Christian Messier calls for the diversification of forests at the House of Commons of Canada regarding the Jasper fire

In October 2024, Christian Messier, main coordinator of the DIVERSE project, has talked at the House of Commons of Canada regarding the causes of the Jasper National Park fire. The park, the largest national park of Alberta, have been a center of national attention when a large wildfire that developed there in June 2024. The fire led to the mass evacuation of 25 000 residents of the town of Jasper, and to the death of a firefighter. It is also one of the most expensive natural disasters to have happen in Canadian history, leading to around $880 millions in insurance claims.

Following the fire, a committee was formed at the House of Commons of Canada to investigate the causes of the fire, in order to better prevent future wildfires in the country. Many witnesses where called in October to testify to the committee what they thought these cause where, and how they could be addressed in the future. 32 witnesses where heard in total, including leaders from First Nations, Outdoors Councils, Forest product industries, firefighter groups, and different government representatives.

Among these witnesses was Christian Messier, who took the opportunity to highlight the fact that a lack of human intervention in the Jasper National park might have led to an important build up of fire fuel, which became one of the causes of the fire. Christian also took time to make several recommendations to prevent future large wildfires in Canada, including the diversification of Canadian forests through the lens of functional diversity – the main research subject of the DIVERSE project. In the question period that followed his speech, Christian also noted that while human intervention in forests could help them become more resistant and resilient to future disturbances, it was also human intervention that created some of the factors that led to the Jasper fire. In particular, Christian noted that the large-scale pine-beetle epidemic that left many dead trees in its wake in Alberta – and increased the risk of fire – was a result of planting large surfaces of pure lodgepole pines stands for forestry purposes.

You can watch the intervention of Christian at the time stamp 11:13:46 of the following video, and see him answer some questions at around 11:45:30. You can also find a full transcript of the discussion on the website of the House of Commons.