Forests, fire, and fish: Policy pathways to manage forests for wildfire resilience, salmon recovery, and watershed security

<jats:p>As a high-latitude nation, Canada is warming at more than twice the global average (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2019). This trend is driving higher temperatures, reduced precipitation (Bush and Lemmon, 2019), prolonged droughts, and increased lightning frequency (Romps et al., 2014). In British Columbia, industrial forestry practices have reshaped forest ecosystems. Clear-cut logging, the removal of old-growth trees, and the suppression of broadleaf vegetation have resulted in homogenous, even-aged stands with little species diversity. Coupled with over a century of fire exclusion, landscapes across British Columbia have high fuel loads and reduced ecological resilience, making them increasingly prone to high-severity wildfires. Wild Pacific salmon are foundational to ecosystems across British Columbia and have adapted to fire regimes over their evolutionary history. Pacific salmon, and aquatic ecosystems more broadly, can experience both positive and negative effects from wildfire through modifications to habitat complexity, streamflow, and water temperature. However, contemporary fire regimes that are characterized by more frequent, intense, and severe wildfires may exceed their adaptive capacity. Exacerbating this challenge is a suite of cumulative effects that interact across multiple scales, including: increased marine and freshwater temperatures, habitat loss and degradation, barriers to fish passage, fisheries exploitation, and fish farm and hatchery interactions. Collectively, these stressors undermine recovery and make the viability of some salmon populations uncertain in a hotter, drier climate.</jats:p>