Stop worrying about trees: Canada has 36 million acres more than we thought

Jul 06, 2022

OTTAWA — While environmentalists discourage farms from clearing their land, they should take heart in knowing that Canada has just discovered it has 36 million more acres of trees than we thought.

The Department of Natural Resources counted 858 million acres of trees. But when it recalculated tree cover, thanks in part to improved satellite imagery, the department found an additional 36 million acres. So, Canada has 894 million acres of trees.

Canada has the third-largest tree cover of all nations on earth. Only Russia and Brazil have more. Canada has 9 per cent of the world’s forests and about 90 per cent of Canada’s trees are on crown land.

In its annual report, Natural Resources Canada said less than 0.5 percent of timber lands have been lost to logging and farming. In 2019, Canadian agriculture de-forested 55,000 acres, the report said. “The forest area of Canada is relatively stable, with less than 0.5% deforested since 1990.”

Click here to see more...

Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?