Forest Destruction Outpaces Regeneration Efforts Amidst Program Cuts
The scale of wildfire destruction in Canada is now outpacing the nation’s ability to replant trees, according to industry assessments. Between 2023 and 2025, an estimated 10% of Canada’s forests have been lost to flames, a rate that is significantly challenging regeneration efforts.
Marley Moose, 22, is spending her third summer planting saplings in northern Manitoba, a vital but increasingly difficult task. “Everywhere around me is burnt, but it’s where life used to be, so we’re back here giving life back to these dead areas,” Moose explained, expertly planting young jack pine and black spruce into the soil.
The forest where Moose now works in Manitoba’s Interlake region has faced a double blow. Devastated by a jack pine budworm infestation in 2016, it had begun to recover when the Devils Lake area was ravaged by wildfire in 2021. Areas to the north are already experiencing fires this spring.
Indigenous-Led Restoration Efforts Under Threat
Moose’s involvement is part of a tree-planting program through Nekoté LP, an Indigenous-owned corporation representing seven Swampy Cree First Nations. “Our nations are trying to take more control and have more say within the land that we occupy and where we come from,” she stated. “We want to take care of it, because when we take care of the earth, the earth also takes care of us.”
However, the future of such initiatives is uncertain following the cancellation of a significant federal tree-planting program. The Canadian Tree Nursery Association (CTNA) reports that the country is losing trees at an alarming rate due to development, logging, paper production, and an increase in insect infestations like the mountain pine beetle. Wildfires alone, between 2023 and 2025, are estimated to have destroyed nearly a tenth of Canada’s forests, requiring an estimated 7.3 billion seedlings to replace just 15% of that loss.
Federal Planting Program Cancellation Raises Concerns
The federal government’s 2 Billion Trees Program, initially announced with an allocation of $3.2 billion over 10 years, has been cancelled. This decision, part of a broader federal budget focused on spending cuts and reinvestment in defense and infrastructure, jeopardizes programs like the one managed by Nekoté LP.
Doug Hevenor, executive director of the CTNA, expressed concern over the program’s termination. “Seed sources were lost and people were starting to realize that some of these mega-fires are preventing natural regeneration. So the program was just starting to… address areas that have been burned out,” he said. Hevenor noted that existing funding will only allow the program to reach half of its original target.
Record Fire Years Exacerbate the Problem
Canada is currently experiencing a severe fire season, following three consecutive years of intense wildfires. Last year was the second-worst on record, surpassed only by 2023, when approximately 150,000 square kilometers of land burned. Long-range forecasts anticipate hotter-than-normal conditions across much of the country in the coming months.
The ecological impact is profound. Canada’s managed forests have begun releasing more carbon than they absorb in recent years, contributing to a climate feedback loop. Notably, wildfires in Canada in 2023 released more greenhouse gas emissions than any country globally, with the exception of China, India, and the United States, according to a NASA study.
“What happens when this zombie fire rolls through and kills all the seed trees, kills all these stored stashed seeds, it’s gone,” Hevenor warned. “So we really face a great dilemma in our country right now. There’s a tremendous action happening against our forests and I think we need to react.”
Seeking New Funding and Sustainable Solutions
In response to the program’s cancellation and the ongoing environmental crisis, seed producers, foresters, tree planters, and seedling growers are collaborating on new solutions. Farron Sharp, a project manager with Blue-Green Planet Project, a sustainability-focused tree-planting company based in Smithers, B.C., is actively seeking new funding sources.
Sharp has partnered with Nekoté LP and Canadian Kraft Paper for five years, managing 8.7 million hectares of boreal forest around Devils Lake. While their project has some guaranteed funding from the now-cancelled federal program, they require additional support to meet their own target of planting 20 million trees by 2030.
“Every tree that goes into the ground is like a gift back to Mother Earth,” Sharp remarked, highlighting a survival rate of up to 99% for newly planted trees. She views this work as a countermeasure to the reliance on fossil fuels, rampant consumerism, and unsustainable logging practices that contribute to global warming and fuel the increasing wildfire events.
Moose, despite the physically demanding nature of her work, remains dedicated to the cause. “So that future generations, not my children, but maybe my grandchildren, they’ll be able to run through these forests,” she said, envisioning a future where these vital ecosystems can thrive once more.
