Last year’s record wildfires in Alberta destroyed habitat for threatened species and will change the makeup of the province’s forests for decades to come, says a new report. And the assessment from the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute says the chance of a repeat of 2023’s massive burn poses an ongoing challenge for both conservation and industry. “The future of fire, and how land managers and industries respond to it, will determine the sustainability of Alberta’s forests in the coming years,” the report concludes. …The report finds that more than 10% of the economically vital foothills region was burned. Several forestry companies lost between a tenth and a third of their harvestable trees. …The fires also lowered the average age of Alberta’s forests, a crucial figure in determining which forests can be harvested. …Caribou herds, which have already lost the vast majority of their ranges to industry, lost more of them to fire.