The net result is an overall decrease in area disturbed, which has allowed many forests to survive to older ages. Less than one-third of one per cent of B.C.'s forest land is harvested annually.
Original forests are areas that have never been logged or reforested.
There are more forests growing in North America today than on the first Earth Day in 1973. B.C.'s protected areas are larger than all of the forest area ever logged in the province. These include the Protected Areas Strategy, the Forest Practices Code, the Wildlife Act, the Park Act, the Fish Protection Act, the Water Act and the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy. The Northern Rockies' Muskwa-Kechika in B.C. is one of North America's last true wilderness areas. It is the largest intact wilderness area in the world south of the 60 th parallel.