Four Types Of Forest Regions In Ontario

Within Canada, approximately ten forest regions exist, four of which occupy Ontario. These four forest regions include the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the Boreal Forest, the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence Forest, and the Deciduous Forest. Each of these forest regions possess various characteristics that make each unique and diverse. Currently in Ontario, there exists several varieties of forest regions. The Hudson Bay Lowland Forest “stretches from the northern edge of the Canadian Shield northward to the treeline at the southern edge of the tundra” (Wake 1997). It is the northernmost region in Ontario and is commonly known for it’s large quantities of bogs and fens. These are caused by poor drainage throughout the land as well as the flat topography encompassed within the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Peat moss covers the majority of the large wetlands, whereas lichens, cover the drier areas. Throughout the Hudson Bay Lowland Forest, the most commonly known trees that occupy it include, but
Containing nearly two-thirds of Ontario’s forest, the Boreal Forest is quite large and diverse. Forest fires are a frequent occurrence in the Boreal Forest. Because of this, the Boreal Forest ecosystem depends on the fires as it is crucial to sustaining the ecosystem. The fires have become frequent enough that “Boreal Forest tree species and ecosystems are adapted to the periodic passage of fire and some would disappear as natural components of the landscape in the absence of fire” (Weber 1998). Selected conifer species include, “black and white spruce, jack pine, balsam fir, tamarack and eastern white cedar” (MNR 2014),as well as deciduous species such as poplar and white birch. Various plant species also reside in the Boreal Forest such as “ferns, mosses, fungi, shrubs and herbs” (MNR