Quebec town hopes replanting the right trees will shield their community from future forest fires

Last month, a dozen people hauled mulch and a thousand trees across the forest, walking trails and perimeter of Fermont in northern Quebec.

The town near the border with Labrador planted what they hope will become a shield for the community, following last year's unprecedented forest fire season.

Unlike other replanting efforts, this one focused on deciduous trees, says Simon Côté, the head co-ordinator at Arbre-Évolution, the organization that helped back the planting project.

"In the next year, it has to be something that every city will do," said Côté.

"It needs to be at least 30 metres like a shield of hardwood … in case of very extreme fire that cannot be controlled and that we know can happen."

This year, Fermont is once again being tested. 

A fire spreading rapidly is forcing evacuations in Labrador, prompting Fermont to issue a "pre-alert" warning to residents on Friday, asking them to be ready to leave at any moment if necessary.

Coniferous trees 'like a forest of matches'

Maple, birch and other varieties tend to retain more water, he says, making them less susceptible to acting as fuel in a fire and a better option for reforestation.

"Lots of fires have been just stopped neat when the forest was more hardwood so it's a direct observation," said Côté.

"The conifer, like the spruce, is full of organic oil that can ignite very, very quickly … like a forest of matches."

Côté says the forest economy tends to be structured around spruce — one of the reasons why areas still tend to plant mostly coniferous trees.

"All the buyers, the suppliers, everything is framed with this kind of tree," said Côté.

"I have lots of friends who still plant trees and they're very proud to plant 1,000 or 2,000 trees a day. But it's all spruce, you know, 95 per cent."

He says this project in Fermont is a "tiny first step."

"It's a very small scale, but it's to show an example. It's to show the people that we need to take action," said Côté. "We are behind."

'We were lucky'

In total, the fire safety initiative cost the town $150,000, says Fermont general manager Claude Gagné.

"This all started in 2016," he said.

That's when Quebec's forest fire protection agency, SOPFEU, visited the town to evaluate risk.

"There were a number of wooded areas near residential neighbourhoods, including a campground in the town of Fermont," said Gagné. "We began by reducing density near residential buildings."

The changes came at the right time.

In 2023, the city cut back spruce, pine and other coniferous trees ahead of a forest fire season that ravaged the province.

"It was to reduce the potential of a nearby forest fire from transferring to nearby woodlands in the city," said Gagné.

"We were lucky. We got ahead of it."

Over six days, the town planted around 1,000 trees.

SOPFEU spokesperson Mélanie Morin says intermixing a forest with a variety of trees minimizes the fire's intensity.

"Deciduous trees because of their nature, because of the leaves … don't carry fire in the same intensity that coniferous trees do. So definitely they are a plus," she said.

The forest fire risk on Friday was listed as "extreme" in many northern Quebec regions, with open fires banned in or near a forest in the James Bay area, Côte-Nord, Saguenay, Abitibi and the Mauricie.