Natural Regions:
TOTAL AREA:
381,047 km2
TOTAL Human Footprint:
76,057 km2
Region Overview
The Boreal Forest Natural Region is a large northern ecosystem covering over 381,000 km2 or 58% of the province. The Boreal Forest Natural Region consists of a mosaic of upland forests interspersed with lowland forests and an abundance of low-lying wetlands, bogs, and fens. Lodgepole Pine, Jack Pine, White Spruce, and Aspen occupy upland areas, while Black Spruce and Larch dominate lowland areas. One common type of wetland, known as peatlands, provides a unique set of ecological conditions (limited oxygen, low nutrient availability, acidic soil), which supports a distinctive set of flora; species like the Northern Green Bog Orchid and the Round-leaved Sundew thrive in these habitats. The boreal forest is considered the “bird nursery” of North America as the mosaic of forest and wetland habitat serves as the breeding grounds for millions of birds each year. In fact, many birds, such as the Palm Warbler and Bay-breasted Warbler, are almost entirely reliant on the boreal forest during their breeding seasons. Human footprint status and trends are summarized for the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
Status
Agriculture was the dominant human footprint, covering 11.8%, followed by forestry footprint (4.1%), energy (1.8%), and transportation (1.1%). The remaining footprint types each covered < 1.0% of the region.
| Human Footprint Type | Area (km2) | Area (%) |
|---|
Figure: Status of Human Footprint. Summary of percentage cover of total human footprint broken down by human footprint category in the Boreal Forest Natural Region, circa 2023.
Trend
- Between 2000 and 2023, the total area of human footprint in the Boreal Forest Natural Region
- This increase in human footprint was driven by the expansion of forestry footprint, which more than doubled in size during this time, from 1.6% to 4.1%. However, this increase in forestry footprint is lower when forest recovery is considered: forestry footprint increased by 1.6 percentage points, from 1.4% to 3.0%, when recovery of regenerating forest is included.
- The remaining human footprint categories each had small increases of < 1.0 percentage point from 2000 to 2023, with agriculture footprint showing the next largest increase (from 11.1% to 11.8%).
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (km2) | 2023 (km2) | Change (km2) |
|---|
| Human Footprint Type | 2000 (%) | 2023 (%) | Change (%) |
|---|
Figure: Trend in Human Footprint. Trend in the percentage area of total human footprint, and by human footprint category in the Boreal Forest Natural Region between 1950 and 2023. Click on the entries in the legend to turn human footprint categories on and off.
Status of Linear Human Footprint
- Density of linear features was in the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
- Legacy seismic lines, with a density of 1.3 km/km2, were the predominant linear feature, representing 57% of linear footprint in the region.
- Density of roads (0.5 km/km2) and other linear features (0.4 km/km2) combined represented 36% of linear footprint in the Boreal Forest Natural Region.
- Transmission lines and railways had very low densities.
Figure: Status of Linear Human Footprint. Density (km/km2) of linear features in the Boreal Forest Natural Region, circa 2023, overall and broken down by linear feature type. Hover over bar or legend to view density of specific linear feature type. Please note that linear density reporting excludes seismic line types that are not consistently represented provincially, including: Seismic Line of Sight, Low Impact Seismic, Seismic Conventional (Modern), Seismic Avoidance, and unconfirmed seismic lines.