Create woodlands more resistant to climate change

The spring 2022 derecho destroyed more than 1,400 hectares of woodlands in southeastern Ontario. The natural disaster forced landowners to rethink their forests with the goal of making them more resilient in the future.

In May 2024, a dozen tree planters are at work at Jeanne Drouin, who owns 200 hectares of land in Plantagenet, Ontario, not far from Hawkesbury.

On a six-hectare plot of land that resembles a clearcut, around ten species of trees are planted.

This woodland, once mature, will look nothing like the red pine plantation that was once here.

We are trying to do better, to reestablish something that has a future. It's like bringing the positive out of something that was very, very difficult to accept.

A diversification project that Jeanne Drouin planned for the long term, but which was precipitated by a sudden and traumatic event.

Winds of 190 km/h

On the morning of May 21, 2022, a band of thunderstorms developed in Michigan, then unleashed across southern Ontario, from Windsor to Ottawa.

East of the federal capital, downward gusts of 190 km/h hit several communities.

Jeanne Drouin remembers it very well. Suddenly the wind picked up. I saw a tree in front of the house that was cracking and I said to myself, it's a sugar maple, it shouldn't be cracking like that. It was very scaryshe says.

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The derecho then sweeps over southern Quebec, then over New Brunswick, before dissipating over the Atlantic.

Sixteen people lost their lives during the storm, which left in its wake collapsed buildings, uprooted trees, shredded electricity pylons…

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After the storms, Jeanne Drouin walks around her property to see the damage.

It was terrible. It's as if bombs had fallen.

The worst damage is in his 40-year-old red pine plantation. The scene is desolate.

The trees still standing were bent over. There were a lot of trees that were broken, then others uprooted. I was like, my God, what do we do with this? she remembers.

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Lessons from the derecho

The damage caused by the 2022 derecho has been estimated at $1.2 billion, but that does not include the cost of damage to woodlands, which are not insurable.

Jean Saint-Pierre, president of Boisés Est, an organization that represents woodlot owners in Franco-Ontarian communities, defended this cause.

What we tend to overlook is that forests provide ecosystem services, and they are also quantifiable. There are people who talk about eco-taxation.

After several months of lobbying, the owners succeeded in obtaining $1.6 million in government subsidies.

Money to remove dead trees, a monumental task, then to reforest.

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And the lessons learned from the derecho dictate, in certain cases, a particular approach to adopt, explains Jean Saint-Pierre.

We now know very well the importance of creating diversified forests, to make them more resilient to climate change.he says.

More resilient woodlands

In spring 2024, reforestation begins. Forester Caroline Goulet of South Nation Conservation works with landowners to redesign their woodlots.

I've never seen this before, so much damage. Even the ice storm of 1998 was not comparable.

She explains that the worst affected areas were in coniferous monocultures.

All the trees were planted at the same time, so they were all the same age, all the same size. There was therefore no resistance to the wind, at the level of the forest structureshe explains.

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These ravaged areas are mainly reforested with different species of deciduous trees, which would be more resistant to climate change, according to Caroline Goulet.

Deciduous trees are predicted to be better adapted to periods of drought, less cold winters and high windsshe maintains.

Woodlot owners will also have to ensure variety in terms of the age of the trees.

Often, the mentality of a clean woodland is to remove all the small regrowths to see far into the forest. But we want this regeneration because it creates different age strata, different height strata, a more resilient woodland.she said.

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Despite the stumps and dead branches still scattered everywhere in her woodlands, Jeanne Drouin is already dreaming of her forests of the future.

I'm a big lover of nut trees, so there's going to be black walnuts, butternuts, and then four species of oaks. I already have in mind the image of the regrown forest, with all kinds of beautiful speciesshe describes.