Our eight major forest regions are home to more than 200,000 species. Among these thousands on life forms there are 165 species of trees. Less than one per cent of the productive forest land base is harvested each year. Fifteen per cent of all softwoods grow in Canada. Much of the forest in Canada consists of even-aged stands, due to such cyclical and widespread disturbances as fire and insect infestation.
Healthy ecosystems can tolerate periodic disturbances.
Indeed the renewal of some forest types depends on natural disturbance, more particularly fire, which is often necessary to give an ecosystem a fresh start. In eastern Canada, insects are the major type of disturbance. Fire is the most important disturbance in the western boreal forest. Harvesting is the predominant disturbance in British Columbia's coastal forest. Fire, insects and disease affected an average of 1.14 million ha annually between 1978 and 1992, while harvesting was carried out on an average of 887,000 ha annually during the same years.