Warming Could Change What New Brunswick Forests Look Like at End of this Century

A scientist with the Canadian Forest Service in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, Anthony Taylor, published a research paper in January examining the factors that control forest regeneration following commercial harvesting in the Arcadian forest. Taylor has concluded that New Brunswick forests could see fewer balsam firs, the province’s most common tree, as temperatures warm. Balsam firs currently make up 20% of the forests in New Brunswick and 16.5% of the forests in the Maritimes. Taylor’s research found that warming in the next few decades could reduce balsam fir regeneration and promote the regeneration of hardwood species such as birch and maple. Taylor does say that he is talking about the “latter part of the 21st century, which seems so far away … but for my children or grandchildren they’re going to witness that. You know this is 50, 75 years down the road.”