This page is no longer current and is provided for archival and research purposes.
Historical summaries
Historical summaries
In early Forest Resources of Ontario reports, forest cover was surveyed according to broad cover types and seral stages, essentially mature, immature and young growth forest, as the inventory was purely for commercial logging purposes. It wasn’t until 1986 that the concept of age class was introduced to the report. Working groups (dominant species) and 20 year age classes were published in 1986 and this report series has carried that tradition through for comparative purposes. Forest units based on ecological characteristics were not introduced until the mid-1990s.
Volume measurements (growing stock) were published earlier than age class summaries. Therefore the growing stock historical summaries report back to 1963. It should also be noted that changes in the methods of data collection and summarization should be considered when examining historical trends.
Area by age class and year - all working groups
Total area by tree species group and report year–AOU (area in hectares) footnote *
Working group | 1986 | 1996 | 2001 | 2006 | 2011 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
White Pine | 574,446 | 693,682 | 778,947 | 790,899 | 789,788 | 790,324 |
Red Pine | 159,378 | 132,590 | 149,180 | 164,582 | 174,875 | 175,375 |
Jack Pine | 4,425,377 | 4,608,320 | 4,598,671 | 4,678,563 | 4,752,693 | 4,733,043 |
Black Spruce | 13,477,431 | 13,095,277 | 12,952,361 | 12,976,168 | 12,774,963 | 12,816,829 |
White Spruce | 285,109 | 295,956 | 303,819 | 326,835 | 330,990 | 337,443 |
Balsam Fir | 1,873,475 | 1,775,390 | 1,371,623 | 926,922 | 935,450 | 937,419 |
White Cedar | 693,596 | 652,253 | 725,226 | 786,220 | 765,007 | 765,495 |
Hemlock | 159,769 | 150,181 | 152,371 | 150,579 | 157,654 | 159,640 |
Other Conifers | 212,934 | 171,277 | 196,392 | 210,849 | 258,564 | 261,934 |
Poplar | 5,041,874 | 5,704,712 | 5,874,789 | 5,937,184 | 5,907,699 | 5,911,289 |
White Birch | 2,845,871 | 2,950,846 | 2,998,912 | 3,114,749 | 3,190,415 | 3,218,226 |
Hard Maple | 2,205,012 | 1,856,763 | 1,855,585 | 1,875,522 | 1,838,283 | 1,823,569 |
Oak | 285,743 | 226,311 | 308,283 | 284,090 | 280,896 | 283,797 |
Yellow Birch | 163,897 | 138,992 | 155,178 | 153,907 | 165,695 | 165,937 |
Other Hardwoods | 475,969 | 423,664 | 441,425 | 485,693 | 473,017 | 482,443 |
Total: | 32,879,880 | 32,876,215 | 32,862,762 | 32,862,762 | 32,795,989 | 32,862,762 |
Generating summaries for the Forest Resources series prior to the 1990s was a significant undertaking, as most work was done on paper maps and ledgers. The focus of the reports was generally on more important commercial species such as spruce and pine. Photo interpreters would often ignore small amounts of Poplar or White Birch in large coniferous stands.
During the 1990s, stand sizes started to shrink and become more complex, as interpreters were highlighting subtle differences in height, species composition or other physical features. Small amounts of other species were introduced into the provincial inventory, giving the impression to those viewing summaries that there was an increase in these species. In reality it was simply an increase in detail. An examination of the successive inventories where no harvest or natural disturbance has occurred has shown a 50-80% increase in the number of stands marked as individual polygons, and a significant increase in Poplar, Balsam Fir and other incidental species.
Footnotes
- footnote[*] Back to paragraph Note: there have been adjustments made to historical numbers to match the current AOU boundary; numbers do not reflect the Whitefeather Forest.