Historically, Nova Scotia’s forests were a fire-resistant mix of large deciduous and coniferous trees of different ages, known as a Wabanaki-Acadian forest.

Industrial forestry practices over the past seven decades — cycles of clearcutting, establishing softwood plantations, herbicide spraying — have transformed that ecosystem into one of predominantly even-aged, coniferous plantations that contain fewer species all living and dying around the same time, more crop than forest.

Industrial logging is “one of the main accelerants of the problem,” said Mike Lancaster, executive director of the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association.

It has left more fire-prone trees and deadwood than would have once existed, transforming the landscape into a tinderbox.

“The pre-European forests that typically covered Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick were these dark, closed canopy, very old forests for the most part,” said Donna Crossland, a forest ecologist and vice-president of Nature Nova Scotia.

Because of the trees’ size, shrubbery or small limbs couldn’t grow and the ground was a lot more moist, making it nearly impossible for a fire to spread. Major wildfires only started after Europeans arrived, and they were almost exclusively triggered by human- or machine-caused fires getting out of hand, she explained.

The late 1700s and 1800s saw “wave after wave of fire” as settlers logged, cleared the land and covered the Maritimes with railways and sparking trains

We are fortunate to have a large section of Wabanaki-Acadian old growth forest in our care. It’s never been logged in the history of our family. Hundreds of years now. It’s amazing and my sister and I are looking at ways to protect it as best we can until climate change gets it.