{"id":243661,"date":"2025-10-27T14:59:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243661\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T14:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:59:29","slug":"how-this-exceptional-drought-is-changing-nwt-forests-and-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243661\/","title":{"rendered":"How this \u2018exceptional\u2019 drought is changing NWT forests and fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Louie Beaulieu, a trapper who worked in forestry for more than 50 years, has noticed the effect of the NWT\u2019s drought on the land where he lives in Fort Smith.<\/p>\n

Beaulieu just came back from his cabin. Where the lake is normally high, he said, this year the creeks are all dried out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water table is about six feet lower than normal. Never seen that for years. I\u2019ve never, ever seen that,\u201d said Beaulieu.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the muskegs \u2013 like the big muskegs that used to be full of water \u2013 you can walk across them just about anywhere now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since the drought began impacting creeks, rivers and muskeg, he\u2019s noticed the muskrats have moved elsewhere and the beavers soon followed.<\/p>\n

For the NWT government\u2019s 2024 Forest Health Report,<\/a> published last month, researchers were only able to survey about one third of the area they would normally study.<\/p>\n

Smoke from nearby wildfires reduced visibility for crews on the ground and in the air, making it difficult for researchers to do their work. <\/p>\n

Even so, one of the report\u2019s findings is the sheer impact of a drought that has covered much the NWT since June 2022 \u2013 and its effect on forests.<\/p>\n

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Of about four million hectares of forest surveyed by researchers in 2024, more than 220,000 hectares showed stresses from either the ongoing drought or the high water of 2020 and 2021, the report asserted. Because the survey work was limited by factors like smoke, researchers think the real extent of the issue \u201cis likely substantially larger.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the North Slave, for example, the report found \u201clarge areas of black spruce
decline northwest of Lac La Martre extending to the Sahtu border, and jack pine mortality growing on shield rock and in exposed areas along the Ingraham Trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely likely that mortality exists and is going unsurveyed in the surrounding landscape in both areas,\u201d the report continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it is suspected much of the shield in the North and South Slave regions may have experienced similar jack pine mortality including the East Arm of the Great Slave Lake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drought can contribute to tree and plant mortality, which in turn creates fuel for wildfires. An extreme drought, researchers said, makes extremely hot and fast-moving crown fires more likely, and those fires can be difficult or impossible to control.<\/p>\n

While droughts have occurred in the NWT over the past 30 years, the report describes the current conditions as an \u201cexceptional event,\u201d the full effect of which will become more visible in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Experts say that while the trend over recent years indicates climate change will bring more extreme swings between dry and wet weather, the NWT\u2019s drought has changed forests across the territory in big and small ways.<\/p>\n

Drying of the landscape<\/p>\n

The latest water monitoring bulletin published by the territory\u2019s Department of Environment and Climate Change earlier this month found the amount of precipitation to fall in August was mostly well below average, while the temperatures that month were mostly well above average.<\/p>\n

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The bulletin found water levels were below average in many of the NWT\u2019s major bodies of water like Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake and the Slave, Hay and Mackenzie rivers. There are just a few exceptions \u2013 like the South Nahanni, Snare, Taltson, Lockhart and Hoarfrost rivers \u2013 where water levels were either average or above average for the monitoring period.<\/p>\n

These low water levels, which can also be seen in ponds and creeks, have now existed for years.<\/p>\n

Droughts are a normal feature of the boreal forest and most species can live with a period of low water, the NWT\u2019s Department of Environment and Climate Change stated, but a prolonged drought like this one can push some animals and plants beyond their usual limits. (The department declined a request for an interview with authors of the latest forest report, but answered questions over email.)<\/p>\n

\u201cAn extended and severe drought is likely to impact amphibians that rely on wetlands and moist habitats, beavers and muskrats that rely on aquatic systems for shelter and food, and moose, which are sensitive to heat and water scarcity,\u201d the department told Cabin Radio by email.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrought can also decrease forage quality for moose. Caribou may also be impacted as lichen-rich habitats may degrade under drought and an increased incidence of wildfire. Birds are also likely to be impacted by drought, particularly those that nest or feed in wetlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Effect of low water flow<\/p>\n

David Olefeldt, a professor in the University of Alberta\u2019s Department of Renewable Resources, has been studying muskeg and peatlands in the NWT for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

He leads a monitoring program in the Dehcho and South Slave regions that studies the effect of permafrost thaw, wildfires, and cycles of drought and flood on greenhouse gases and carbon balance in these wetlands \u2013 and how those factors influence the water chemistry in the creeks and rivers that drain the muskeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last three summers have been extremely dry in the Dehcho and South Slave but prior to that, we had three really wet years, so it\u2019s not like we\u2019ve been on a constant drying trend,\u201d said Olefeldt. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s more increased variability and wetness from year to year. It\u2019s hard to say what next year will bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dry conditions over the past few years have resulted in low water flow from muskeg to streams and rivers, Olefeldt has observed. This means water in streams largely comes from deeper groundwater sources and doesn\u2019t pick up as much sediment and organic matter, making streams appear clearer, without the brown and yellow colour that is typically associated with swampy wetlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, that can sound like you\u2019re having improved water quality, but really that\u2019s not the case, because these ecosystems, they\u2019re adapted to the type of water that would be normal when wetlands are connected,\u201d Olefeldt said.<\/p>\n

This, he said, can change the way species interact through the likes of prey and predator interactions. Low water can also affect the migration of fish and other creatures.<\/p>\n

Olefeldt thinks at least a year or two of wetter-than-normal weather will be needed to re-establish the usual river flow. <\/p>\n

\"\"Two undergraduate students measure greenhouse gas emissions using a soil chamber, a way of assessing how drought is affecting the greenhouse gas balance of peatlands. Photo supplied by David Olefeldt<\/p>\n

Olefeldt has found that permafrost in the NWT makes peatlands more resilient to drought as it impedes a degree of water movement. This has prevented some areas from drying out and releasing carbon stores held in these lands. <\/p>\n

However, he notes that permafrost is disappearing \u201crelatively quickly\u201d in southern parts of the territory due to climate change.<\/p>\n

When wildfires \u2013 which have been worsened by the drought \u2013 roll through peatland, the areas are usually dry enough to allow for the growth of species that readily burn like black spruce.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEven though they\u2019re wetlands, they actually burn quite severely,\u201d said Olefeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they do burn, they release more carbon from combustion, because the peat soil stores all this soil carbon and it\u2019s combusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018strategic game of chess\u2019<\/p>\n

The NWT\u2019s wildfire agency is tasked with understanding and adapting to the effect of drought on the territory\u2019s landscape and how fire interacts with it.<\/p>\n

Richard Olsen, fire operations manager at NWT Fire, said the lack of rain across the territory has had a big impact on crews\u2019 ability to combat wildfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a typical season \u2013 several years ago \u2013 we would have seen several days or weeks of drying, and then you\u2019d get a rain event. And the rain event would have five, 10, upwards of 25 ml, and it would tend to keep things damp on occasion,\u201d Olsen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re seeing now situations where we could go for 30 days or longer without any real significant rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, Olsen said, allows for fuels like trees and brush to dry out, and reduces \u2013 or altogether eliminates \u2013 wetlands that would have otherwise acted as a natural fire break.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some of these big wet prairie systems, the water has dropped right down. You can literally walk through areas that used to be ponds, and they\u2019re now just dry mud flats,\u201d said Olsen. <\/p>\n

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\u201cAny kind of grass or vegetation that\u2019s associated with those, in addition to just being dry, carry fire through those types of areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, Olsen said, fire behaviour hasn\u2019t changed. It can be predicted based on the interaction between fuels, weather and topography. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic science around how things ignite, and how they start and how they burn, hasn\u2019t really changed. But that being said, the individual inputs \u2013 especially as it comes to kind of the weather and the fuel \u2013 are certainly pushing things towards more extreme type fire behaviour,\u201d said Olsen.<\/p>\n

In wetter years, such as before the current drought began in 2022, Olsen said he\u2019d seen fires remain relatively contained, without growing more than a couple hectares, and fewer fires in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to, in the last couple of years, be a lot more careful on fires that might just get simply larger, because there\u2019s no hindrance to them getting big, and we have to look a lot farther out from communities in terms of where the kind of risk might be over an entire season for a fire that\u2019s growing,\u201d said Olsen.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s seen these fires, some of which burn deeper in the soil than normal and require more work to put out, become a threat to communities \u201cquite unlike we\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past decade or so, fires have also challenged the traditional notion<\/a> that recently burned areas act as a natural fire barrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2013, and [20]14, we\u2019ve seen that some of these areas are not just having fires go through them, but they\u2019re really prone to reburning,\u201d said Olsen.<\/p>\n

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In recent years, Olsen has seen the fire season grow longer, beginning earlier in the spring and lasting well into September, as well as some fires that overwinter between seasons under the cover of snow.<\/p>\n

This, he said, puts strain on staff resources and crews who have to complete training sooner and work later into the year.<\/p>\n

What makes responding to these fires even more difficult, Olsen said, is that fires like these aren\u2019t unique to the NWT. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Canada as a whole starts to have those kind of conditions and require significant resources, it really plays into the ability of us and others to come to each other\u2019s aid and share resources,\u201d said Olsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to a point, literally, where there were no resources available within Canada, very limited resources available through the [United] States, because they also were having their own fire behaviour conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the changing climate continues to alter the natural environment, people will have to continue to adapt to these changes, Olsen said. He argues part of that is accepting fire as a natural and essential part of the landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we continue to see fire as a threat entirely, and move towards trying to extinguish everything, we take out that ecological function, and we really start to add more fuel to potential future fires,\u201d he said, \u201cto a point where it may be that we\u2019ve just created a condition where we\u2019ve made a fire even worse than it would have been if we would have had some kind of fire on the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Olsen said considerable effort is put into understanding what should be protected from fire on the landscape, with human life (including the safety of firefighters) taking priority, as well as communities, homes and other infrastructure. <\/p>\n

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Thirty-two four-person crews are the backbone of the territory\u2019s wildland firefighting force. Olsen says Ottawa is investing in more Firesmarting, community fire management capacity, and research into fire behaviour like \u201cshort interval reburns,\u201d in which fires burn through the same place twice in quick succession.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be some kind of balance between fire\u2019s natural role and what we can do to protect the values that are important to people in the NWT,\u201d Olsen said, adding that available resources have to be used in a calculated way, increasingly so as fires become bigger, more intense and requiring more effort to get under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a strategic game of chess,\u201d he said, \u201cwhere you really have to know all the pieces, where you try and put them all in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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