National Forest Inventory

The NFI was established over the period 2000-2006 to provide reliable area statistics from a 1% sample of the entire land base. In order to complete the establishment with available resources and within a reasonable timeframe, a number of deviations to the original design were necessary. These included:

A reduction in sampling intensity (affecting the accuracy of data)
The replacement of detailed photo plots with coarse-resolution satellite plots (reducing the reporting capability)
The use of older inventory data rather than acquiring new data

Land Classification
Area Classification
Land use in Canada
Summary

Canada
Land Classification	Millions of hectares

Forest land	347.7
Non Forest land	301.0
Other wooded land	41.8
Other land with tree cover	7.8
Other land	251.4
Total land	648.7
Water	89.8
Total area *	738.5

* The Arctic ecozones (Arctic Cordillera, Northern Arctic, Southern Arctic) and a portion of the Hudson Plains ecozone in Nunavut are not inventoried. The total land and water areas amount to 242,536,492 ha and 18,786,536 ha respectively.

Canada
Area classification

Forest land, other wooded land and other land with tree cover (millions of hectares)	397.3
Total area (millions of hectares)	738.5

Forest type
Hardwood	17%
Mixedwood	16%
Softwood	68%

Predominant tree species —volume
Pine	9%
Poplar	12%
Spruce	53%

Tree species distribution
Broad-leaved	25%
Coniferous	75%

Canada
Land Use in Canada	000s ha

Industrial	475.77
Forestry	256,682.72
Agriculture	45,051.10
Conservation	82,465.34
Infrastructure	6,147.78
Settlement	4,391.29
Recreation	70,399.92
National Defence	2,304.67
Unknown	180,752.18

Total	648,670.77

Excel format

Source: Canada's National Forest Inventory

Summary

Canada has 397.3 million hectares (ha) of forest land, other wooded land, and other land with tree cover which represent 53.8 percent of its total surface area of 738.5 million ha.

Canada’s forest, other wooded land and other land with tree cover are made up of 397.3 million ha (87.5 percent) of forest, 41.8 million ha (10.5 percent) of other wooded land, and 7.8 million ha (2 percent) of other land with tree cover.

In Canada, the predominant tree species on forest land are spruce (53.2 percent), poplar (11.6 percent) and pine (9.3 percent).