James Steidle

Our boreal forests are changing.  More intense fires following in greater frequency are occurring from Alaska clear through to Quebec.  This is giving deciduous species like aspen and birch the upper hand in our unmanaged northern forests. This is an undeniable fact, but what I want to zero in on is how Americans feel about this shift compared to Canadians. Last week, Toronto writer Hannah Hoag wrote an article in the Globe and Mail. The headline was ominous. “As Canada’s boreal forests burn again and again, they won’t grow back the same way,” it says, before noting this shift “threatens to recur across Canada’s boreal forest.” …Compare that to Nathanael Johnson who wrote about the same conifer-deciduous forest shift in the American publication Grist two years ago.  You couldn’t come up with a more contrary headline: “Rising from the ashes, Alaska’s forests come back stronger,” it says.