Facts About Our Forests

Ontario's landscape is dominated by forests which stretch across the province, from maple and oak forests of the south to the spruce dominated north. Forest statistics have been published since the 1920's. The Forest Resources of Ontario provides a comprehensive overview of Ontario's forests. Statistics describing the area of land and water, forest types, and the distribution of tree species across the province are summarized in the form of tables, charts, and colour maps.

• Ontario has approximately 85 billion trees
• 66.2% of Ontario is forest (71.3 million ha)
• 80.7% of Ontario’s forests are Crown (public) forest (57.5 million ha)
• 8.5% of Ontario’s forests are within Parks and Protected areas (6.1 million ha)

  Total land and water area by land class in Ontario - 107.6 million hectares

• Southern Ontario has only 3.3% of Ontario’s forests
• 65.5% of Ontario’s growing stock is in the Boreal forest region
• 51.6% of the Boreal forest region is managed Crown forest
• 48.4% of the Boreal forest region is unavailable for harvest
• Less than one-half of 1% of the forest in the Boreal region is harvested annually 
• The average age of Area of the Undertaking (AOU) forest has increased from 73 years old in 1996, to 79 in 2001 and 82 years old in 2006
• 57.4% of the AOU is softwood or coniferous forest types
• 25.5% of the AOU is hardwood or deciduous forest types
• 17.2% of the AOU is mixedwood forest types
• Ontario’s most common tree is the black spruce (37% of total provincial growing stock), followed by poplar (21%), and Jack Pine (11%)
• The most common provincial forest types are conifer upland and lowland, which are dominated by spruce, and make up 56.5% of the Boreal forest

Proportion of forest compared to total land area