Natural Resources Canada

Climate warming can bring more frequent and severe forest fires. This map shows the change in forest fire severity levels across Canada from 1980 to 1989, based on Global Generation Circulation Models. The Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR) is a measure of fire danger conditions over a complete fire...

A hotspot is a mark on an infrared satellite image indicating a heat source typical of burning vegetation. A hotspot may represent one fire or be one of several hotspots representing a larger fire. Hotspots are located and mapped as part of the Fire Monitoring, Mapping and Modeling System (Fire...

Fire danger rating is the process of systematically evaluating and integrating the factors that determine the ease of a fire starting and spreading, the difficulty of control, and the resulting impacts based on an assessment of ignition risk, the fire environment (fuels, weather, and topography)...

Increases in population, urbanisation and the development of the road network have replaced large forested lands and have created pressures on the remaining forests (or woodlands). Three principal Canadian forested regions have been most affected by these events: the Windsor-Québec corridor, the...

Increases in population, urbanisation and the development of the road network have replaced large forested lands and have created pressures on the remaining forests (or woodlands). Three principal Canadian forested regions have been most affected by these events: the Windsor-Québec corridor, the...

Canada's Model Forest Program is an initiative to build partnerships towards achieving sustainable forest management. The network is composed of eleven model forests. Each model forest is a hands-on laboratory in which leading-edge techniques are researched, developed, applied and monitored....

Approximately 7.6% of Canada's forest land is located in protected areas. Over 95% of protected forests are totally protected and the rest reflect degrees of human intervention such as logging, mining and agriculture. This map shows all the protected areas in Canada.

This map shows the distribution of the Aboriginal population (including Indians, Métis and Inuit) in comparison to the location of forests. More than a quarter of the Aboriginal population live in urban centres located outside the forested areas; however, nearly 80% of the Aboriginal communities...

This map shows the population distribution in 1996 relative to the distribution of the forests. Even if forests are very important for Canadians from a cultural, spiritual and economical point of view, few people live in the forested areas. About 80% of the population live mainly in the urban...

This map depicts the 77 electrical generating plants operated by forest-based industries. These industries are defined using the North American Industrial Classification. These plants are scattered throughout Canada, and are about equally divided between being hydro or thermal plants.

The 5-year mobility measures the percentage of the population aged five years or older who moved (changed address) in the five years preceding Census Day, 1996. The values are generally low. Three-quarters of the places have a figure below the Canadian average and the median for the entire set of...

This map indicates the degree of reliance of each of the 298 communities on forest-related industries. The index range spans the complete range from 50% up to 100% with most communities having values in the lower half of this range. Even though there are two widely-separated zones of these...

The income index compares the average employment income value of each community to that for Canada. The value for Canada as a whole is set at 1.00. The range of the index is from 0.12 to 1.65, with the median value for these communities being 0.73. Income index values are generally higher in...

The education index is a measure of the proportion of the population 15 years of age and over who have post-secondary qualifications compared to the Canadian proportion meeting the same criteria. The index values are generally lower than the Canadian average. The median value is 0.78, and 88% of...

Forty-five percent of the Canadian territory is forested corresponding to 417.6 million hectares. There are 234.5 million hectares of commercial forests and 0.4% is harvested each year. The forested areas managed for timber production are mostly located in the Boreal Shield, Atlantic Maritime,...

Sawmilling is an important Canadian industry. Its plant locations are widely scattered across Canada, predominantly in the coniferous forest region. This map shows sawmills whose production exceeds 10 000 cubic metres of lumber per year. The map symbols indicate the size of the mill and the type...

In Canada, there are 20 ecozones, consisting of 15 terrestrial and 5 marine units. The vegetation varies from one ecozone to another. Forests cover totally or partially nine ecozones: Pacific Maritime, Montane Cordillera, Boreal Cordillera, Taiga Plains, Boreal Plains, Prairie, Boreal Shield,...

This map shows the distribution of land cover types across Canada, based on satellite data obtained in 1995. The land cover map contains 31 classes: 12 forest; 3 shrubland; 7 tundra/grasslands; 7 developed land types including cropland, mosaic and built-up areas; and 2 water cover types.

Nine zones indicate the areas where various trees, shrubs and flowers are most likely to survive. These zones are calculated based on average climatic conditions and altitude of each area. The harshest zone is 0 and the mildest is 8. Each major zone is divided into subzones a and b (for example...

Ecozones are broad ecological zones on the earth's surface and cover a large range of ecosystems such as temperate forest, mountain ranges, grassland, taiga, arctic tundra, extensive river systems, coastline and farmlands. Each ecozone has its own climate, relief, soil, fauna and flora and...