Deforestation in Canada: Let's see what causes deforestation in Canada: the areas that were deforested are used about 50% of the time for agriculture, 20% for urban development, transportation and recreation. 20% for hydroelectricity and forest roads and 10% for industry and resource extraction. However lately Canada has been losing alot of trees and experts have estimated that it would take about 100 years to restore Canada's boreal regions in the North, the ones that have been deforested that is. Canada has also been the leading country in degradation of  untouched forests, studies show. Between 2000 and 2013, 8% of Earth's untouched forests were degradated, which is about 104 million acres. 104 million acres is an area about three times the size of Germany. Of that,about 21.5% happened in Canada. And surprisingly only about 14% happened in Brazil. The studies also show that a lot of deforestation has been happening in the nothern part of the Prairies. Including the oilsand operation areas around Fort McMurray, Alberta. Other areas heavily affected by deforestation are: the interior of British Columbia, parts of Nothern Ontario and Quebec. The good news is that the Maritimes showed evidence of reforestation.

 

   However, let's get one thing straight, deforestation is when humans remove natural forests through logging or burning, either to use the wood or use the area where the wood was. Degradation of forests is when natural forests gets reduced by fires and logging. Basically it's when the quality and quantity of the natural forests go down. So you can't really blame Canada for a lot of it's degradation, we do get a lot of fires. The reason that trees are more vulnerable to fires is because of climate change. Climate change has warmed up nothern Canada and dried out the boreal forests and bogs. But again, we are cutting a significant amount of trees down. But there is always good news right? Well the good news in this case is that not all degraded areas have a total loss of the forest. Of the degraded areas, about three quarters suffer from fragmentation, which is where the forest thins out and gets broken due to logging. So the forests are not entirely gone, but thats only 75% of the degraded areas. There is still that 25%.