{"id":459548,"date":"2026-08-01T07:57:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=459548"},"modified":"2026-08-01T07:57:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:57:47","slug":"blame-canadas-terrible-regulations-for-wildfires-ruining-americas-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=459548","title":{"rendered":"Blame Canada\u2019s Terrible Regulations For Wildfires Ruining America\u2019s Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From CO2 Coalition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr. Joseph Fournier<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans often picture Canada as a vast northern forest \u2013 an endless expanse of pristine wilderness. But the truth is far more complex and increasingly relevant to U.S.\u2013Canada policy debates. Eighty\u2011nine percent of Canada is Crown land, owned by federal or provincial governments. Yet only about 10\u201312% of that land receives detailed ecological monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This matters because U.S. trade policy, Canadian conservation policy, and federal herbicide permitting are now combining to reshape North America\u2019s forests in ways few Americans recognize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 20 years, Canada\u2019s sawmill and pulp\u2011and\u2011paper sectors have entered a steep decline. Statistics Canada and industry reports show that mill closures have accelerated, especially in western Canada, where over 30% of softwood lumber capacity has disappeared. Employment has dropped sharply. Entire forestry towns have hollowed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while multiple factors contribute \u2013 mountain pine beetle damage, wildfire losses, transportation bottlenecks \u2013 the most overlooked driver is the federal government\u2019s long\u2011standing approval of spraying Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide across millions of hectares of Crown forests. For decades, glyphosate has been used to kill broadleaf species \u2013 birch, aspen, poplar \u2013 so that commercially valuable conifers can dominate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this practice has consequences. Roundup creates monoculture conifer stands, which are more resin\u2011rich and significantly more flammable than mixed\u2011species forests. Instead of diverse, moisture\u2011retaining ecosystems, Canada is producing vast tracts of single\u2011age, single\u2011species pine and spruce \u2013 exactly the kind of forests that burn explosively under extreme fire weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a continental paradox: Policies meant to \u201cmanage\u201d forests have instead created more combustible landscapes, contributing to the anomalous rise in total annual area burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deterioration of Canada\u2019s forestry is also being accelerated by domestic policy. Rising carbon taxes on diesel and gasoline \u2013 critical fuels for logging, hauling, and mill operations \u2013 have increased costs across the supply chain. New layers of regulation slow approvals and reduce harvest flexibility. And when pulp mills close, sawmills lose buyers for residual chips and sawdust, undermining their economics even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most consequential impact of this industrial contraction is ecological. Canada\u2019s parklands \u2013 where monitoring exists \u2013 show a clear trend of rapidly aging boreal forests, with large stands now reaching 70 to 120 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Alberta\u2019s eastern foothills, provincial parks contain dense, overmature, fuel\u2011loaded forests primed for high\u2011intensity wildfire. Decades of fire suppression, beetle kill, drought, and heavy recreational pressure have created extreme fire risk. As Parks Canada itself warns, \u201cthe reduction or exclusion of fire as a natural process \u2026 leads to increased risk of wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequences are here. Alberta\u2019s Jasper National Park recently nearly burned to the ground when extreme fire weather collided with decades of fuel accumulation, beetle\u2011killed forests, a highly vulnerable townsite, and infrastructure failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, long\u2011term fire data tell a more nuanced story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Canada\u2019s National Burned Area Composite and CIFFC wildfire statistics, forest\u2011fire frequency has declined since the 1980s. Canada is experiencing fewer fires overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has changed is the total area burned, which had remained relatively moderate for decades but then spiked dramatically in 2023 and again in 2025, producing two of the worst years for fires in modern Canadian history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These spikes reflect the dangerous combination of aging forests, heavy fuel loads, glyphosate\u2011driven monoculture, and extreme fire weather \u2013 not an increase in ignition frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, federal biodiversity reports show that parks are not experiencing net improvement. Most ecosystems are stable, but among those changing, declines outnumber gains. And crucially, non\u2011park Crown lands are not monitored at all, meaning there is no empirical basis to claim that conservation designations improve biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Ottawa is moving ahead with its flagship 30\u00d730 agenda \u2013 a plan to place 30% of Canada\u2019s land and water under conservation status by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, this means restricting forestry across vast areas when forests are aging, fuel\u2011loaded, and increasingly prone to extreme fire behavior. By limiting private\u2011sector utilization, 30\u00d730 will increase fuel loading, exacerbate forest aging, and reduce the thinning and harvesting activities that mitigate catastrophic wildfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Americans concerned about lumber prices or wildfire smoke drifting south, the lesson is simple. Canada\u2019s forests are increasingly unmanaged, aging, and burning, not because Canadians don\u2019t care, but because the economic and policy frameworks governing those forests are pushing the country toward less active management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North America needs forestry \u2013 not just parks \u2013 to remain resilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published at The DailyWire<\/a><\/em>, July 31, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Fournier<\/a>, Ph.D., has worked in the energy industry and environmental sciences and is a member of the <\/em>CO2<\/sub> Coalition<\/em><\/a>, Fairfax, Virginia. He writes from his family\u2019s ranch east of Calgary.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans often picture Canada as a vast northern forest \u2013 an endless expanse of pristine wilderness. But the truth is far more complex and increasingly relevant to U.S.\u2013Canada policy debates. Eighty\u2011nine percent of Canada is Crown land, owned by federal or provincial governments. Yet only about 10\u201312% of that land receives detailed ecological monitoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":459550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Americans often picture Canada as a vast northern forest \u2013 an endless expanse of pristine wilderness. But the truth is far more complex and increasingly relevant to U.S.\u2013Canada policy debates. Eighty-nine percent of Canada is Crown land, owned by federal or provincial governments. Yet only about 10\u201312% of that land receives detailed ecological monitoring.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818320,691820083,691844387,691843817,691844386,691818913],"class_list":["post-459548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alberta","tag-canada","tag-ciffc-wildfire-statistics","tag-forestry","tag-jasper-national-park","tag-wildfires","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Vy4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":265619,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265619","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":0},"title":"Check Your Facts, Yahoo News and New York Times, Neither Canadian Wildfires nor Heatwaves Are Getting Worse","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Smoke from Canada\u2019s ongoing wildfires continues to darken skies in the United States, and mainstream media outlets like Yahoo News and the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0blame climate change. They are wrong. Data disproves a causal connection between the modest warming the Earth has experienced over the past century to Canada\u2019s wildfires and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canadian wildfires\"","block_context":{"text":"Canadian wildfires","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canadian-wildfires"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIG-11.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIG-11.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIG-11.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIG-11.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261853,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261853","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":1},"title":"You are being conned: Data, studies & UN IPCC all reveal Canadian fires not due to \u2018climate change\u2019 \u2013 \u2018There has been a significant & continuing decline in the number of fires\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The media and climate activists are again weaponizing wildfires and linking them to climate change. Better forest management, cracking down on arson, and improved fire impression practices are what is needed, not the Green New Deal.","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":262119,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262119","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":2},"title":"Wrong, Mainstream Media, Climate Change Didn\u2019t Cause Canadian Forest Fires or the Smoke in U.S. Cities","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/14\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, mainstream media outlets were abuzz with stories claiming that smoke from wildfires in Canada visibly polluting the skies in New York City, Washington, D.C., and many other cities in the northeastern United States was due to climate change. This is false.","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0032951139_web1_230601-RDA-Canada-Nova-Scotia-Wildfires_1-1536x968-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C756&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":456491,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=456491","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":3},"title":"Canadian Wildfire Smoke Spreads Across U.S., Triggering Air Quality Alerts","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/19\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Recurring wildfire smoke raises questions about Canadian forest management. For the past several years, we have covered the smoke emanating from blazes in Canada\u2019s mismanaged forests. Furthermore, a number of the fires were investigated for potential arson.","rel":"","context":"In \"Air quality\"","block_context":{"text":"Air quality","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=air-quality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-Canadian-Wildfire-Smoke-Spreads-Across-U.S.-Triggering-Air-Quality-Alerts.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-Canadian-Wildfire-Smoke-Spreads-Across-U.S.-Triggering-Air-Quality-Alerts.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-Canadian-Wildfire-Smoke-Spreads-Across-U.S.-Triggering-Air-Quality-Alerts.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-Canadian-Wildfire-Smoke-Spreads-Across-U.S.-Triggering-Air-Quality-Alerts.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0-ChatGPT-Canadian-Wildfire-Smoke-Spreads-Across-U.S.-Triggering-Air-Quality-Alerts.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":272027,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=272027","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":4},"title":"Right, Wall Street Journal, Wildfires Are Declining as Climate Changes","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Globally, the number and scope of wildfires have fallen sharply from earlier decades and centuries.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02048px-Woolsey_Fire_-_tree_ridge_in_flames_20181119-PB-008.jpg?fit=1200%2C741&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02048px-Woolsey_Fire_-_tree_ridge_in_flames_20181119-PB-008.jpg?fit=1200%2C741&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02048px-Woolsey_Fire_-_tree_ridge_in_flames_20181119-PB-008.jpg?fit=1200%2C741&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02048px-Woolsey_Fire_-_tree_ridge_in_flames_20181119-PB-008.jpg?fit=1200%2C741&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02048px-Woolsey_Fire_-_tree_ridge_in_flames_20181119-PB-008.jpg?fit=1200%2C741&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":267419,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267419","url_meta":{"origin":459548,"position":5},"title":"It\u2019s not the climate, it\u2019s the fuel","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/14\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWildfires have been getting less frequent in Canada over the past 30 years,\u201d McKitrick writes. \u201cThe annual number of fires grew from 1959 to 1990, peaking in 1989 at just over 12,000 that year, and has been trending down since. From 2017 to 2021 (the most recent interval available), there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0-ChatGPT-Blame-Canadas-Terrible-Regulations-For-Wildfires-Ruining-Americas-Summer.png?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459554,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459548\/revisions\/459554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/459550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}