For a quarter century the Government of Canada has been using The State of Canada’s Forests report to chronicle Canada’s progress toward sustainable forest management.
Canada State of the Forest 2015 Report
Canada Forest Cover
Canada has 348 million hectares of forest land. This represents 9 per cent of the world’s forests and 24 per cent of the world’s boreal forests.
Wood volume is an indicator of sustainable forest management. Professional foresters monitor tree growth to determine sustainable harvest levels and make management plans. The overall sustainable wood supply level currently estimated for Canada is 224 million cubic metres per year.
The total wood volume in Canada’s forests is about 47 billion cubic metres.
Canada’s Forest Zones
Canada’s fastest-growing and oldest trees are found in the Pacific Maritime ecozone. There, the average wood volume is 432 cubic metres per hectare, more than triple the national average of 136 m3/ha.
Canada’s slowest-growing forests are found in the Taiga Shield ecozone (with an average wood volume of 61 m3/ha) and the Hudson Plains eco-zone (36 m3/ha).
Global Forest Resources Assessment
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) prepares a Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) every five years. In the 2015 FRA, Canada reports that 59 per cent of its forests are primary forests. Canada’s forest inventory does not directly allow for measuring primary forest areas, so this estimate is based on the assumption that primary forests include protected forests and inaccessible forests (where there are no roads).
Canada Timber Harvest
Statistics show that over the last decade, more than 85 per cent of the total volume of timber harvested for industrial use in Canada each year originates from provincial Crown lands.
In 2013, 148 million cubic metres of industrial roundwood were harvest- ed in Canada, mainly for use in the production of lumber, but also for panel products (such as plywood, veneer and oriented strandboard) and pulp and paper products. This represents approximately 0.3 per cent of Canada’s total standing wood volume (47 billion cubic metres). British Columbia accounts for nearly half (48 per cent) of Canada’s industrial roundwood harvest, followed by Alberta and Quebec.
Wildfires
In 2014, a total of 5,126 forest fires burned about 4.6 million hectares (ha). While the number of fires was lower than the 10-year average, the area burned was about double the 10-year average. In terms of both numbers of fires and area burned, the busiest months were June, July and August, which is typical for Canada.
Also in 2014:
• The Northwest Territories, with more than 3 million ha burned, was over 10 times its 10-year average. British Columbia, with more than 300,000 ha burned, was a little less than 10 times its 10-year average.
• Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Yukon were all well below their 10-year averages – in most cases being at or below 20 per cent of 10-year averages of hectares burned.
• Saskatchewan was close to its 10-year average, with more than 340,000 ha burned.
• Forest fires resulted in 19 community evacuations, affecting at least 8,200 people.
Download the full report here: