Ontario Agricultural College ecologist Dr. Catherine Dieleman spoke to Newsweek to discuss why forest fires are becoming more of a threat than a benefit to boreal forests. 

Dieleman emphasized that forests are a normal and natural part of the boreal forest ecosystems, with some species evolving to depend on the fires, but that warmer weather, extreme drought and an increase in lightning strikes are causing the fires to contribute to climate change. 

A professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, Dieleman researches wildfires, climate change, permafrost thaw, anthropogenic development and resource extraction in northern ecosystems.