Map 2.3
Natural disturbances in Canada

The title of this map is "Natural disturbances in Canada." This map shows areas burned by forest fires from 1980 to 2015, as well as the geographic range of major insect outbreaks.

On this map, category 1f (red) represents areas burned by forest fires between 1980 and 2015. Areas affected by major insect outbreaks include category 2i (turquoise)–spruce budworm; category 3i (purple)–mountain pine beetle; category 4i (yellow)–forest tent caterpillar; category 5i (purple and turquoise diagonal lines)–mountain pine beetle and spruce budworm; category 6i (yellow and turquoise diagonal lines)–forest tent caterpillar and spruce budworm and category 7i (purple and yellow diagonal lines)–mountain pine beetle and forest tent caterpillar.

A solid white line defines ecozone boundaries. Areas with no data are in grey.

Areas affected by forest fire from 1980 to 2015 are scattered across the country, but the largest areas appear mostly in the boreal zone. Some of the larger patches occurred in the Boreal Shield and Taiga Plains ecozones among others. Mountain pine beetle outbreaks were concentrated in the Montane Cordillera, with some movement northwards and eastwards into the Boreal Cordillera, Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains. Forest tent caterpillar outbreaks stretched in a belt across the country from the northern part of the Montane Cordillera ecozone through the Boreal Plains and Prairies, Boreal Shield and parts of the Mixedwood Plains and Atlantic Maritime ecozones. Spruce budworm outbreaks occurred in a more northerly and overlapping belt from the Taiga Plains, Boreal Plains, Boreal Shield and Atlantic Maritime ecozones. Areas of overlap between major outbreak areas occurred particularly in the northern part of the Montane Cordillera, in the Taiga Plains, Boreal Plains, Boreal Shield and Atlantic Maritime ecozones.

Notes: Areas affected by major insect outbreaks represent the geographical range of insects. Burned areas regenerate over time and therefore will be in varying states of succession.

Sources: Natural Resources Canada, 2015, "Where do forest fires and insect outbreaks affect Canada's forests," The State of Canada's Forests, 2015, http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/entrepotpubl/pdfs/36108.pdf (accessed July 2, 2017); Natural Resources Canada, 2017, Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/datamart (accessed August 16, 2017); Statistics Canada, Environment, Energy and Transportation Statistics Division, 2018.