Natural Resources Canada

Some plants are rare because they naturally occur in very specialized habitats or in very low numbers; others may be rare because they have suffered setbacks because of natural processes or pressures from human activities. The highest number of rare plant species is in southern Ontario, where...

Wetlands are lands where water saturation is the dominant factor. Wetlands occupy about 18% of Canada, and Canada has about 25% of the world’s wetlands. Wetlands foster the growth of hydrophytic vegetation and other biological activities such as the sustenance of large numbers of waterfowl,...

In Canada, mines are most heavily concentrated in the Mixedwood Plains, Boreal Shield, Prairie, and Montane Cordillera ecozones. Mines require accessibility, and are therefore strongly correlated with transportation routes. While most mines are designed as closed systems, occasionally water...

Forests sustain hundreds of economies across Canada. The forest industry is an active player in the conservation and sustainability of forested ecosystems. Forests are managed from a legal perspective by provincial and territorial legislation. The primary objective of forest management is timber...

Protected areas are defined as legally established areas, both land and water, that are regulated and managed for conservation objectives. They include parks, wildlife and forest reserves, wilderness and other areas designated through federal, provincial, and territorial legislations. While there...

Industrial activities generate waste that is discharged into water bodies, the air or ends up in landfill sites. Air is the most common release medium. Ammonia, methanol, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide are by far the most common industrial pollutants released in Canada. Industrial discharge...

The higher the concentration of people in an ecoprovince, the higher the chance of loss of habitat and species. To better evaluate and minimize population impacts on the environment, it is necessary to study the distribution and variation of population within ecological areas. The map shows the...

Transportation activities have a great impact on the environment because they fracture natural habitats and create pollution. Roads intrude into natural habitats, separating ecosystems and permanently altering the landscape. Road building has undesirable effects on species that require large...

Urban living generates waste that is usually treated to some degree and then discharged into water bodies. Too much waste can pose a risk to aquatic ecosystems and species. Pollutants can remain environmentally damaging even after passing through conventional sewage treatment. Municipal...

The highest number of species at risk is in the southern areas of Canada where human activity is most extensive and intensive. As of May 2002, 30 animal and plant species had disappeared in Canada. Eleven of these species are no longer found anywhere on the Earth. For most species the greatest...

Climate warming can bring more frequent and severe forest fires. This map shows the change in forest fire severity levels across Canada from 2090 to 2099, based on Global Generation Circulation Models. The Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR) is a measure of fire danger conditions over a complete fire...

Climate warming can bring more frequent and severe forest fires. This map shows the change in forest fire severity levels across Canada from 2050 to 2059, based on Global Generation Circulation Models. The Seasonal Severity Rating (SSR) is a measure of fire danger conditions over a complete fire...

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...