Forest health monitoring in Ontario is conducted jointly by the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) under a Memorandum of Agreement.
Through a systematic monitoring program including ground and aerial surveillance, field staff record and report on forest health conditions and the occurrence of biotic (e.g., insect, disease) and abiotic (e.g. severe weather, blowdown) disturbances or events. Forest health updates are provided throughout the field season to client groups including industry, government, public and other resource stakeholders. This report is based on the results of the 2006 monitoring program and the forest health updates. It includes major forest disturbances, invasive species and regional-level reporting on forest health issues. |
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Executive Summary
This report is based on the results of the 2007 monitoring program and the forest health updates. It includes major forest disturbances, invasive species and regional-level reporting on forest health issues. Major forest disturbances are caused by biotic and abiotic factors which lead to severe damage that typically spans more than one region. For the purpose of this report, the term invasive species refers to insects or pathogens that are not native to Ontario and are currently causing, or are likely to cause environmental or socio- or economic harm.
This report uses the administrative regions of OMNR: Northwest Region, Northeast Region and Southern Region.
Several forest health events occurred in the province in 2007. The jack pine budworm outbreak, which began in 2004 continued its pattern of collapsing in one area after about 2 years of defoliation, while increasing in other areas that had not yet been defoliated during the current outbreak. Jack pine budworm defoliation forecasts for 2008 indicate only a few areas will undergo moderate-to-severe defoliation whereas the overwhelming majority of the province can expect light to no defoliation in 2008.
Invasive species continue to pose problems to forest health. There was an expansion in the
range of the emerald ash borer, which was found in Toronto in October of 2007. A cool wet spring created favourable conditions for diseases such as anthracnose, shoot blight of aspen, and a variety of rusts. Further weather anomalies in winter and spring 2007 also led to the browning of 346,080 ha of conifers in Northeast Region. Other significant forest health issues include severe winds in northwestern Ontario that caused over 17,000 ha of blowdown, and an increasing gypsy moth population in southern Ontario.
There are many forest pests not described in this report that may have affected Ontario’sforests in 2007 or in previous years. Information on certain pests may be omitted if insignificant population or damage levels occurred in 2007, or they occurred at a very small spatial scale, or if identification of the pest had not yet been verified.
