Biologist Steeve Côté has seen forest fires engulf parts of the province of Quebec before and he knew it would happen again. He just didn’t expect it so soon.
Not long after the biology professor at Université Laval and its centre for northern studies began his career, he witnessed the 1991 fires that destroyed parts of Quebec near Baie-Comeau on the North Shore.
Back then, Environment Canada reported that upward of 350,000 hectares of forest had been destroyed. Côté says it has since recovered.
Côté says fires of that intensity typically happen every couple of centuries but right now, only 30 years later, 300,000
