Managing Resilient Forests

Adapting our Forests

As of 2020, forests composed 63% of British Columbia’s land area. These forests are a major driver of the province’s economy, particularly in rural communities. Employers and workers in the silviculture industry are working hard to navigate ways to better keep themselves safe amidst heat and smoke. Indigenous peoples across the province are also adapting to these changing conditions by using oral history, community knowledge transfer, and ecological science to maintain healthy and safe communities.

Discover the Impact

Canadian Forests

Canadian forests are a highly contested subject in the conversation around sustainability, although their economic, cultural and environmental value in our society is indisputable. The forestry sector was responsible for $21.6 billion of Canada’s GDP in 2024, and provided 200,000 Canadians with jobs, a quarter of which were in BC.¹

Forests play an integral role in the carbon cycle, which is the continuous movement of carbon between the living and non-living components of our environment. As trees grow, they trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it, and release it back out as they burn or decay. This is carbon sequestration and emission, respectively.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and their increased atmospheric concentration is a leading cause of changing climate patterns. In 1990, Canadian forests changed from carbon sinks to carbon sources, meaning they began to release more carbon than they stored.² There are a number of reasons for this, including an increase in wildfire activity, worsening insect infestations such as the mountain pine beetle, increased deforestation due to changes in lumber market demand, and changes in forest management activity.

Experts are predicting that wildfires will continue to intensify, and many are looking to forest management and replanting efforts as a potential strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change in Canada³. Many similar forest management activities fall within the silviculture industry, but generally for the purpose of supplying the timber market with product, as opposed to strengthening carbon sequestration capacity⁴.

The expansion of land-area burned in wildfires across Canada from 2005 to 2024, which correlates with a decrease in climactic wetness.¹⁶

Health Effects

The health effects of extreme heat and PM_2.5 from wildfire smoke are a growing concern, and experts warn that the combined harm from smoke and heat is greater than the harm from each individually.¹⁷ Those at greatest risk of harm include young children and the elderly.

What is PM_2.5 and why is it dangerous?

Wildfire smoke is composed of various aerosols, gases, and wet or dry solid particles.²⁰ PM refers to particulate matter, fine-particle pollutants that vary in source and size. PM_2.5 have a diameter of 2.5 microns or less, and are the primary health concern regarding wildfire smoke.¹⁸ PM_2.5 enter the lungs and impacts their function by irritating and corroding the alveoli, the tiny sacs in the lung where gas exchange occurs¹⁹. According to Worksafe BC, respiratory injuries were the second leading type of workplace injury for tree planters and cone picking from 2020-2024. No level of PM_2.5 exposure is confirmed to be safe, so its concentration is a significant consideration when the BC government is deciding on the impact of air quality on human health.²¹

Approaches in the Silviculture Industry

Next Generation Reforestation

Silviculture is defined by the province as the balanced management of forests and their surrounding ecosystems. Next Generation Reforestation (NGR) is a family owned and operated silviculture company, started in 1984 in Beaverlodge, Alberta. Caitlin Burge is the operations manager, and is entering her 20th year in the industry. She recalled noticing a shift in wildfire patterns around 2014, shortly before Fort McMurray burnt down in 2016—the most expensive climate disaster in Canadian history. “Smoke would roll in and sit for a week, it wasn’t like that before. And it seemed to get progressively worse after that.” Between June 25th and July 1st of 2021, during what is now referred to as the western heat dome, NGR had tree-planting crews working in Northern Alberta, where temperatures were surpassing 40ºC. This kind of extreme heat was new, and a novel response was needed. NGR decided to have crews work “fire hours,” starting at 5 or 6 am, depending on crew preferences, and leaving the worksite around noon, before the hottest part of the day. Since then, NGR has implemented a policy where they stop work when ambient temperatures reach 35ºC, or humidex the perceived temperature during hot and humid conditions 40, which causes “great discomfort,” according to the Canadian Centre for Health and Occupational Safety.

View from a clear cut area of smoke rising over a forest fire.

Small Scale Operators

Adam Forrest joined the industry 28 years ago as a tree-planter, and is now the owner/operator of a small reforestation company in Nova Scotia. He recalled that in the early days of his career, ending the work day at temperatures over 30ºC was common practice. More recently though, wage stagnation and inflation are driving people to want to continue working in all heat conditions, according to Forrest. “Wages have in no way increased enough in forestry labor to make it possible to adjust for heat and smoke.” Tree planting is piece work, meaning workers are paid per tree they plant, so it is not uncommon to see resistance from crews when weather conditions threaten to stop a work day. Setting temperature thresholds for stopping work can be difficult, since there is no shared industry standard or regulation.

Forrest says the entire system of treeplanting and other forestry labour work such as brush-sawing, should be restructured. “The student-planter model is designed to hurt young people, year round forestry work means you’re fit to work, as opposed to jumping up from behind a desk for a portion of every year.” As a seasonal job, it is geared heavily towards students, and most of the work is squeezed into two or three months, making it physically demanding and conducive to repetitive strain injuries and fatigue. If tree planting evolved into a full-time forestry career path with a more consistent workforce, Forrest believes better wages, regulations and consistently enforced worker protections would help to mitigate some of the occupational risks and hazards that come with a changing climate.

“It all comes down to wage increases for employees, and enforced safety protocols from the client that are actually enforced. Wages [and tree] prices were set when climate related issues were far fewer. Even things like Lyme disease are climate related.”

Adam Forrest, tree planter and current company owner/operator

DIY Safety at Work

In July of 2023, tree planter Alex Kennedy was staying in Williams Lake at a motel during a work contract, and when work was delayed due to poor air quality and fire concerns, he set to work building a Corsi-Rosenthal box, developed in 2022 by engineers Richard Corsi and Jim Rosenthal to reduce inhalation of airborne particles during COVID-19. The materials from Canadian Tire totalled $144 and the box only took 20 minutes for Kennedy to build it. He shared his handiwork and the instructions to a popular online tree-planting forum to spread awareness to other workers in the industry.

Studies have confirmed that the Corsi-Rosenthal Box is effective in its ability to reduce the concentration of harmful airborne particles in relatively small indoor environments (such as a room in a house or motel) ^14,¹⁵, although further research is needed to determine its efficacy in semi-outdoor spaces such as the large canvas tents commonly used in tree planting work camps.

Kennedy’s Corsi-Rosenthal box, decorated with coloured lights.

Forest Stewardship

A number of Indigenous forest management initiatives are working to use a more holistic approach to reduce the ecological impacts of logging and better maintain and restore the ecosystem.

The Pressy Lake Pilot Project was launched in BC’s Cariboo region by Tŝideldel First Nation and the Tl’etinqox Government, after the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire which destroyed nearly 200,000 hectares of forest¹⁰. Burnt debris—which is usually considered useless waste—was cleared and utilized by pulp mills, pellet manufacturers, and as biofuel. Clearing the area also served to make room for ecosystem regeneration and reforestation, with the purpose of building resilience against future wildfire.

First Nations Emergency Services Society has been training firefighters and forestry stakeholders in Indigenous traditional burning techniques, helping revitalize and reintegrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into modern forest management¹¹.

Cultural Burning

Fire is a natural and cyclical component of healthy ecosystems. Historically, low-intensity fires moved regularly across landscapes, reducing the buildup of dead plant material, returning nutrients to the soil, and helping maintain balanced forest and grassland ecosystems. Over the past century, however, the use of widespread fire suppression methods has disrupted these natural cycles, contributing to fuel accumulation and the larger, more destructive wildfires now occurring across British Columbia. ²². For the Syilx people, fire has long been used as a tool to care for tmxʷulaxʷ—the land. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples across what is now British Columbia, including the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB), have practiced Cultural Burning as part of their stewardship responsibilities. Knowledge about cultural burning has been passed down through generations by oral histories and community knowledge transfer.

Today, that knowledge continues to guide stewardship efforts within the Okanagan Indian Band. Colleen Marchand, Director of Territorial Stewardship for OKIB, and Nat Wilson, OKIB’s Land and Resource Coordinator, are among those helping relay and apply this knowledge as the Band works to reestablish cultural burning practices on the land. Reintroducing cultural burning requires careful preparation. Decades of fire suppression have altered many areas of the landscape, resulting in dense forest conditions and significant fuel accumulation. According to Marchand and Wilson, a large part of the work involves restoring areas of the landscape so they are suitable for safe, low-intensity cultural burns. The Okanagan Indian Band is combining Syilx traditional knowledge, oral history, and ecological science to guide this work. Through partnerships with researchers at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), techniques such as fire dendrochronology—the study of tree rings and fire scars—are helping researchers better understand historical fire patterns and traditional burning practices in the region. Community engagement has also been a central component of the preparation process. Community meetings related to the planned burn have created opportunities for Elders and community members to share knowledge and experiences related to cultural burning, supporting intergenerational knowledge transfer and strengthening community understanding of fire stewardship.

In addition to academic partners, OKIB is working with the Salish Fire Keepers Society, the BC Wildfire Service, First Nations Emergency Services Society and Natural Resources Canada to train an initial attack firefighting crew and support the safe implementation of the cultural burn. If environmental conditions are suitable—including appropriate moisture, wind, and temperature—the cultural burn is planned for early April 2026.

The work also takes place in the context of the White Rock Lake wildfire in 2021, which burned through large areas of OKIB territory and destroyed homes within the community. As part of the engagement process, Marchand emphasizes the importance of helping community members understand that fire is not only destructive—it can also be a carefully applied tool that supports ecosystem health and long-term resilience. Through collaboration between Indigenous knowledge holders, community members, and research partners, the initiative represents an important step toward restoring cultural burning practices and supporting healthier landscapes across the region.

Solutions for Safer Silviculture

Policy & Regulation Change

There should be hard and fast rules regarding the conditions in which working outdoors is safe. We need industry-wide standards regarding temperatures, with more stringent monitoring to ensure companies are abiding by these standards.

Ensuring workers know their rights, the safety standards in place, and who to go to for anonymous reporting or inquiry into safety issues or risks. The BC Workers Compensation Act requires that all companies with at least 20 employees have a Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) for this purpose.

Call to Check Worksafe BC’s standards:

1-888-621-SAFE

Have the Right Equipment

Providing essential personal protective equipment (PPE), for example offering masks to employees to create an effective barrier against inhaling the harmful components of wildfire smoke, is a major step in preventing harm caused by wildfire smoke particles.

Using wireless outdoor air monitors in planting camps and at the worksite, since internet and cell connection is rare in the bush and reliable monitors are few and far between in rural areas.

Providing air-purifiers in motel rooms, camp common areas such as kitchen tents or dry-tents, when conditions are smoky or air-quality is of concern.

Plan for Climate Conditions

Strategically plan when specific cut-blocks are planted. At Next Generation Reforestation, Caitlin Burge explained how they aim to plant open blocks with little surrounding forest or “treeline,” in the earlier parts of the season.

Cut blocks with ample shady areas should ideally be planted later in the season, to provide workers with protection from the heat.

Key Resource

Explore The Okanagan Indian Band’s Website

Learn more about how Syilx laws and ancestral responsibilities are guiding the OKIB’s Territorial Stewardship Division in community safety, wildfire recovery and climate resilience.

See Resources

Key Resource

Learn more about Cultural Burning

Head to Prescribed Fire’s website to learn more about how Indigenous communities are revitalizing culture, enhancing emergency preparedness and building resilience through the use of fire.

See Resources