• Former Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, grasping the value of Canada's forest legacy, stated: "We must interest the nation, the individual, the farmer, the settler, the lumberman, everybody in the great work which is involved in forestry."



• Forests cover a huge part of our nation, 417 million hectares to be exact. And according to studies done by the United Nations, they're getting bigger, by close to 9,000 hectares in the first half of the 90s.



• Employment related to trees and wood has been growing along with Canada's forests, nearing one million Canadians.
  
  Overlaid on a map of Europe the forests of Canada would cover Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Albania, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Greece and Germany.



• The Canadian forest industry harvests less than 1/400th of the nation's forests annually.



• The forest industry is Canada's single largest net exporter. The industry contributes more than $30 billion to Canada's balance of trade annually, a figure that represents about two times that of the next largest sector.



• In 1998, forest products contributed $31.6 billion to Canada's balance of trade. Were it not for Canadian exports of forest products, the nation's balance of trade would have been in a deficit position eight times in the past decade. (The State of Canada's Forests 1998/99)


British Columbia Forest Facts:


• Research on the regeneration of forests in BC reveals good news about growth rates of second-growth stands. A mainstay species of the Southern Interior forest industry, lodgepole pine, for instance, has been shown to have greater height and volume and be ready to harvest in about 90 years instead of the previously forecasted time of 125 years.(Old Growth Site Index Adjustment Project, BC Ministry of Forests)



• The economic impact of the forest industry in British Columbia cannot be overstated. The forest industry's contribution to provincial coffers is equivalent to the BC Ministry of Education's annual Kindergarten to Grade 12 operating budget, plus its capital budget for new school construction.



• The annual timber harvest sustains the $17.7 billion forest sector, which is the main driver of the province's economy and represents $12,000 for every B.C. household.



• BC's timber harvest is guaranteed to be sustainable forever. Using the analogy of interest on a bank account, BC's Chief Forester sets the harvest rate, called the Allowable Annual Cut or AAC, with a long-range calculator. He allows the forest industry to harvest only the interest, but not the capital, that grows on Crown forestland.
  



• British Columbia is a world champion at reforesting its working forests. Although BC generally harvests less area annually than Ontario and Quebec, it plants two to three times more area per year. Almost 50% of all silviculture expenditures in Canada occur in BC where the first reforestation seedling was planted in 1930.
  The one millionth seedling was planted in 1955.
  The one billionth seedling was planted in 1981.
  The two billionth seedling was planted in 1989.
  The three billionth seedling was planted in 1993.
  The four billionth seedling was planted in 1997.
  

And we're still keeping up the pace!