A new study from Wilfrid Laurier University offers a rare "good news story" in relation to forest fires. Jennifer Baltzer, the Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change, published the first-ever field data on overwintering fires - also known as "zombie" fires - which continue to smoulder throughout the winter and reignite the following spring. Despite fears that zombie fires would increase carbon release and hinder forest regrowth, Baltzer's data suggests that they are less destructive than anticipated.
Baltzer pictured in a regenerating forest in the Northwest Territories
Between 2022 and 2023, Baltzer and her colleagues were the first in the world to collect samples at overwintering fire sites. They visited 20 locations in the boreal forests of Alaska and the Northwest Territories that had originally burned in 2009 or 2014.
