Canada's Forest Inventory 2001 - Publications du gouvernement du ...

4. Regional Summaries
4.1 Forest Regions
Canada’s forest geography was described by J.S. Rowe (1972) in Forest Regions of Canada. The
criteria to define forest include “the distribution and range of conspicuous tree species, their life-forms
(broadleaved or needle-leaved), the physiognomy and relative aerial extent of the communities in which
they are associated, and the patterning of the total vegetation.” The country is divided into forest regions
(Figure 44), within which are nested forest sections. A forest region is “a major geographic belt or zone,
characterized vegetationally by a broad uniformity both in physiognomy and in the composition of
the dominant tree species.” A forest section is “a geographic area possessing an individuality which is
expressed relative to other sections in a distinctive patterning of vegetation and of physiography.” The
boundaries delineating these regions and sections have been digitized and combined with the CanFI2001
summary unit boundaries. Thus, whereas the above-mentioned report qualitatively describes the forest
regions and sections, CanFI2001 quantifies the forest within them.
Table 17 summarizes the area and volume by forest region. According to it and to Figure 45, the
boreal forest region comprises 196.3 million ha of forest and other wooded land, or just over 75% of
Canada’s total area, and contains 15 359.2 million m 3 , or more than 50% of the total volume. The coast
forest region accounts for only 1% of Canada’s forest and other wooded land (5.1 million ha), but supports
9% of the total volume (20 646.7 million m 3 ).
Other analyses can be performed; the example serves to illustrate the capability.
Figure 44. Forest regions of Canada
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