How Forestry Professionals Learn from Natural Disturbances to Help Grow Saskatchewan’s Forests

More than half of Saskatchewan’s landscape is forested.

That’s right, this province is more than just wide-open spaces ideal for farming and agriculture. We grow trees here, too. Lots of them, in fact. 

In Saskatchewan’s north, the boreal forest is what separates the Arctic tundra from the grasslands in the south. This boreal forest is approximately 410,000 square kilometres (101 million acres), which is larger than Germany.

Saskatchewan’s boreal forest is filled with deciduous and coniferous trees. Deciduous trees have broad leaves that change colour in the fall and spread their seeds using flowers. Coniferous trees have needle-shaped leaves and most don’t change colour in the fall. They use cones instead of flowers to spread their seeds.

Saskatchewan’s boreal forest also is a disturbance-originating forest. This means it historically has taken natural disturbances like fire or insects and diseases and replaces the older forest with the younger regenerating forest.

By implementing forest management practices, Association of Saskatchewan Forestry Professionals (ASFP) can minimize the impacts of those natural disturbances, divert trees from burning or becoming infected and put them through a manufacturing facility so the carbon and biomass captured within the tree can be used for a beneficial product used by humans.

In turn, forestry professionals will then regenerate that forest and ensure that land continues to produce forest through time.

Forest fires, insect or disease outbreaks are natural disturbances. The regions in which they occur and the size of land affected are at the mercy of nature. However, by managing this natural resource, ASFP members are able to control, to some extent, the size and scope of those disturbances and apply a human disturbance to the landbase.

ASFP members also follow up with prompt reforestation to ensure the affected areas are again producing trees.