The Boreal Forest

Boreal forests mainly consist of coniferous trees such as pines, spruces and firs - hardy species that tolerate factors such as cold, poor soil quality and natural fires to survive. Various mosses and lichens cover the forest floor. Systems of lakes, rivers and wetlands, including marshes, fens and bogs, are also integrated into the boreal landscape. Newfoundland and Labrador’s forests are composed mainly of cone-bearing conifers (evergreens) that have adapted well to the harsh climate and nutrient-poor soils — ideal conditions for boreal species. Balsam fir, black spruce and white birch make up 95 per cent of the trees in our forests, along with scattered stands of white birch, and secondary stands of larch, white spruce, trembling aspen, red maple, yellow birch, balsam poplar, and pines.

Butter and eggs in clover, Pasadena Nature Trail. Photos: J. Taylor, WNMF

Newfoundland and Labrador’s forests are located in the Boreal Forest Biome, the largest terrestrial biome in the world.

The word boreal comes from Boreas, the Greek God of the North Wind. Boreal forests, which occur only in the Northern Hemisphere between latitudes 50° and 60° N, form a circumpolar band measuring approximately 15 million km2 across Eurasia and North America (Canada and Alaska), covering 17% of the Earth’s land surface.

Canada’s vast boreal forest stretches in a broad belt from the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in the east to the Yukon Territory in the west. The boreal region is home to five of Canada’s Model Forests, and is of tremendous ecological and economic importance to the country. Many of Canada’s Aboriginal communities are located here, and hundreds of thousands of people are employed in the natural resource sectors that operate within this forest region. The boreal forest also provides wetlands that are crucial to North American waterfowl, intact forests that are the summer breeding grounds for migratory songbirds, and habitat for migratory mammals like caribou. Source: CMFN

Canada’s Boreal Forest

Images:
Natural Resources Canada