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A brief overview of Canadian forestry

J.H. Cayford

James Cayford is Executive-Director of the Canadian Institute of Forestry.

Forests are the most prominent feature of the Canadian landscape, covering about 398 million ha, or 43 percent of the total land area. Much of the remainder of Canada is wildland - barrens, muskeg, rock and shrub. Canadian forests cover an area about 1.5 times as large as that of European forests, about the same as that of Asian forests and one-half that of the forests of the USSR. In total, about 10 percent of the world's forests are in Canada.

Coniferous forests constitute nearly 80 percent of the growing stock. Picea glauca and P. mariana are the most prevalent conifers; other important conifers include Pinus, Abies, Tsuga, Thuja and Pseudotsuga. The deciduous forests are dominated by Populus and Betula, with lesser quantities of Acer and other species.

More than half of Canada's forest area is located in the vast Boreal region, which stretches from the Atlantic coast to the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories and nearly to the Pacific in northwestern British Columbia. The most common tree species are Picea glauca, P. mariana, Abies lasiocarpa, A. balsamea, Pinus contorta and P. banksiana; pioneer species include Populus tremuloides and Betula papyrifera. Overall, annual growth averages 1.5 m³/ha.

The highest growth rates, however (4.9 m³/ha/year), occur in the Coastal Forest region of British Columbia, where the principal species include Thuja plicata, Picea sitchensis and Pseudotsuga menziesii.

Forest industry

Forestry is Canada's most important industry, in both economic and employment terms. The total value of forest products exceeds C$38000 million (US$32500 million) annually, accounting for 10 percent of all manufactured goods. Forest exports total approximately C$21000 million (US$17900 million), representing 15 percent of Canada's total exports and 22 percent of the world's export of manufactured wood products. On the other hand the nation imports only about C$2000 million (US$1700 million) in forest products. The forest industry thus contributes more to Canada's trade balance than agricultural products, fish products, metals, coal, oil, gas and electricity combined.

FORESTRY is by far Canada's most important industry

Annually about 165 million m³ of wood is harvested. More than 90 percent of this is coniferous, accounting for 15 percent of the world's total coniferous harvest. Major forest products include pulp and paper, lumber, veneer, plywood and particle board, shingles and shakes. Canada produces 32 percent of the world's newsprint, 15 percent of its wood pulp, 11 percent of its lumber and 7 percent of all paper and paperboard products. Important secondary forest products include flooring, doors, sashes, boxes, barrels and caskets and a variety of paper products such as waxed paper, writing paper, envelopes, toilet and sanitary papers, drinking cups and paper towels. Two small industries involve Christmas tree and maple syrup production.

Across the country there are about 675 pulp, paper and paperboard mills and more than 3550 sawmills, plywood mills and mill-working plants. The forestry sector provides direct employment for approximately 270000 workers. Each of these jobs generates two additional posts in the national economy; the forests thus account for some 800000 jobs, or approximately 7.5 percent of the nation's employment.

A major study, Canada 's forest industry the next 20 years: prospects and priorities, was published by the Canadian Government in May 1989. The report projects that the value of Canada's forest products industry output could increase by as much as 55 percent over the 20-year period.

Forest administration and management

Canada is a federal state divided into ten provinces and two territories. The provincial governments have jurisdiction over their natural resources, including forests. Responsibility for the territorial forests has recently been transferred to the territorial governments from the federal government.

Approximately 70 percent of the Canadian forest is provincial crown lend, 22 percent is territorial lend, 2 percent is federal and 6 percent is privately owned. Private forest is significant only in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the southern agricultural regions of Ontario and Quebec.

Each provincial government has a Forestry Service, responsible for forest management and planning, forest inventory, forest protection, and timber disposal. Over the past two decades, provincial governments have increasingly shifted responsibility for the operational aspects of forest management on provincial crown land to the private sector under licensing agreements.

In recent years, most provinces have revised their legislation to create conditions more conducive to sustained yield forest management. Long-term arrangements of 20 to 25 years, renewable at five-year periods, often termed "forest management agreements", have been negotiated between provincial governments and private forest companies. Traditionally involved with only harvesting and road construction, licensees are now typically required to undertake forest renewal activities.

Although the provincial governments retain jurisdiction over forests, the importance of the resource has led the federal government to share in the responsibility for forest management. Forestry Canada, a full federal ministry since 1988, is the lead federal forestry agency. It carries out a forest research programme, administers federal provincial forest development agreements, provides national and foreign forestry statistics, represents Canada in international forestry organizations and promotes management of forest lands on military bases.

Forest management

During the first century of commercial exploitation, Canada's forests were viewed exclusively as inexhaustible raw material for industry and were "mined" with little or no attention directed to conservation or sustainable management. Since the Second World War, however, there has been increasing recognition of the multiple benefits obtained from forests - maintenance of the soil and water base, non-wood resources, recreational values, etc. More recently, the importance of forests in sequestering carbon, thereby helping to reduce the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide, as well as the role of forests in maintaining biological diversity, has been recognized. The Government Canada has endorsed a commitment to sustainable development in recognition of a need to ensure that forestry development that meets the needs of the present will not compromise the quality of life of future generations.

PAPER PRODUCTION Canada produces 32 percent of the world's newsprint and 7 percent of all paper and paperboard products

Although a number of large-scale forest renewal programmes have been implemented since the end of the Second World War, it was not until a 1977 National Forest Regeneration Conference that there was an overall assessment of the forest renewal situation in Canada. At that time it became clear that inadequate reforestation was a serious and fundamental problem for Canadian forestry.

During the past decade there has been a major increase in forest renewal programmes. Tree improvement efforts are under way in most provinces, and seed zones have been delineated. Increasing amounts of seed are being obtained from seed production areas and from seed orchards. Annual nursery production currently totals about 750 million seedlings (mostly container-grown) as compared with only 300 million a decade ago. Notwithstanding this, however, only one-third of the 900000 ha harvested annually is planted or seeded. Assuming that natural regeneration is successful on 50 percent of the remaining areas, and allowing for some planting and seeding failures, an area of up to 300000 ha of cut-over fails to regenerate annually. The total area of backlog-area not regenerated-has been estimated at 25 million ha, much of it relatively accessible and potentially productive.

Canada is currently spending slightly more than C$1700 million (US$1500 million) on all aspects of forest management and administration. However, the Canadian Institute of Forestry estimates that funding must rise to C$2200 million (US$1900 million) annually for proper management of the forest and regeneration of unstocked productive land.

In Canada there is currently one professional forester for every 50000 ha of forest land under management. The comparable figure for the United States is one forester per 13000 ha; in Sweden, one for every 19000 ha.

Forest management planning activities in Canada are making increasing use of high technology, i.e. geographic information systems for the storage, organization and analysis of forest management information. Related to this is the development and increasing use of satellite and airborne digital remote sensing imagery for the acquisition of information, and computer modelling and systems for prediction and planning purposes. These technologies are seen as forming part of a new holistic concept of forest management.

Threats to production

Forest fire. Forest fire danger rating research was initiated by the Canadian federal government in 1925. Five different fire danger rating systems have been developed since that time, each with increasing applicability. The approach has been to build on previous danger rating systems in an evolutionary fashion and to use field experiments and empirical analysis extensively. The current system, the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) has three basic components. The Forest Fire Weather Index provides numerical ratings of relative fire potential based on weather observations. The Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction System deals with variability in fire behaviour among fuel types. The Canadian Forest Fire Occurrence Prediction System is currently being developed. These three subsystems, together with lightning and human-caused risk ratings, and fire occurrence prediction schemes, will eventually form a comprehensive system.

In spite of this, however, the 1989 fire season was one of the worst on record, with particularly serious fire situations occurring in the provinces of Manitoba and Quebec. In 11168 fires, more than 6.4 million ha were bums, well over the ten-year average of some 2 million ha per year.

Pests and diseases. Pests and diseases cause an estimated wood loss of approximately 100 million m³ annually. The most destructive forest insect pest is spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana), although infestations continue to decline. A total of 6.3 million ha were moderately or severely defoliated in 1988 compared with 8.4 million in 1987. Other significant insect pests include the Dendroctonus ponderosae and D. rufipennis, Lambdina fiscellaria, Malacosoma disstria and Porthetria dispar.

In view of environmental concerns, increased attention is being given to the use of biological rather than chemical agents to combat major pests. For example, control of Choristoneura fumiferana is being focused more and more on the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis.

A variety of stem and root rots causing mainly single-stem damage can be found throughout the country. The most common tree disease in Canada, however, is Ceratocystis ulmi, which has resulted in the loss of large quantities of Ulmus americana in the eastern parts of the country

Atmospheric pollution. Whereas scientists are still uncertain regarding the precise relationship between acid rain and forest damage, it is generally accepted that Canada will face substantial forest productivity losses unless pollution levels are reduced. Although the impact of productivity losses on commercial harvests is likely to be minor in the short term, over the next 70-80 years commercial harvests could be reduced by as much as 10 million m³, or some 7 percent of the current annual harvest.

The Canadian Acid Rain Programme provides information on the effects of pollutants on the forest to assist the federal and provincial governments in the development of effective measures to control air pollution. Since the late 1970s, the programme has been expanded and redirected from studying the effects of specific sources of pollution to the problem of regional impact.

Forestry education

There are seven Canadian universities that offer degree programmes in forestry: University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, Lakehead University, Laval University, University of Moncton, University of New Brunswick, and University of Toronto. The University of Moncton offers only an undergraduate degree; Lakehead University offers undergraduate and master's programmer; the remaining five universities offer forestry degrees at undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. levels.

Training for forest technicians is offered at 26 institutions located across Canada. Courses vary from one to three years and concentrate on general forestry, forest products, and management of natural and plantation resources. A special three-year programme leading to a diploma in forest technology is offered by the National Indian Forestry Institute in Saskatchewan.

Forestry research

Canadian forestry research embraces a wide variety of subject areas. About one half of the total deals with wood products, including solid wood products, pulp and paper, forest engineering and energy from the forest. Other major areas of research include forest production (21 percent), forest protection (11 percent) and environmental research (7 percent). There are small programmes of research in forest economics and in the non-consumptive use of forests.

The major forest research agency is Forestry Canada, which directly undertakes about 22 percent of forest research in Canada; in 1985/86 it accounted for C$45 million (US$38.5 million) of the C$219 million (US$187.2 million) expended. The agency operates six regional centres and two national institutes. The centres conduct a multidisciplinary regional research programme, while the Forest Pest Management Institute is involved in developing environmentally acceptable control strategies for forest pests, and the Petawana National Forestry Institute conducts research in genetics, biotechnology, fire, forest management and inventory and data systems. Forestry Canada is also involved in managing federal-provincial forestry agreements, all of which have an applied research programme.

Unfortunately, the research programme of Forestry Canada has declined significantly over the past two decades; the research staff has been reduced from 2000 to less than 1000. Other federal agencies, including the National Research Council, Environment Canada, Energy, Mines and Resources and Agriculture Canada, are involved in specific forest research activities.

At the provincial level, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia operate substantial research programme units within their forest services. Most other provinces conduct applied research through their operational units. The provincial governments account for 15 percent of research expenditures.

CONIFER RESEARCH pollination under test conditions

In recent years considerable attention has been devoted to the coordination of forest research carried out by the two levels of government and to ensuring that research programmes are designed to meet the needs of forest managers. A national body, the Forest Research Advisory Council of Canada (FRACC), has been established to review national research priorities and policies and to provide Forestry Canada with independent advice. Similar committees have been established in most provinces, and the mandate of FRACC has recently been expanded to provide national research overviews each year.

Three industrial research corporations, Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN), Forintek Canada Corporation, and the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), are involved in forest products, forest harvesting and mechanization of silviculture. These three corporations, funded jointly by industry and government, account for 15 percent of Canadian research and development. In addition, several forest industrial organizations carry out their own research, but information relating to these programmes is difficult to obtain. Industrial research accounts for 20 percent of forestry research, with more than 90 percent of it directed to products research.

Canadian universities also undertake forestry research. Funding for this work, which accounts for 10 percent of total forestry research, is provided primarily by federal and provincial governments.

Canada and IUFRO

Canada has been represented at IUFRO Congresses since 1910. At present, nearly all Canadian forest research agencies are members. These include Forestry Canada, the forestry schools of the universities of Toronto, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, FERIC, Forintek Canada Corporation, the Research Council of Alberta and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Additionally, approximately 30 Canadians from a variety of forest research agencies, including the federal and provincial governments, universities and the private sector, currently hold office in IUFRO. Two other Canadians have figured prominently in IUFRO. D.R. Redmond served as Vice-President during the period 1971-76, while C.R. Silversides was successively Deputy Coordinator and Coordinator of Division 3, Forest Operations and Techniques, during the period 1971-1981. Without doubt, however, Canada's major initiative with respect to IUFRO is its hosting of the 19th World Congress.


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