Stop worrying about trees: Canada has 36 million acres more than we thought

Jul 06, 2022

OTTAWA — While environmentalists discourage farms from clearing their land, they should take heart in knowing that Canada has just discovered it has 36 million more acres of trees than we thought.

The Department of Natural Resources counted 858 million acres of trees. But when it recalculated tree cover, thanks in part to improved satellite imagery, the department found an additional 36 million acres. So, Canada has 894 million acres of trees.

Canada has the third-largest tree cover of all nations on earth. Only Russia and Brazil have more. Canada has 9 per cent of the world’s forests and about 90 per cent of Canada’s trees are on crown land.

In its annual report, Natural Resources Canada said less than 0.5 percent of timber lands have been lost to logging and farming. In 2019, Canadian agriculture de-forested 55,000 acres, the report said. “The forest area of Canada is relatively stable, with less than 0.5% deforested since 1990.”

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Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.