Fewer trees, less undergrowth: Study says wildfires changing boreal forest

The increasing frequency of wildfires in Canada's boreal forest may be permanently changing one of the largest intact ecosystems left on Earth, research suggests. "We feel pretty confident these effects will persist," said Ellen Whitman, a forest ecologist at Natural Resources Canada and the University of Alberta. Whitman is a co-author on a recently published paper examining what happens when stands of boreal forest — the huge belt of green that stretches over the northern reaches of most