{"id":239998,"date":"2026-06-30T07:27:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/some-boreal-forest-species-fail-to-recover-even-100-years-after-clearcutting"},"modified":"2026-06-30T07:27:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:27:44","slug":"some-boreal-forest-species-fail-to-recover-even-100-years-after-clearcutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/some-boreal-forest-species-fail-to-recover-even-100-years-after-clearcutting","title":{"rendered":"Some boreal forest species fail to recover even 100 years after clearcutting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/some-boreal-forest-species-fail-to-recover-even-100-years-after-clearcutting2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Boreal forests are being clear-cut faster than some of their wildlife and plant species can recover, with a few failing to return even 100 years after harvesting, according to University of Alberta-led research.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41893-026-01868-x\" target=\"_blank\">comprehensive global analysis<\/a> looked at how clear-cutting\u2014when all trees in an area are felled\u2014affects birds, small mammals, spiders, insects, vascular plants, mosses and lichens in forests that are harvested for lumber or pulp and paper production. The researchers compared logged and unlogged areas over many decades, tracking how long it took to return to the biodiversity levels of a mature forest. The findings are published in the journal Nature Sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>While some species came back within 30 years\u2014soon enough to fall within the typical 60-to 80-year logging cycles\u2014others won\u2019t fit into that timeline, warns biologist Dr. Ellen Macdonald, a professor emerita in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life &amp; Environmental Sciences and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boreal forests are being clear-cut faster than some of their wildlife and plant species can recover, with a few failing to return even 100 years after harvesting, according to University of Alberta-led research. The comprehensive global analysis looked at how clear-cutting\u2014when all trees in an area are felled\u2014affects birds, small mammals, spiders, insects, vascular plants, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}