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Note: This issue is no longer available for purchase. Current
Issue Canada:
R To
glimpse the enormity
of Canada’s forest, and thus the enormity of this task, which has taken
almost a year to complete, simply turn to map on Pages 2 and 3. You are
looking at 10 percent of the world’s forest: 1.097 billion acres
spanning 10 distinct forest types or regions, each defined by wide-ranging
geographic, physical and climatic factors. By contrast, the eight forest
regions of the United States cover 747 million acres.
Canada’s
vast forests hold about 198,000 wildlife species, a rarity for one
country, even one as large as Canada. Small wonder then that its
exceptionally diverse forests have become the subject of increasing
scrutiny around the world. The fact that Canada remains very rural makes
its economic dependence on natural resource-based industries, particularly
timber and energy, far more apparent than rural resource dependence is in
the U.S. As a result, social and political support for active development
of these resources is much stronger in Canada than it is in the U.S. The
history of forest development in Canada bears striking similarities to the
history of development in the U.S., though the fur trade played a far more
prominent role in Canada than it did in the U.S. In fact, fur was
Canada’s first forest product. It began as an offshoot of
Newfoundland’s fishing industry in the 1500s. In
this special report we have purposefully steered clear of the softwood
lumber dispute that now has many U.S. and Canadian mills warring with one
another. We have done so for two reasons. First, we remain true to our
roots in forestry and science. We are not a trade or political journal.
Second, we respect the opinions of Evergreen Foundation members and
directors on both sides of this dispute. But sad is the fact that the
millions of dollars that have been spent on lawyers and lobbyists were not
instead invested in forestry education programs, scholarships for students
entering in pursuing careers in forestry.
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