Is Ontario forested?
Forests of Canada
Named forests are found within eight distinct regions. These forests may also be part of ecosystems, a number of which extend south into the United States. For example, the Northern hardwood forest is an ecosystem located in large areas of southeastern and south central Canada as well as in Ontario and Quebec. This system extends south into the United States.
Environmental issues in Canada
The Rainforest Action Network and indigenous groups have campaigned to protect the Boreal forest of Canada from logging and mining. In July 2008 the Ontario government announced plans to protect some of the area from all industrial activity.
Boreal woodland caribou
Since the 1940s the decline of "Rangifer tarandus caribou" range occupancy in Ontario has been recognized. There are two populations of woodland caribou, the forest-tundra ecotype and the sedentary forest-dwelling ecotype. The boreal woodland caribou population (forest-dwelling), estimated at approximately 3,000, make up approximately one-quarter of Ontario’s woodland caribou, was designated as threatened in 2000 (and likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed) by the Federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and by the Province of Ontario. The migratory forest-tundra woodland caribou, numbering about 20,000 in 2007 is found in northern Ontario, on the coastal plains south of Hudson Bay was not considered to be endangered.
Geography of Canada
The northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as most of Labrador (the mainland portions of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador), are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield. The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for hydroelectric production, particularly in northern Quebec and Ontario. The shield also encloses an area of wetlands, the Hudson Bay lowlands. Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains.
Ontario
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast, and to the south by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario's border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario, to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario. There is only about of land border made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.
Geography of Canada
The Canadian Prairies are part of a vast sedimentary plain covering much of Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba, as well as much of the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes in Northwest Territories. The plains generally describes the expanses of (largely flat) arable agricultural land which sustain extensive grain farming operations in the southern part of the provinces. Despite this, some areas such as the Cypress Hills and the Alberta Badlands are quite hilly and the prairie provinces contain large areas of forest such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests. The size is roughly ~.
List of Canadian protected areas
Ontario Parks is responsible for provincial parks and protected areas in Ontario.
Forestry in Canada
European forestry in Canada is thought to date back to the 11th century, when Leif Erikson first landed off the coast of what is believed to be Newfoundland. Large scale forestry did not begin until European settlers landed several centuries later. The area that is now Canada experienced significant deforestation during the 18th and 19th centuries, as a booming population of settlers cleared the land; this pattern was also seen elsewhere in North America. Changes in management strategies in the 20th and 21st centuries have been able to halt the trend toward deforestation.
Laurentian Mixed Forest Province
The Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, also known as the North Woods, is a forested ecoregion in the United States and Canada. Among others, this terminology has been adopted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Similar, though not necessarily entirely identical regions, are identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as Northern Lakes and Forests, and by the World Wildlife Fund by regions such as the Western Great Lakes forests and Eastern forest-boreal transition.
Boreal forest of Canada
Forest land in Canada is largely Crown land. Over 90% of the boreal forest is provincial Crown land; another 5% is federally controlled and includes national parks, First Nations reserves and national defence installations.
Obabika Old-Growth Forest
Obabika old-growth forest is an Eastern White Pine and Red Pine dominated old-growth forest at the north end of Obabika Lake, just west of the Temagami region of Ontario, Canada. At in size, is commonly considered to be the largest remaining white pine dominated old-growth forest in the world. It is also sometimes called Chee-Skon Lake old-growth forest, or Wakimika Triangle old-growth forest. This area was slated for logging in 1989 and was protected largely as a result of a blockade on Red Squirrel Road in which 344 protestors were arrested, including future Ontario premier Bob Rae. The oldest trees in the Obabika old-growth forest are confirmed to be at least 375 years old, but a diversity of age classes occur in this forest. Another important feature of the area is the spirit rock, a column of rock on the shore of Chee-Skon Lake that is of spiritual significance to the Teme-Augama Anishnabai people.
Green belt
There are fourteen green belt areas in the UK covering 16,716 km² or 13% of England, and 164 km² of Scotland; for a detailed discussion of these, see Green belt (UK). Other notable examples are the Ottawa Greenbelt and Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt in Ontario, Canada. Ottawa's instance is managed by the National Capital Commission (NCC). The more general term in the United States is green space or greenspace, which may be a very small area such as a park.
Mixedwood Plains Ecozone (Canada)
Owing to its southern location, it initially had a high natural biological diversity. For example, the Lake Erie Plains region has the highest tree diversity in Canada, with species such as tulip tree, cucumber tree, pawpaw, black gum, sassafrass and black oak. American chestnut was common in this region before the arrival of chestnut blight, though it is now very rare. The area also has a high diversity of songbirds, reptiles and amphibians.
Geography of Canada
Canada covers and a panoply of various geoclimatic regions. There are 8 main regions. Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the world's longest coastline of . The physical geography of Canada is widely varied. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, ice is prominent in northerly Arctic regions and through the Rocky Mountains, and the relatively flat Canadian Prairies in the southwest facilitate productive agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population.
Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests
The Saint Lawrence River is one of the most polluted in the world and these surrounding forests are vulnerable to clearance for agriculture and urban development including the cities of Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City and suburbs of Toronto, Syracuse and Albany, New York. Less than 5% of natural forest remains intact. The fragmented blocks of remaining habitat include: the eastern end of Lake Ontario; Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Vermont; the Chaumont Barrens, Rome Sand Plains, the Albany Pine Bush and the proposed Split Rock Wildway in New York; Bruce Peninsula (the barrier between Georgian Bay and the main section of Lake Huron), Alfred Bog, Luther Marsh, the Ganaraska Forest and Carden Plain in Ontario; and Mont Saint-Hilaire, Lac Saint-François National Wildlife Area and Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Areas in Quebec.
Extractivism
Extractivism policies and procedures are present in Canada as well. Canada has many natural resources because of its large land mass and biodiversity. The forest sector in Canada contributed to 19.8 billion or 1.25 per cent of Canada’s GDP in 2013. The Boreal forest covers 28 per cent of Canada’s land and within that 70 per cent of Indigenous communities live in these areas. Logging efforts in the Boreal forest are encouraged to be economically efficient by clearcutting. Clearcutting means to remove all trees from an area at one time. This has led to loss of biodiversity, habitat fragmentation and reduction, soil erosion and carbon release contributing to climate change.
Geography of Toronto
In March 2005, the Government of Ontario unveiled the boundaries of a greenbelt around the Greater Toronto Area, a area stretching from Niagara Falls to Peterborough. The green belt is designed to curb urban sprawl and to preserve valuable natural areas and farmland surrounding the city. However, some types of development including detached single residential, quarries and commercial facilities continue to get approved, exerting pressure and population growth on the Greenbelt. Toronto is among the latest in a line of cities that have implemented growth boundaries of some kind as a method of restricting urban growth, including Ottawa; Portland, Oregon; Frankfurt; Melbourne; Seoul and London.
Ontario tobacco belt
By 2020, the Ontario tobacco belt will become the "Ontario horticultural centre" because of its abundance of water. Other reasons for the sudden transformation of this region include proximity to urban markets (e.g., Hamilton, Kitchener, London) and a sandy soil that favours horticultural crops. European farmers will boost the average cost of farmland to $570,000 by the year 2016 due to their overspending; which would essentially give them a monopoly on the local farming business over aspiring Canadian-born farmers. An increasing number of established farmers in the area call this tax hike "unfair;" as they perceive themselves to be paying 75% less for property taxes than people who live on residential properties nearby. While beef production has declined in the Ontario tobacco belt in the past 20 years, the amount of pork and chicken products that are grown in the region have increased slightly. The transition from conventional farming to greenhouses have resulted in fewer "field" crops and a greater amount of the "hothouse" variety.
Ontario
The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been largely replaced by agriculture, industrial and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the surface area of the province; conversely Southern Ontario contains 94 percent of the population.
Boreal forest of Canada
In July 2008 the Ontario government announced plans to protect 225,000 kilometres of the Northern Boreal lands.
In February 2010 the Canadian government established protection for of boreal forest by creating a new reserve of in the Mealy Mountains area of eastern Canada and a waterway provincial park of that follows alongside the Eagle River from headwaters to sea. A report issued in 2011 by the Pew Environment Group described the Canadian boreal forest as the largest natural storage of freshwater in the world.
Boreal forest of Canada
The boreal region contains about 13% of Canada's population. With its sheer vastness and forest cover, the boreal makes an important contribution to the rural and aboriginal economies of Canada, primarily through resource industries, recreation, hunting, fishing and eco-tourism. Hundreds of cities and towns within its territory derive at least 20% of their economic activity from the forest, mainly from industries like forest products, mining, oil and gas and tourism. The boreal forest also plays an iconic role in Canada's history, economic and social development and the arts.
Waterloo County, Ontario
Waterloo County was once one of the most densely wooded sections in North America. Oak trees three to four feet in diameter, maple, beech, elm, ash oak and great pines were common. The county, located in the northerly edge of Attawandaron land, was excellent for hunting and fishing.
List of ecoregions in the United States (EPA)
These forests stretch from the Southern Appalachians towards Canada, up to the northern Midwest. For a general description of these forests, refer to Temperate Deciduous Forest. The standard reference is "The Deciduous Forest of Eastern North America". The adjoining forests in Canada are generally referred to as the Mixedwood Plains Ecozone or the Great Lakes-St.Lawrence Forest Region.The corresponding name in Canada for the same ecoregions are the Boreal Shield and the Atlantic Maritime Ecozones.
List of protected areas of Ontario
This is a list of protected areas of Ontario that are administered by Government of Ontario. Ontario Parks and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are the provincial bodies responsible for managing these protected areas.
Ontario
The climate of Ontario varies by season and location. It is affected by three air sources: cold, dry, arctic air from the north (dominant factor during the winter months, and for a longer part of the year in far northern Ontario); Pacific polar air crossing in from the western Canadian Prairies/US Northern Plains; and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontario's climate is classified as humid continental. Ontario has three main climatic regions.
Geography of Yukon
While Yukon is mostly covered with forests, most of the trees are small and take a long time to grow and regenerate because of the dry cold climate. There is a considerable amount of small scale logging, but the only area that can sustain industrial forestry is in the southeast with its wetter climate. However, distance from markets and fluctuating prices have resulted in a boom-and-bust industry.
Quebec City–Windsor Corridor
Because of the moderating influence of the Great Lakes and the frequent influx of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, the corridor—particularly the western half—has a markedly warmer climate than the rest of central Canada. The rich soil and the warm climate mean that the flora and fauna in the corridor are similar to those in the deciduous forests of the eastern United States as far south as Virginia, rather than the evergreen boreal forest that covers most of central Canada up to the Arctic. The forest in southwestern Ontario is often referred to as Carolinian forest.
Boreal forest of Canada
The Canadian boreal region represents a tract of land over 1,000 kilometres wide separating the tundra in the north and temperate rain forest and deciduous woodlands that predominate in the most southerly and westerly parts of Canada. Canada's boreal forest is also considered to be the largest intact forest on earth, with around three million square kilometres still undisturbed by roads, cities and industrial development. Its high level of intactness has made the forest a particular focus of environmentalists and conservation scientists who view the untouched regions of the forest as an opportunity for large-scale conservation that would otherwise be impractical in other parts of the world.
Central Ontario
The Canadian Shield runs over the northern part of Central Ontario, a recreational area with a much-increased summer-time population, including the wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park. Often referred to as 'Cottage Country', this area's lakes and rivers are dotted with numerous cottages, some of them seasonal, but in recent years there is a growing trend for some of these 'summer cottages' to be used as year-round residences due to a number of factors, abundance of outdoor recreation, baby-boom retiree population, increased local services and improved wireless communication.
Forest gardening
In Canada food forester Richard Walker has been developing and maintaining food forests in the province of British Columbia for over 30 years. He developed a 3-acre food forest that when at maturity provided raw materials for a nursery and herbalism business as well as food for his family. The Living Centre have developed various forest garden projects in Ontario.
Geography of Oklahoma
Forests cover 24 percent of Oklahoma, and prairie grasslands, composed of shortgrass, mixed-grass, and tallgrass prairie, harbor expansive ecosystems in the state's central and western portions. Where rainfall is sparse in the western regions of the state, shortgrass prairie and shrublands are the most prominent ecosystems, though pinyon pines, junipers, and ponderosa pines grow near rivers and creek beds in the far western reaches of the panhandle. Marshlands, cypress forests and mixtures of shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, sabal minor, and deciduous forests dominate the state's southeastern quarter, while mixtures of largely post oak, elm, cedar and pine forests cover the Ozark Mountains in northeastern Oklahoma. Many rare, relic species such as sugar maple, bigtooth maple, southern live oak, and nolina inhabit Southwestern Oklahoma and the Wichita Mountains.
Mixedwood Plains Ecozone (Canada)
The forests are a part of the temperate deciduous forest that extends from Florida north to eastern Canada. The mixed plains ecozone has the highest plant diversity in Canada, with the Lake Erie lowland having trees species that occur nowhere else in Canada. Within Canada, these forest types are often referred to as the 'Carolinian zone' owing to the many southern plants and animals that reach their northern limits here. Clearing for agriculture and urbanization have reduced natural forest cover to less than ten percent. An overview of the flora and fauna of this distinctive region is available in "The Natural Treasures of Carolinian Canada". A few of the many examples of southern species found here include the hooded warbler, king rail, prothonotary warbler, blue-gray gnatcatcher, American badger, opossum, and eastern spiny softshell turtle. Past work has identified 38 critical natural areas, and an initiative known as The Big Picture aims to restore natural corridors as part of a natural heritage system. Some of the critical core areas in this region include Point Pelee, Long Point, Rondeau Park, Skunk's Misery, Backus Woods and Willoughby Marsh.
Ontario tobacco belt
Should the sea levels rise by , the Ontario tobacco belt would not be affected by flooding. However, it may be affected by droughts as a by-product of the dislocation of available fresh water and may be forced to rely on desalinated salt water piped in from the Eastern United States. Constructing the proper infrastructure to carry the water hundreds of miles away would take considerable manpower along with significant economic costs and an unprecedented level of cooperation from multiple federal, state/provincial, and municipal governments. Another possible outcome of the global climate change would bring back desertification into the Lake Erie portion of the tobacco belt. Any grasslands in the area would become brown and eventually become sand; increasing in dryness the further the piece of land is from a source of fresh water. A regional bout of famine would occur if the desertification continued to spread inland and threatened the local crops.
List of municipalities in Ontario
Ontario is the most populous province in Canada with 13,448,494 residents as of 2016 and is third-largest in land area at . Ontario's 444 municipalities cover only of the province's land mass yet are home to of its population. These municipalities provide local or regional municipal government services within either a single-tier or shared two-tier municipal structure.
Forestry in Canada
Canada's ecosystems depend on large forested areas, making much of massive resource unusable without ecological collapse. Canada is a participant in several international protocols and conferences in areas that affect its forested land. As a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required, although there is some concern about the scientific reasoning behind some of the specific targets that Canada has chosen. Biotechnology and its effect on forested land is a concern, and the conservation of the forest's biological diversity is a major priority. The latter was the subject of the country's first Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity report.
Ontario tobacco belt
Compared to 1998, tobacco farming is down by 60% and falling. It is possible that this tobacco industry will never recover and disappear forever. Calls to action by local residents to diversify the tobacco belt into other industries have been slow in being answered by Norfolk County council. Diversification into several different types of products could help the region absorb the ups and downs of a changing economy. The winter hardiness and soil requirements of lavender are equivalent to that of tobacco; meaning that an "Ontario horticultural belt" could see the economy revolve around lavender plants rather than tobacco plants.
Boat building industry in Ontario
A study of the geography of the province reveals the presence of over 250,000 lakes and a large number of connecting waterways. About 17% of the area inside the province's boundaries is covered by water. Until European settlers began constructing road systems, beginning in the late 1700s, most of what is now Ontario was covered with dense forest. Aside from footpaths through the woods, travel by water was the only practical choice.
Geography of Canada
Forestry has long been a major industry in Canada. Forest products contribute one fifth of the nation's exports. The provinces with the largest forestry industries are British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Fifty-four percent of Canada's land area is covered in forest. The boreal forests account for four-fifths of Canada's forestland.
Five per cent of Canada's land area is arable, none of which is for permanent crops. Three per cent of Canada's land area is covered by permanent pastures. Canada has 7,200 square kilometres (2,800 mi) of irrigated land (1993 estimate). Agricultural regions in Canada include the Canadian Prairies, the Lower Mainland and various regions within the Interior of British Columbia, the St. Lawrence Basin and the Canadian Maritimes. Main crops in Canada include flax, oats, wheat, maize, barley, sugar beets and rye in the prairies; flax and maize in Western Ontario; Oats and potatoes in the Maritimes. Fruit and vegetables are grown primarily in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Southwestern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, along the south coast of Georgian Bay and in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Cattle and sheep are raised in the valleys and plateaus of British Columbia. Cattle, sheep and hogs are raised on the prairies, cattle and hogs in Western Ontario, sheep and hogs in Quebec, and sheep in the Maritimes. There are significant dairy regions in central Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence Valley, northeastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario, the Red River valley of Manitoba and the valleys in the British Columbia Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland.
Quebec
Given the geology of the province and its different climates, there is an established number of large areas of vegetation in Quebec. These areas, listed in order from the northernmost to the southernmost are: the tundra, the taiga, the Canadian boreal forest (coniferous), mixed forest and deciduous forest.
Central Ontario
The population of the region was 1,123,307 in 2016; however, this number does not include large numbers of seasonal cottage country residents, which at peak times of the year swell its population to well in excess of 1.5 million. Although it contains many small and medium-sized urban centres, much of Central Ontario is covered by farms, lakes (with freshwater beaches), rivers or sparsely populated forested land on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield.
History of Ontario
The History of Ontario covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. The lands that make up present-day Ontario, the most populous province of Canada as of the early 21st century have been inhabited for millennia by groups of Aboriginal people, with French and British exploration and colonization commencing in the 17th century. Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian (Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) and Iroquoian (Iroquois, Petun and Huron) tribes.
Geography of Ontario
Köppen climate classification Dfa is represented in the southwestern tip of Ontario including the city of Windsor. Dfb climate classification is present in London and the southern/western section of the Golden Horseshoe region including Hamilton, Niagara, Oakville and the city of Toronto, have a moderate humid continental climate, similar to the lower Great Lakes portion of the Midwestern United States. The region has warm, humid summers and cold, usually moist winters. Extreme heat and cold usually occur for short periods. It is considered a temperate climate when compared with the remainder of continental Canada. In the fall and winter, temperatures are moderated by the delayed cooling of the Great Lakes; this effect is reversed in spring and summer when afternoon warming is tempered. The lakes' moderating effects allow for a longer growing season than areas at similar latitudes in the continent's interior; some areas exceed 200 frost-free days and have an annual mean temperature of 10 °C (50 °F). Both spring and fall generally consist of mild days and cool nights but are prone to drastic temperature changes over a short timespan. Annual precipitation ranges from 75 to 110 cm (30–43 in) and is well distributed throughout the year with a usual summer peak. Upland areas in this region have cooler conditions, generally more precipitation (especially snowfall), putting them into the Dfb climate scheme. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes, making for abundant snow in some areas (London, Goderich for example) over 2 m (80"), while some other areas are not in the direct snowbelt and receive closer to an average of 1 m (40") of snow per year.
Northern Ontario
The statistical region has a land area of 806,000 km (310,000 mi) and constitutes 88 per cent of the land area of Ontario, but with just 780,000 people it contains only about six per cent of the province's population. The climate is characterized by extremes of temperature, extremely cold in winter and hot in summer. The principal industries are mining, forestry, and hydroelectricity.
Happy Valley Forest
Happy Valley Forest is a 6.48 square kilometre provincially significant ecological area, classified as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It consists of an upland forest on steeply rolling topography, various wooded swamps, and minor wetland areas (wet meadows, thickets and cattail swamps). A few small kettle ponds are also present.
Alberta
Most of the northern half of the province is boreal forest, while the Rocky Mountains along the southwestern boundary are largely forested (see Alberta Mountain forests and Alberta-British Columbia foothills forests). The southern quarter of the province is prairie, ranging from shortgrass prairie in the southeastern corner to mixed grass prairie in an arc to the west and north of it. The central aspen parkland region extending in a broad arc between the prairies and the forests, from Calgary, north to Edmonton, and then east to Lloydminster, contains the most fertile soil in the province and most of the population. Much of the unforested part of Alberta is given over either to grain or to dairy farming, with mixed farming more common in the north and centre, while ranching and irrigated agriculture predominate in the south.
New England/Acadian forests
The New England-Acadian forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion that includes a variety of habitats on the hills, mountains and plateaus of New England in the Northeastern United States and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.
Wildfire suppression
Canada contains approximately of forest land. Seventy-five percent of this is boreal forest, made up primarily of coniferous trees. More than 90 percent of Canadian forest land is publicly owned, and the provincial and territorial governments are responsible for fire-suppression activities. The Federal Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC) provides operational fire-control services and links to all provincial and territorial fire agencies.
Central Canadian Shield forests
This is fairly well-preserved ecoregion with 40% of original forest intact (less so in Manitoba) while most has been heavily changed by logging and in some areas by mining and hydroelectric power generation. Large blocks of undisturbed forest do remain, for example north of Lake Nipigon in Ontario and around Lake Mistassini in Quebec, and in the following protected areas: Wabakimi Provincial Park northwest of Lake Nipigon, Pukaskwa National Park near Marathon, Ontario on the Lake Superior shore, a number of rivers and lakes in Northern Ontario (Winisk River, Missinaibi River, Albany River north of Wabakimi Park, Severn River (northern Ontario), Attawapiskat Lake/Attawapiskat River and Brightsand River), Kesagami Provincial Park, Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior, all in Ontario; and Aiguebelle National Park in Quebec.
Ecology of the Oak Ridges Moraine
The moraine provides habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species, over seventy of which are threatened or endangered in Canada, including the West Virginia white butterfly, Jefferson salamander, red-shouldered hawk, and American ginseng. The moraine's rare wetlands support plants and insects more typical of northern Ontario. The remnants of tallgrass prairie and oak-pine savanna in the eastern portion are globally threatened ecosystems.
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disputed, however the core region is situated south of Algonquin Park, the latter being in an area of transition between coniferous forest north of the French and Mattawa Rivers and southern deciduous forest. It covers between 14 and 15% of the province, depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts which also lie in the transitional area between northern and southern forest regions. With more than 12.7 million people, the region is home to approximately one-third of Canada's population of 35.1 million.
Eastern Canadian forests
This ecoregion contains a number of mountainous areas on the east coast of Canada and along the Saint Lawrence River in eastern Quebec (including Anticosti Island in the Saint Lawrence and the coast up to near Labrador, on the island of Newfoundland, in the highlands of New Brunswick, and the Cape Breton Highlands on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The mountains included are the Laurentian Mountains, to the north of the ecoregion, and the northernmost ranges of the Appalachian Mountains chain to the south, with peaks over 1000m, including the rugged Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. The climate is cool and wet and the coast is subject to heavy fog, especially on the Strait of Belle Isle between Labrador and Newfoundland for example. The Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion lies inland to the west and has more black spruce than the balsam fir that are the dominant tree in this ecoregion.
Boreal forest of Canada
The particular mixture of tree species depends upon factors including soil moisture, soil depth, and organic content. Upland forests can be closely mixed with forested peatlands. The resulting conifer forests are produced by and dependent upon recurring disturbance from storms, fires, floods and insect outbreaks. Owing to the accumulated peat in the soil, and the predominance of coniferous trees, lightning-caused fire has always been a natural part of this forest. It is one of many ecosystems that depend upon such recurring natural disturbance. For example, fire dependent species like lodgepole and jack pine have resin sealed cones. In a fire, the resin melts and the cones to open, allowing seeds to scatter so that a new pine forest begins (see also fire ecology). It has been estimated that prior to European settlement, this renewal process occurred on average every 75 to 100 years, creating even-aged stands of forest. Fire continues to cause natural forest disturbance, but fire suppression and clear-cutting has interrupted these natural cycles, leading to significant changes in species composition.
Boreal forest of Canada
About eighty percent of Canada's Aboriginal population resides in forested areas – including one million in over five hundred First Nations and Métis settlements in boreal zones. Of that amount, over 17,000 work in the forest products industry, mostly in silviculture and woodlands operations in the boreal and other forest regions.
Burlington, Ontario
Before pioneer settlement in the 19th century, the area was covered by the primeval forest that stretched between the provincial capital of York and the town of Hamilton, and was home to various First Nations peoples. In 1792, John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, named the western end of Lake Ontario "Burlington Bay" after the town of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. By the time land beside the bay was deeded to Captain Joseph Brant at the turn of the 19th century, the name "Burlington" was already in common use. With the completion of the local survey after the War of 1812, the land was opened for settlement. Early farmers prospered in the Burlington area because the area had fertile soil and moderate temperatures. Produce from the farms was shipped out via the bustling docks of the lakeside villages of Port Nelson and Wellington Square, as well as Brown's Wharf in the nearby village of Port Flamborough (which was to become Aldershot). Lumber taken from the surrounding forests also competed for space on the busy docks. However, in the latter half of the 19th century, increased wheat production from Western Canada convinced local farmers to switch to fruit and vegetable production.
Geography of Ontario
Ontario's vast rivers and lakes originally opened the province for exploration and have made possible hydroelectric power, mills and various forms of industrialization. Most of Ontario is fed by rainfall, and in most parts snow is relied on. Precipitation is most common in the southern and central parts of Ontario where variations among the seasons are not especially great; but winter and spring are less aqueous than in northern and northwestern Ontario.
Midwestern Canadian Shield forests
Most of the natural forest remains intact with most alteration having occurred in Manitoba due to logging, mining and hydro-electric power generation. Protected areas include Opasquia Provincial Park, Woodland Caribou Provincial Park and Pipestone River Provincial Park in northwestern Ontario, Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park in eastern Manitoba and Lac la Ronge and Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park in Saskatchewan.
Ontario
Ontario is sometimes conceptually divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation.
Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis' terrain is primarily a mixture of dense conifer woods and open Puget prairie-garry oak woodlands. Invasive Scotch Broom has taken over many areas. The landscape is very rocky from glacial meltwater deposits. Poison oak is found in the training areas. Canada Thistle grows thickly in some areas. All trees are to be left standing; post policy prohibits cutting or trimming them.
Ontario tobacco belt
High-value horticultural crops thrive in this region, including 90% of all tobacco grown in Canada. Members of Parliament elected to ridings in the Ontario tobacco belt have strong pro-tobacco policies in addition to other policies in the interest of their rural constituents. Historically, the Ontario tobacco belt is composed of the rural area immediately surrounding the towns of Delhi, Aylmer and Tillsonburg. Additional tobacco farms can be found in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and near Joliette, Quebec.
Haliburton Forest
The Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve Ltd. (Haliburton Forest) is a privately owned forest, comprising in Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada. It is about northeast of Toronto, and just south of and abutting Algonquin Provincial Park.
Haliburton Forest is a "multi-use forest", with attractions such as the Haliburton Forest Wolf Centre, a canopy walk as well as the world's only freshwater tour submarine. Haliburton Forest operates recreation, tourism and education programs year-round. Its forestry operations were the first to be certified by the international Forest Stewardship Council in Canada. Haliburton Forest supports ecosystem based research projects, primarily conducted by the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry.
Oxford County, Ontario
Despite decades of public education and government restrictions on marketing, the worldwide revenue in the tobacco industry is still in the range of $500 billion annually. Ontario's tobacco belt - an area with sandy loam and warm temperatures ideal for growing tobacco - stretches across the southern portion of Oxford County and the northern portions of Elgin and Norfolk. The crop gained in popularity in the 1920s and by the 1960s the whole economy of the area was dominated by tobacco growing, accounting for 90 per cent of all tobacco grown in Canada. Aggressive expansion of crop area led to recognition of increased risk the area could turn into a desert, but this was remedied with tree-planting. The seasonal workforce demands drew annual influxes of migrant workers and conditions which were made legend in Stompin' Tom Connors' 1970 hit song "Tillsonburg". To cut back production as part of its anti-smoking campaigns, a buyout program was implemented by the federal government in 2008, with payouts totalling $350 million to farmers who agreed to switch to other crops (the buyout funds came from a $1 billion settlement agreed by the major cigarette manufacturers as a result of prosecution for illegal activities). The result was a drop in annual production from 84 million pounds to 20 million pounds. Farmers who agreed to the buyout have favoured a switch to fruit and vegetable crops.
Ontario tobacco belt
The Ontario tobacco belt is the tobacco-growing region located in Norfolk County and eastern Elgin County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The region is close to the north shore of Lake Erie, with a moderate climate and sandy, silt-loam soils that are well-suited to a wide variety of crops.
Oak Ridges, Ontario
The developments affected the forests of the Oak Ridges Moraine which supplies water to the Greater Toronto Area which it was believed would cause environmental damage to Toronto and local communities. It continued for about two years. There were protests against the clear-cutting of forests of the Oak Ridges Moraine. In about 2001, Bayview began to expand to connect with the rest of Bayview. In 2002, the housing developments stopped. Urban developments are presently developing southwest of Oak Ridges.
Land ownership in Canada
The largest class of landowners are the provincial governments, who hold all unclaimed land in their jurisdiction. Over 90% of the sprawling boreal forest of Canada is provincial Crown land. Provincial lands account for 60% of the area of the province of Alberta, 94% of the land in British Columbia, 95% of Newfoundland and Labrador, and 48% of New Brunswick.
Geography of Ontario
Ontario is the second-most urbanized province after British Columbia, with 85.9% of the population living in urban areas.
Ontario Parks
Ontario Parks is the agency in Ontario, Canada, that protects significant natural and cultural resources in a system of parks and protected areas that is sustainable and provides opportunities for inspiration, enjoyment and education. The Ontario Parks system covers over , about 10 percent of the province's surface area or the equivalent of an area approximately equal to Nova Scotia. It falls under the responsibility and mandate of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
Northern hardwood forest
The northern hardwood forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south central Canada, Ontario and Quebec, extending south into the United States in northern New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, and west along the Great Lakes to Minnesota and western Ontario. Some ecologists consider it a transitional forest because it contains species common to both the oak-hickory forest community to the south and the Boreal forest community to the north. The trees and shrub species of the Northern Hardwood Forest are known for their brilliant fall colors, making the regions that contain this forest type popular fall foliage tourist destinations.
Wood economy
Canada is the world leader in sustainable forest management practices. Only (28% of Canadian forests) are currently managed for timber production while an estimated are protected from harvesting by the current legislation.
The species that are ideal for the many uses in this type of economy are those employed by arboriculture, that are very well known for their features and the need for certain types of ground and climates.In Sweden, Finland and to an extent Norway, much of the land area is forested, the pulp and paper industry is one of the most significant industrial sectors. Chemical pulping produces an excess of energy, since the organic matter in black liquor, mostly lignin and hemicellulose breakdown products, is burned in the recovery boiler. Thus, these countries have high proportions of renewable energy use (25% in Finland, for instance). Considerable effort is directed towards increasing the value and usage of forest products by companies and by government projects.
Carolinian forest
This forest region extends across much of the eastern United States, from the Carolinas northward, and into Southern Ontario in Canada. The Canadian portion of the region is in the fertile ecozone of the Mixedwood Plains and includes ecodistricts 7E-1 to 7E-6. Besides its southern location within Canada, the climate of this area is also moderated by the nearby Great Lakes, so it is able to support animal and plant species usually not found in other parts of Canada.
Ontario Forest Research Institute
Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI) is a division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. This institute is composed of research scientists, specialists, statisticians, technicians, management, and administrative staff. OFRI research helps provide sustainable management of Ontario Forests and Natural Resources.
Ontario tobacco belt
From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s, the coastal portion of the Ontario tobacco belt was threatened with desertification. Only by planting coniferous seedlings was the desertification finally stopped. More than 25% of Norfolk County is considered to be forested.
List of birds of Ontario
This list of birds of Ontario includes all the bird species recorded in the Canadian province of Ontario as determined by the Ontario Bird Records Committee (OBRC). There are, as of April 2017, 495 species on this list, 291 of which are known to breed in the province. Ontario has a considerable variety of bird species. One of the factors in this diversity is the size and range of environments in Ontario. Another is the Great Lakes; many birds use the shores as a stopping point during migration.
Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests
This area includes much of northern New York state (save for the Adirondacks), western Vermont, the Saint Lawrence Lowlands in southern Quebec and most of southern Ontario between Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. The region includes the Frontenac Axis, the Niagara Escarpment up to Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron, and Lake Simcoe. Meanwhile, the forests south of Lake Ontario are classified as the Southern Great Lakes forests ecoregion and in Canada the higher elevations of the Canadian Appalachian Mountains and the Laurentian Mountains constitute the Eastern Canadian forests.
Ontario
The area defined as the Corn Belt covers much of the southwestern area of the province, extending as far north as close to Goderich, but corn and soy are grown throughout the southern portion of the province. Apple orchards are a common sight along the southern shore of Nottawasaga Bay (part of Georgian Bay) near Collingwood and along the northern shore of Lake Ontario near Cobourg. Tobacco production, centred in Norfolk County, has decreased, allowing an increase in alternative crops such as hazelnuts and ginseng. The Ontario origins of Massey Ferguson, once one of the largest farm-implement manufacturers in the world, indicate the importance agriculture once had to the Canadian economy.
Eastern forest-boreal transition
The ecoregion includes most of the southern Canadian Shield in Ontario and Quebec north and west of the Saint Lawrence River lowlands including the eastern shores of Lake Superior and other areas of the Great Lakes, Lake Timiskaming, the southern Laurentian Mountains, Lake Nipissing, Quebec City, the Saguenay River and parts of Georgian Bay, Greater Sudbury/North Bay, Ontario, Saguenay, Quebec, the Clay Belt and Temagami in Ontario. There is a separate section of the ecoregion in the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State, United States. However the higher elevations of the Laurentian Mountains and the northern Appalachian Mountains in Canada constitute the Eastern Canadian forests ecoregion.
Reforestation
Natural Resources Canada (The Department of Natural Resources) states that the national forest cover was decreased by 0.34% from 1990 to 2015, and Canada has the lowest deforestation rate in the world. The forest industry is one of the main industries in Canada which contributes about 7% of Canadian economy, and about 9% of the forests on earth are in Canada. Therefore, Canada has many policies and laws to commit to sustainable forest management. For example, 94% of Canadian forests are public land, and the government obligates planting trees after harvesting to public forests.
Eastern Canadian forests
The Eastern Canadian forests is an ecoregion of Canada as defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) categorization system.
Forest of Reading
The Forest of Reading is Canada's largest recreational reading program, made up of eight programs and run by the Ontario Library Association (OLA). The programs are geared towards readers in kindergarten to grade twelve, with several programs targeting adult readers, ESL learners and French speakers. The Forest is unique in that it is the readers themselves who choose the winners of each category by voting for their favourite books. Every year, the Forest of Reading programs culminate in an action packed event run in Toronto, called the Festival of Trees. The Festival of Trees is Canada's largest annual literary event for children, attracting over 10,000 youth every year. The winners of each program, as chosen by the young readers, are announced at the Festival of Trees events, and many authors and illustrators are in attendance, delivering hands on workshops and mingling with their young fans. In 2012, the Festival began touring and now has events in places around Ontario reaching thousands more young readers.
Dorset, Ontario
Dorset is located within the Canadian Shield ecological region of Canada. The region has many lakes surrounded by mixed hardwood forests of predominately Sugar Maple, Red Oak, White Ash, and Yellow Birch as well as softwoods such as Eastern White Pine, Black Spruce, Eastern Hemlock, and Balsam Fir. Spruce bogs, wetlands, large granite rock outcroppings are also common in the local area.
King City, Ontario
King Forest is a 60-hectare forest with steep valleys containing the narrow flood plain of the East Humber River. The valley walls are of dry-mesic nature, supporting Eastern White Cedar, Eastern Hemlock and Sugar Maple. It is a regenerating forest containing 85 ground-cover species. The flood plain consists primarily of Eastern White Cedar, Sugar Maple and some White Ash, though 26 species do thrive in the area.
Boreal forest of Canada
Canada's Boreal forest comprises about one third of the circumpolar boreal forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel. Other countries with boreal forest, also called taiga, include Russia, which contains the majority, the United States in its northern most state of Alaska, and the Scandinavian or Northern European countries (e.g. Sweden, Finland, Norway and small regions of Scotland). The boreal region in Canada covers almost 60% of the country's land area. The Canadian boreal region spans the landscape from the most easterly part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the border between the far northern Yukon and Alaska. The area is dominated by coniferous forests, particularly spruce, interspersed with vast wetlands, mostly bogs and fens. The boreal region of Canada includes eight ecozones. While the biodiversity of regions varies, each ecozone has a characteristic native flora and fauna.
Boreal forest of Canada
Canada's boreal region can be divided into seven ecozones. These seven can be divided into two main groups. The northern regions of the boreal forest consists of four eco-zones – Taiga Cordillera, Taiga Plains, Taiga Shield and Hudson Plains – that are the most thinly treed areas where the growing season and average tree size progressively shrinks until the edge of the Arctic tundra is reached. The southern tier of the boreal meanwhile consists of three other ecozones that form the largely uninterrupted or continuous forest in stretching as far south as Lake Superior in Ontario (as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion) and the Manitoba-North Dakota border. These three southern zones are the Boreal Shield, at 1,630,000 square kilometres the largest of the eight zones, the Boreal Plains and Boreal Cordillera. A typical ecoregion of this southern tier would be the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga that covers northern Quebec and most of Labrador. Within the boreal region, there are about 1,890,000 square kilometres that are between 80% to 100% forested and another 650,000 square kilometres with 60% to 80% forest cover.
List of trees of Canada
This list compiles many of the common large shrubs and trees found in Canada. The Canadian flora is depauperate because of the near total glaciation event in the Pleistocene. Due to the vast area of Canada, a tree that is common in one area may be completely absent in another. In particular, many warm-temperate trees can only be grown on the mild Pacific coast (where gardens may contain additional species not listed here).
Climate change in Canada
Ontario is Canada’s most populated province and, in 2010, had the second highest greenhouse gas emissions inventory in the country. In 1990, Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions were 176 megatonnes (Mt) of CO equivalent. According to Canada’s 2012 National Inventory Report Ontario’s emissions were 171 Mt in 2010, an amount that represented 25% of Canada’s total emissions for that year. Over the 20-year period between 1990 and 2010, Ontario’s emissions continued to increase until the mid-2000s. Emissions declined significantly in 2008-2009 due in large part to the economic recession. In 2010, Ontario emitted 12.95 tonnes per person, compared with the Canadian average of 20.3 tonnes per person.
Jordan, Ontario
Jordan's climate is humid continental (Köppen borderline "Dfa"/"Dfb") and can be considered a unique micro-climate because of the moderating influence of Lake Ontario/Lake Erie and the sheltering effect of the Niagara Escarpment. The area is known in Canada for its orchards, vineyards, wineries and restaurants that feature local produce and wines. Fruit crops grown in Jordan include cherries, peaches, apples and pears, and during the summer attract many tourists from all over Ontario, particularly Toronto, Ontario.
Southwest Elgin Forest Complex
The Southwest Elgin Forest Complex comprises a 20-kilometer subzone of discontinuous woodlots in southern Ontario within 5 kilometers of the Lake Erie shoreline from John E. Pearce Provincial Park at the eastern end to the Elgin-Kent county border at the western end. Mature forests are often dominated by American beech and sugar maple with a notable presence of species, including sassafras and tulip tree, which are restricted to the Carolinian forest region. Some rare birds are present, most notably hooded warbler in woods and Acadian flycatcher in ravines.
Canadian Prairies
The "prairies" in Canada are a temperate grasslands and shrublands biome, within the prairie ecoregion of Canada and consists of Northern mixed grasslands in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. Northern short grasslands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Northern tall grasslands in southern Manitoba, and Aspen parkland, which covers central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. The Prairie starts from north of Edmonton, it covers the three provinces in a southward-slanting line east to the Manitoba-Minnesota border. Alberta has the most land classified as Prairie, while Manitoba has the least, as the Boreal Forest begins at a lower latitude in Manitoba than in Alberta.
Native trees in Toronto
Native trees in Toronto are trees that are naturally growing in Toronto and were not later introduced by humans. The area that presently comprise Toronto is a part of the Carolinian forest, although agricultural and urban developments destroyed significant portions of that life zone. In addition, many of Toronto's native trees have been displaced by non-native plants and trees introduced by settlers from Europe and Asia from the 18th century to the present. Most of the native trees are found in the Toronto ravine system, parks, and along the Toronto waterway system.
Lake Ontario
Most of the forests around the lake are deciduous forests dominated by trees including maple, oak, beech, ash and basswood. These are classified as part of the Mixedwood Plains Ecozone by Environment Canada, or as the Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or as the Great Lakes Ecoregion by The Nature Conservancy. Deforestation in the vicinity of the lake has had many negative impacts, including loss of forest birds, extinction of native salmon, and increased amounts of sediment flowing into the lake. In some areas more than 90 percent of the forest cover has been removed and replaced by agriculture. Certain tree species, such as hemlock, have also been particularly depleted by past logging activity. Guidelines for restoration stress the importance of maintaining and restoring forest cover, particularly along streams and wetlands.
Forest
By December 2006, over 1,237,000 square kilometres of forest land in Canada (about half the global total) had been certified as being sustainably managed. Clearcutting, first used in the latter half of the 20th century, is less expensive, but devastating to the environment, and companies are required by law to ensure that harvested areas are adequately regenerated. Most Canadian provinces have regulations limiting the size of clear-cuts, although some older clear-cuts can range upwards of in size which was cut over several years.
Sandy Island Beach State Park
North and south of Sandy Island Beach, the shoreline has high dunes that are up to higher than the level of Lake Ontario. Despite the fact that the high dunes are essentially pure sand, hardwood trees such as red oak and red maple grow on them. The forested high dunes are one of the unusual features of the eastern Lake Ontario coastline. It can take 400 years for a hardwood forest to become established on a freshly formed dune.
Carolinian forest
Because the major population centres of Ontario are located nearby, there has been significant loss of wetlands and forested areas to urban areas and farms. It is estimated that 90 per cent of Canada's Carolinian forest has already been destroyed. The remaining portions, mostly scattered and disconnected, continue to be threatened by human development. Some of the best preserved areas of Canada's Carolinian forest are located in Windsor's Ojibway Park and Rondeau Provincial Park near Morpeth, Ontario; another is the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve near Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Geography of Ontario
Ontario is located in East/Central Canada. It is Canada's second largest province in total land area. Its physical features vary greatly from the Mixedwood Plains in the southeast to the boreal forests and tundra in the north. Ontario borders Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and the Great Lakes and the United States to the south. The province is named for Great Lake Ontario, an adaptation of the Iroquois word "Onitariio", meaning "beautiful lake", or "Kanadario", variously translated as "beautiful water". There are approximately 250,000 lakes and over of rivers in the province.
Ontario
In the 2016 census, Ontario had a population of 13,448,494 living in 5,169,174 of its 5,598,391 total dwellings, a 4.6 percent change from its 2011 population of 12,851,821. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.
Geography of Ontario
Ontario, owing to its size, has diverse geology that varies in structure, age, and lithology. About 61% of the province is covered by the Canadian Shield, mostly with Precambrian rock. These rocks contain large mineral deposits that are vital to the economy of northern Ontario. The shield can further be divided into three sections. The northwestern parts of the Shield, located roughly north and west of Sudbury, are known as the Superior Province; this is the largest of the three sections, covering about 70% of the Shield portion in Ontario. This region is more than 2.5 billion years old and is composed of felsic intrusive rocks. In the northernmost parts of the Superior Province, the geology of the region is dominated by granite and gneiss rocks. The central region of the Shield, known as the Grenville Province and located south of Sudbury, is 1.0 to 1.6 billion years old and is dominated by sedimentary rocks showing evidence of being subjected to metamorphism. It makes up about 20% of the Canadian Shield in Ontario. These rocks were metamorphosed between 990 million years ago and 1.08 billion years ago. The third region, known as the Southern province which is a narrow region from Sault Ste. Marie to Kirkland Lake, is made of rocks dating 1.8 to 2.4 billion years ago. The Hudson Bay lowlands, located north of the Canadian Shield, are mainly made of sedimentary rocks from the Silurian Period, although some parts date from the Ordovician and Devonian periods. This area covers 25% of the province. Most of the bedrock in the Hudson Bay lowlands is composed of limestone and carbonate-dominated sedimentary rock.
Concord, Ontario
Much of Concord is industrial while empty spaces remain in the southern part, in the Black Creek and 407 area, and along the CN railway line. Mixed forests are located in the north and within Black Creek and along the Don River. One tract of forest is located to the northwest. All main roads except for Langstaff east of Creditstone Road are four-lane roadways,
Keddy Nature Sanctuary
The original forests were predominantly sugar maple, beech, white pine and hemlock, which is typical for land on the Canadian shield in eastern Ontario. These forests were heavily logged in the 1800s and then often cleared for pastures and fields. White pine was removed for ship building, hemlock was removed for tanning leather, and most other species of trees were burned to produce potash which was exported to Europe. Thus, the current forests have altered species composition, with smaller trees, and reduced soil fertility.
Pefferlaw, Ontario
Pefferlaw is primarily situated in a forest setting. Farmlands are to the west, the northwest and the north. More farmlands are east of Lake Ridge Road and Pefferlaw. The forests are almost connected with the forests south of Sutton. The forests cover most of the area around Pefferlaw and to the south with a few farmlands as well as within the shoreline of Lake Simcoe. The forests are mainly composed of pine and other varieties of trees and the size is about 600 to 700 square kilometres and about 80% of the area around Pefferlaw.
Pefferlaw is located about 13 kilometres southwest of Beaverton, about 15 kilometres east of Sutton, and about 45 kilometres south of Orillia. It is 37 kilometres west of Lindsay, 23 kilometres north of Uxbridge, about 50 kilometres north of Whitby, about 90 kilometres northeast of Toronto, and 40 kilometres northeast of the nearest major commercial centre and seat of York Region, Newmarket.
Geography of Canada
The Shield cannot support intensive agriculture, although there is subsistence agriculture and small dairy farms in many of the river valleys and around the abundant lakes, particularly in the southern regions. Boreal forest covers much of the shield, with a mix of conifers that provide valuable timber resources in areas such as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion that covers much of Northern Ontario. The region is known for its extensive mineral reserves.
Mooseland, Nova Scotia
Mooseland is home to the Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest (www.opdf.ca), a community forest initiative on publicly owned lands that aims to demonstrate uneven aged forest management and restoration of the Acadian Forest along the Eastern Shore. The Otter Ponds forest is approximately 
1600 acres (647 hectares) that straddles the Tangier River and is composed of a diverse range of conifer and deciduous forests.
Manitoba
Two sections of the province are not dominated by forest. The province's northeast corner bordering Hudson Bay is above the treeline and is considered tundra. The tallgrass prairie once dominated the south central and southeastern parts including the Red River Valley. Mixed grass prairie is found in the southwestern region. Agriculture has replaced much of the natural prairie but prairie still can be found in parks and protected areas; some are notable for the presence of the endangered western prairie fringed orchid.