The impact of forest fires and clear-cut logging practices in and around Quetico Provincial Park was the focus of an environmental study headed up this summer by the Quetico Foundation, in partnership with the University of Waterloo and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The project, which wrapped up Aug. 20, involved student researchers working park sites over a two-month period, as well as living the bush life for up to 10 days at a time.
Researchers located old fire areas from the 1950s and 60s, known in environmental circles as “eco-tones,” and squared off small sections of land in and around the burn.
These areas helped researchers determine the regeneration process over the past 30-40 years.
Beth Parks, one of the two project leaders, said the information gathered will help form a basis for fire management within the park boundaries by shedding light on how the forest re-grows into a mature community–and what species dominate over time.
Those findings also will help determine whether controlled burns are necessary to help tidy up the forest’s eco-system.
“The eco-tones are areas of community change within the area where a fire has burned,” Parks said. “We get to see how [the forest] is re-growing and what plants are in that area.”
She also noted while forest fires can be devastating, they are a vital link in the forest’s bio-diversity.
“Forest fires are an important part of a forest’s life cycle,” she said. “It’s sort of like a messy bedroom–sometimes you have to clean it up.”
Atikokan resident Jen Covello, 19, a second-year marine biology student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was among those taking an active role in the project.
“It was quite an experience to try and find what we were looking for,” she said last week. “We had maps with the boundaries of the fires marked on them, and we had to go out and look for fire scars and charred stumps.
“We would trans-sect an area 90 degrees to the fire boundary in one metre by one metre plots and identify plant species,” she added.
The project also looked at clear-cut logging areas just outside the park’s boundaries to compare similarities and differences between the re-growth process there and in forest fire areas.
Field research will be analyzed by the University of Waterloo’s Environmental Studies department, with the MNR helping in the implementation of the findings.
The Quetico Foundation summer program was financially supported by the Molson Companies Donations Fund.
Fort Frances Times
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