada’s National Deforestation Monitoring System reports that over the last 34 years, less than half of 1% of Canada’s forest has been deforested.

How much forest does Canada have? - Natural Resources Canada

natural-resources.canada.ca

which taken together makes Canada one giant carbon sink sequestering far more CO2 than we could possibly produce. The figures floored me.

• CO2 Absorption: With 594.7 billion trees absorbing approximately 14.87 gigatonnes of CO2 annually, Canada’s forests are a formidable carbon sink.
• National Emissions: Canada emits roughly 559 megatonnes (0.559 gigatonnes) of CO2 equivalent each year.
• The Net Effect: When comparing these figures, Canada’s trees are absorbing carbon dioxide at a rate 26.6 times higher than the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

 

[daftandbarmy]

which taken together makes Canada one giant carbon sink sequestering far more CO2 than we could possibly produce. The figures floored me.

• CO2 Absorption: With 594.7 billion trees absorbing approximately 14.87 gigatonnes of CO2 annually, Canada’s forests are a formidable carbon sink.
• National Emissions: Canada emits roughly 559 megatonnes (0.559 gigatonnes) of CO2 equivalent each year.
• The Net Effect: When comparing these figures, Canada’s trees are absorbing carbon dioxide at a rate 26.6 times higher than the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

And then there's the ocean...

The climate crazies continue to convince everyone we're running out of trees and lashing out the carbon though ...

I did some work with a scientist studying the Alberta 'tar sands' awhile ago, it contains enough oil to run the world for a hundred years, and asked him how much of it had been developed so far.

He took a quarter out of his pocket and put it on a huge boardroom table and said 'about that much, since the 1940s'.

North American boreal forest holds 31 per cent more trees than thought​

New AI-enhanced estimate suggests the vast forests may have more potential to mitigate climate change.

https://www.ualberta.ca/en/folio/2025/05/north-american-boreal-forest-holds-31-per-cent-more-trees-than-thought.html