Can Forestry and Climate Be Reconciled?

The logging industry is one of our country’s major carbon emitters. Logging reduces carbon stocks in vegetation and forest soil, and at the end of their life cycle, wood-based products often end up in landfills or incinerators, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere. However, the forestry sector is a key industry for several regions in Quebec. Wood can also be used as an alternative to energy-intensive materials, but only if it replaces those with a high carbon footprint. So, is there a way to manage forests in a way that truly mitigates greenhouse gas emissions? Can wood be the “green” material that it is said to be? This article provides a comprehensive overview of the scientific literature that addresses these questions.

Goals of carbon-optimized forestry

Academic research suggests several approaches for a more carbon-conscious forestry that balances productivity and climate concerns. These approaches revolve around three main objectives: (i) maintaining carbon stocks while limiting emissions from silvicultural operations; (ii) optimizing wood products; and (iii) increasing the resilience of forests to climate change.

Maintaining carbon stocks and reducing emissions

The latest scientific research shows that maximizing carbon stocks in forests means preserving as much living biomass (via trees), deadwood, and soil carbon as possible. To achieve this, more old-growth forests must be protected by excluding them from allowable cut calculations¹. It also means reducing harvesting intensity, particularly by using selective cutting rather than clear cutting^2,3,4, and extending rotation periods (the time between harvests) to more than 50 years for selective cutting, to allow forests to reach their maximum carbon sequestration capacity^5,6 and accumulate deadwood on the forest floor⁷.

Simultaneously, emissions from forestry operations must be limited. Some ground interventions, such as scarification, can expedite the breakdown of organic matter and increase carbon losses^8,9,10. These practices should not be used indiscriminately but rather target sites where they offer the most significant benefits for regeneration, while avoiding soils that are more sensitive to organic carbon loss, such as organic and poorly drained soils^11,12. Furthermore, even without mechanical preparation of the land like scarification, logging practices that disrupt soil structure can also accelerate the leaching of dissolved organic carbon into waterways, leading to a more rapid release of carbon into the atmosphere¹³. Finally, after cutting, it is best to leave behind any remaining debris (branches, stumps, tops), as these materials help replenish the soil, promote the natural nutrient cycle, and regulate soil pH⁷.

Optimizing wood products

The way harvested timber is utilized significantly affects the carbon footprint of the forestry industry. When it is mainly processed into short-lived products (paper, cardboard, etc.), carbon rapidly returns into the atmosphere. Conversely, favouring products with a longer lifespan (construction, furniture, etc.) can reduce the net emissions from Quebec’s forestry sector by 10 to 20%^14,15. This means producing larger, higher-quality wood by allowing trees to grow longer. More importantly, we must increase the sustainability and circularity of products (reuse, recycling, end-of-life recovery)¹⁶ to extend the carbon storage period.

Increasing forests’ resilience to climate change

For forests to continue playing their role in mitigating GHG emissions, we must allow them to strengthen their resilience to increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events and natural disturbances. Maintaining diversity—in terms of species, age, and structure—is one of the best strategies^17,18. However, it must be expressed on several scales: at the landscape level, a mosaic of various stands—some young, others mature, composed of different species—makes the entire territory more stable; at the stand level, mixtures of complementary species limit growth losses during climatic stress. This is because each species reacts differently to drought, fire, frost, insects, or disease. A forest dominated by a single species is vulnerable to catastrophic damage from a single disturbance, such as a budworm outbreak. However, a diverse forest can continue to thrive and act as a carbon sink, even after experiencing disruption¹⁹. With fires becoming more frequent and intense, preserving more mature forests and well-distributed retention patch areas would help to guarantee seed sources after fires and promote natural regeneration^20,21. This heterogeneity also provides a mosaic of shade and moisture that protects the soil, offering greater resistance to heat waves and prolonged droughts²².

Conclusion

Quebec’s forests have the potential to be powerful allies in the fight against climate change, but they require careful planning and time to thrive. We need to think beyond timber production and incorporate carbon science into management decisions: keep more mature trees in the forest, avoid intensive practices, strengthen resilience to natural disturbances, and extend the life of wood products. These are concrete solutions for reforming the forestry regime to ensure a promising future for our forests and the communities that rely on them.

References

1. Drever, C. R., Cook-Patton, S. C., Akhter, F., Badiou, P. H., Chmura, G. L., Davidson, S. J., Desjardins, R. L., Dyk, A., Fargione, J. E., Fellows, M., Filewod, B., Hessing-Lewis, M., Jayasundara, S., Keeton, W. S., Kroeger, T., Lark, T. J., Le, E., Leavitt, S. M., LeClerc, M.-E., Lemprière, T. C., Metsaranta, J., McConkey, B., Neilson, E., St-Laurent, G. P., Puric-Mladenovic, D., Rodrigue, S., Soolanayakanahally, R. Y., Spawn, S. A., Strack, M., Smyth, C., Thevathasan, N., Voicu, M., Williams, C. A., Woodbury, P. B., Worth, D. E., Xu, Z., Yeo, S. & Kurz, W. A. Natural climate solutions for Canada. Science Advances 7, eabd6034 (2021). ↩︎
2. Soimakallio, S., Böttcher, H., Niemi, J., Mosley, F., Turunen, S., Hennenberg, K. J., Reise, J. & Fehrenbach, H. Closing an open balance: The impact of increased tree harvest on forest carbon. GCB Bioenergy 14, 989–1000 (2022). ↩︎
3. James, J. & Harrison, R. The Effect of Harvest on Forest Soil Carbon: A Meta-Analysis. Forests 7, 308 (2016). ↩︎
4. Ameray, A., Cavard, X., Cyr, D., Valeria, O., Girona, M. M. & Bergeron, Y. One century of carbon dynamics in the eastern Canadian boreal forest under various management strategies and climate change projections. Ecological Modelling 498, (2024). ↩︎
5. Pukkala, T. Does management improve the carbon balance of forestry? Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 90, 125–135 (2017). ↩︎
6. Paradis, L., Thiffault, E. & Achim, A. Comparison of carbon balance and climate change mitigation potential of forest management strategies in the boreal forest of Quebec (Canada). Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 92, 264–277 (2019). ↩︎
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8. Marty, C., Ouimet, R., Fradette, O., Paré, M., Faubert, P. & Villeneuve, C. Assessing soil carbon dynamics following mechanical site preparation in boreal lichen woodlands of Québec, Canada. Forest Ecology and Management 553, (2024). ↩︎
9. Örlander, G., Gemmel, P. & Hunt, J. Site Preparation: A Swedish Overview. (BC Ministry of Forests, 1990). ↩︎
10. Dufour, B., Hébert, F. & Boucher, J.-F. Temporal changes in forest floor carbon stocks following scarification in boreal lichen woodlands. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 39, 101–109 (2024). ↩︎
11. Deighton, H. D., Bell, F. W. & Lindo, Z. Long-Term Effects of Forest Management on Boreal Forest Soil Organic Carbon. Forests 16, 902 (2025). ↩︎
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13. Freeman, E. C., Emilson, E. J., Webster, K., Dittmar, T. & Tanentzap, A. J. Logging disrupts the ecology of molecules in headwater streams. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.07.531469 (2023). ↩︎
14. Ménard, I., Thiffault, E., Magnan, M., Kurz, W. A., Hébert, F. & Boucher, J.-F. Improving carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions avoidance through harvested wood products use. Trees, Forests and People 19, 100757 (2025). ↩︎
15. Moreau, L., Thiffault, E., Cyr, D., Boulanger, Y. & Beauregard, R. How can the forest sector mitigate climate change in a changing climate? Case studies of boreal and northern temperate forests in eastern Canada. Forest Ecosystems 9, (2022). ↩︎
16. Moreau, L., Thiffault, E., Landry, G. & Carle, J.-F. How does shifting wood products between uses affect their carbon dynamics and climatic impacts? Leveraging MoSiR, a new carbon accounting tool. Ecological Modelling 508, (2025). ↩︎
17. Puettmann, K. J. & Tappeiner, J. C. Multi-scale assessments highlight silvicultural opportunities to increase species diversity and spatial variability in forests. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research 87, 1–10 (2014). ↩︎
18. Messier, C., Bauhus, J., Doyon, F., Maure, F., Sousa-Silva, R., Nolet, P., Mina, M., Aquilué, N., Fortin, M.-J. & Puettmann, K. The functional complex network approach to foster forest resilience to global changes. Forest Ecosystems 6, 21 (2019). ↩︎
19. Cao, R., Zhang, Y., Fernández-Martínez, M., Zhang, Z., Lai, G., Ju, W. & Peñuelas, J. Global evidence for a positive relationship between tree species richness and ecosystem photosynthesis. Nat. Plants 11, 1429–1440 (2025). ↩︎
20. Jetté, J.-P., Leduc, A., Gauthier, S. & Bergeron, Y. Adaptation de l’aménagement forestier face aux incendies forestiers – Quelques options à explorer pour la forêt boréale. The Forestry Chronicle 101, 11–18 (2025). ↩︎
21. Boulanger, Y., Arseneault, D., Bélisle, A. C., Bergeron, Y., Boucher, J., Boucher, Y., Danneyrolles, V., Erni, S., Gachon, P., Girardin, M. P., Grant, E., Grondin, P., Jetté, J.-P., Labadie, G., Leblond, M., Leduc, A., Pascual, J., St-Laurent, M.-H., Tremblay, J. A. & Waldron, K. La saison des feux de forêt 2023 au Québec: un aperçu des conditions extrêmes, des impacts, des leçons apprises et des considérations pour l’avenir. Can. J. For. Res. 55, 1–23 (2025). ↩︎
22. Prescott, C. E. & Grayston, S. J. TAMM review: Continuous root forestry—Living roots sustain the belowground ecosystem and soil carbon in managed forests. Forest Ecology and Management 532, 120848 (2023). ↩︎