Forest Facts

This information is taken from the forestinformation.com Web site. Please visit their site for additional information.

Forest Statistics
North America's forests are abundant and growing. Between them, Canada and the United States contain 15 percent (10 percent in Canada and 5 percent in the U.S.) of the Earth's forest cover. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) State of the World's Forests 2001 reports that North American forest cover expanded nearly 10 million acres (4 million hectares) over the last decade.

Forests in Canada
Most of Canada's forest is in the boreal zone which stretches in a broad band from northern British Columbia to Newfoundland. The balance, mainly in the western and southern regions, is in the temperate zone.

Canada's forests occupy 1.5 times the land area of the entire European Community and represent 10 per cent of the world's forested area.

Canada has retained more than 90 percent of its original forest cover. With a land base of 921.5 million hectares (2.3 billion acres), Canada has 417.6 million hectares (one billion acres) of forest, of which 56 percent, or 235 million hectares (588 million acres), is managed for timber production.

Of Canada's total forested area of 417.6 million hectares, 56 percent, or 234.5 million hectares, are commercial forests. Softwood forests represents 67 percent of the total forests, mixed wood cover 18 percent, and hardwoods account for 15 percent. With a small population compared to its large area, much of which is unsuitable for agriculture, Canada has converted only six percent of its forest land to farms and cities.

Forests in the United States
The United States is 2.263 billion acres (913.7 million hectares), of which 745 million acres (298 million hectares), or 33 percent, is forested. 495 million acres (198 million hectares), or 67 percent, of the total area of U.S. forests are commercial forests, used to produce timber for forest products.

Thirty-three percent of the total land area in the United States is forested. This compares to 46 percent forested at the time of European settlement. Between 1600 and 1920, 13 percent of the land area (29 percent of the forested area) was lost to clearing for agriculture and towns. Most of this clearing occurred between 1850 and 1910. By far the largest part was cleared for farming. Cities actually occupy a very small percentage of the total land area.

Today, the United States has about the same area of forestland as it did in 1920, even though there has been a 143 percent increase in population between then and today. There are two main reasons why the area of land in crops has remained stable since 1920. First, in 1910 about one-quarter of the land in crops was used to produce food for horses and other draft animals. The advent of the automobile and tractor made it possible to use that land to produce food for people instead. Second, advances in technology, chemistry, and genetics have made it possible to produce much more food on the same amount of land.

Forests have been a major feature of planet Earth ever since trees evolved from smaller plants more than 300 million years ago. Today, 29.6 percent of the world's land area is covered by forest. The area of forest cover has changed over time as climate changed, as ice ages came and went, and more recently as the human population cleared large areas of forest for food production. During the rise of civilization, 40 percent of the forest cover that existed 5,000 years ago has been converted to farms and cities. Most of this deforestation has occurred during the past 200 years to grow the food for a rapidly rising population.

As of the year 2000, the world's forest cover was 3.9 billion hectares (9.8 billion acres) or 29.6 percent of the total land area of 13.1 billion hectares (32.8 billion acres).

Between 1980 and 1990 there was a net loss of 130 million hectares (325 million acres), or three percent of the world's total forest land. Between 1990 and 2000, the net loss of forest dropped to 90 million hectares (225 million acres), or 2.3 percent of the total area of forest.

In recent years, forests have been lost more rapidly in Africa and South America than on the other continents. New plantation forests have compensated for a reduction in natural forests in Asia. Forest areas in Europe have increased during the past 20 years. In North America, forest areas remained the same in Canada and increased slightly in the United States. Forest cover has decreased in Mexico and Central America.

The net loss in forest cover in recent decades is a result of high rates of deforestation in the tropical developing countries, mainly due to clearing for agriculture to feed a growing population. There has actually been a net increase in forest cover in the developed countries, including the U. S., during this period. Unfortunately, the rate of deforestation in the developing countries is far higher than the rate of reforestation in the developed countries.

Deforestation and Its Cause
Deforestation means the long-term loss of forest cover. Deforestation is the opposite of reforestation. Reforestation means that the forest is renewed after it is harvested. This renewal can either be by natural regeneration, by planting new trees, or by a combination of both.

It is important to know that forests are capable of recovering from total destruction without any help from people. Over the millions of years that forests have existed, they have grown back from destruction by fire, volcanoes, floods, landslides, and ice ages. In fact, it is so natural for forests to be destroyed occasionally that ecologists call it "disturbance" rather than "destruction." Forests have evolved so that they are capable of renewing themselves as part of their normal cycle of growth.

The disturbance caused by harvesting or logging a forest is not nearly as severe as that caused by a hot wildfire or a volcanic eruption. Forests can usually recover quickly from logging whereas more severe disturbance can result in slower recovery. But even the most severely disturbed forest will renew itself if it is left to do so.

Deforestation occurs when the forest is prevented from growing back by the actions of people and their domestic animals. This process is also known as "conversion" because it usually involves the conversion of the land from a forest to another use such as agriculture, towns and cities, or industry. Once the land has been converted, it must be maintained by people or it will grow back into a forest. For example, if agricultural land is abandoned and left alone, trees will eventually come back and the forest will renew itself. Even where the land has been completely paved over, such as a parking lot, it will gradually recover to a forest if the parking lot is abandoned.

Domestic grazing animals are one of the main causes of deforestation in many parts of the world. If too many sheep, goats, or cattle are put on the land, they can prevent trees from growing back. This has occurred in areas such as Scotland, northern Africa, and many parts of Asia.

So, simply cutting down the trees does not cause deforestation. What really matters is what happens after the trees are cut down. Is the land reforested and grown back into a forest, or is it deforested and converted to another use to grow food, house people, or build a factory or shopping mall?

We have to cut some of the forest down and convert the land to farms and cities to feed and house the six billion people who live on Earth. But wouldn't it be a good idea to try and reduce the amount of forest land that was deforested for these purposes?

Protected Land
During the past decade, formal protection of forests and the biological diversity they contain has increased considerably around the world. According to the United Nations FAO 2001 report (www.fao.org), North America has a higher percentage of its forests in protected areas than any other region of the world.

Between them, the United States and Canada have a larger area of protected forests than Sweden, Finland, Russia, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined. This land is legally protected for current and future generations to enjoy and provides habitat for thousands of species of wildlife.

Canada
Canada has 36.5 million hectares (86.5 million acres) of protected forests, about eight percent of the total forest. This is an area larger than the entire country of Germany (34.9 million hectares or 86 million acres). Canada has the largest total protected area of forest of any country in the world.

There has been a considerable increase in the area of protected land in Canada during the past decade. In British Columbia alone, the total protected area was doubled from less than six percent of the land to nearly 12 percent of the land between 1990 and 2000.

United States
In the United States, there are 271 million acres (108 million hectares) of protected forests, mainly in National Parks, Wilderness Areas, and State Parks. During the past decade, there has been a considerable increase in the amount of forest in the National Forests that is protected from timber harvesting. The issue of how much federally owned forest should be protected and how much should be managed for timber production remains controversial today.

Forest Ownership

Canada
94 percent of Canada's forests are publicly owned, mainly by the provincial governments, which manage 71 percent, and by the federal government, which manages 23 percent of the total forest.

More than 425,000 landowners manage the remaining six percent. About 50% of the 24 million hectares (61 million acres) of privately owned productive forest is in the two provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Another 30% of private forest land is in the two Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

United States
Of the total of 747 million acres (298 million hectares) of forest land in the U.S., there are 495 million acres (198 million hectares) of productive forest, where commercial forest management can be practiced. Seventy-two percent of the productive forest land is privately owned and accounts for over 80 percent of timber production in the U.S.

Every state except Delaware has one or more National Parks, which together account for 83 million acres of forest and non-forest land that is specifically set aside for non-commercial uses and is not managed for timber or other resource production.

Biodiversity
Forestry is the only industry that maintains diverse and complex ecosystems that provide habitat for thousands of species. Sustainable forestry is not just about sustaining trees, it is also very much about sustaining habitat for other plants and animals.

To the best of our scientific knowledge, no species have ever been driven to extinction due to forestry.

North American forests are very rich in the number of species they contain. The coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest, the broadleaf forests of Appalachia, and the mixed forests of the U.S. South all support a large number of diverse species of wildlife.

Canada
In order to retain the natural biodiversity of each forest region in Canada, harvested areas are regenerated with native tree species. More than 30 different species of trees are planted in the various regions to ensure that reforested areas are as diverse as the forests that were harvested.

Forests are home to roughly two thirds of the 140,000 species of plants, animals, and invertebrates estimated to occur in Canada.

United States
The forests of the U.S. South, from eastern Texas to northern Florida, have the highest biodiversity of any forests in North America. These forests have been extensively managed for timber production for more than 200 years. This is good evidence that management of forest for timber is not a significant cause of biodiversity loss.

Reforestation
Reforestation means that the forest is renewed after it is harvested. Deforestation (the long-term loss of forest cover) is the opposite of reforestation. This renewal can either be done by natural regeneration, by planting new trees, or by a combination of both.

Canada
On average, each year 650 million trees are planted in across Canada each year in areas where forests have been harvested.

Only 0.4 percent of Canada's land that is managed for commercial timber production is harvested each year. On average, another 0.5 percent of the commercial forest area is damaged by fire and insect attack.

Canadian provincial laws require that all harvested areas be regenerated promptly after harvesting. Forest companies are legally obligated to track and ensure regeneration success. If a forest plantation fails, the company must replant the area until it is properly reforested.

United States
Today, the volume of wood in U.S. forests is about 25 percent greater than it was 40 years ago. The United States has about the same amount of land covered by trees today as it did 80 years ago. In Vermont, for example, forest cover has more than doubled - from 37 percent in 1850 to 77 percent forest today. In New Hampshire, forest cover was 50 percent in 1850 compared to 87 percent today.

Each year, there are 1.5 billion tree seedlings planted in the United States - that's more than five new trees for each American, and nearly 2,000 for every bear.

Nationally, annual forest growth has continually exceeded harvest since the 1940s. By 1992, forest growth exceeded harvest by 34 percent and the volume of timber in the forest was 360 percent greater than it had been in 1920.

Certification

Canada
As of April 2001, 44.4 million hectares (111 million acres) of managed forest land had been independently certified in Canada. By 2003, Canada plans to have 92 million hectares (230 million acres) of forest certified as sustainably managed.

United States
101.5 million acres (31 million hectares) of U.S. forest have been independently certified as sustainably manage.