This dataset includes the extent of the boreal forest as well as the extent of managed boreal forest worldwide. The extent of boreal forest was produced from Brandt et al. (2013) and a modified version of Goudilin (1987). Managed forest was defined as suggested by IPCC (2003) using data from FAFS (2009), Gauthier et al. (2014), See et al. (2015) and AICC maps. The extent of managed forest mostly includes areas managed for wood production, areas protected from large-scale disturbances as well as formal protected areas.Both boreal forest extent and managed boreal forest extent are available in raster and vector data.Please cite this data product as:Boucher, D., D.G. Schepaschenko, S. Gauthier, P. Bernier, T. Kuuluvainen, A. Z. Shvidenko. 2024. World boreal forest and managed boreal forest extent. DOI: 10.23687/88d70716-2600-4995-8d5f-86f96e383abfThese data were presented in the following article:Gauthier, S., P. Bernier, T. Kuuluvainen, A. Z. Shvidenko, D. G. Schepaschenko. 2015. Boreal forest health and global change. Science 349:819-822. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa9092References:J. P. Brandt, M. D. Flannigan, D. G. Maynard, I. D. Thompson, W. J. A. Volney, Environ. Rev. 21, 207–226 (2013)I. S. Goudilin, Landscape map of the USSR. Legend to the landscape map of the USSR. Scale 1:2 500 000. Moscow, Ministry of Geology of the USSR (1987) [in Russian].Inter-governmental panel on climate change (IPCC). J. Penman, M. Gytarsky, T. Hiraishi, T. Krug, D. Kruger, et al., Eds., Good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry (IPCC/NGGIP/IGES, Kanawaga, 2003)Federal Agency of Forest Service (FAFS), Forest Fund of the Russian Federation (state by 1 January 2009) (Federal Agency of Forest Service, Moscow, 2009) [in Russian]S. Gauthier et al., Environ. Rev. 22, 256–285 (2014).See et al., Harnessing the power of volunteers, the internet and Google Earth to collect and validate global spatial information using Geo-Wiki. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. (2015). doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2015.03.002 Alaska Interagency Coordination Center (AICC). Fire Information. https://fire.ak.blm.gov/content/maps/aicc/Large%20Maps/Alaska_Fire_Management_Options.pdf (the version of 2014 was used)

Saskatchewan's woodland caribou range is divided into two conservation units, based on the ecozone boundaries of the boreal shield (SK1) and the boreal plain (SK2). The SK2 Caribou Conservation Unit is further divided into three administrative units: SK2 East, SK2 Central and SK2 West.The SK1 (Boreal Shield) Caribou Conservation Unit encompasses the rocky shield, sandy plains and many lakes of northern Saskatchewan. The SK2 (Boreal Plain) Caribou Conservation Unit encompasses the more productive mixed-wood forests and lakes of central Saskatchewan, including large areas of low-lying peatlands. While these two units represent important differences in ecological conditions (e.g., habitat types, fire regimes, landforms, etc.) and human land use and management (e.g., overall levels and types of land use, fire management, etc.), the boundary between SK1 and SK2 does not represent a population boundary, as caribou move freely between the two areas. The large size of the SK2 Caribou Conservation Unit (i.e., 109,717 km2) is not well suited for range assessment and range planning activities, given the large variation in ecological conditions, habitat types, land use, and natural disturbance regimes across the Boreal Plain of Saskatchewan. As a result, three smaller caribou administrative units within SK2 were developed: SK2 East, SK2 Central and SK2 West. SK2 West is further subdivided into two smaller management subunits. At present, the SK1 area has not been sub-divided into administrative units. Find out more about woodland caribou and what the province is doing to manage their habitat and protect their populations: https://www.saskatchewan.ca/business/environmental-protection-and-sustainability/wildlife-and-conservation/wildlife-species-at-risk/woodland-caribou-program

This dataset displays the Canadian geographic ranges of the priority species identified under the Pan-Canadian Approach for Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada (“Pan-Canadian Approach”). These species include Barren-ground Caribou (including the Dolphin and Union population); Greater Sage-Grouse; Peary Caribou; Wood Bison; Caribou, Boreal population (“Boreal Caribou”); and Woodland Caribou, Southern Mountain population (“Southern Mountain Caribou”). The priority species were chosen following a number of criteria and considerations in collaboration with federal, provincial, and territorial partners. These include, but were not limited to, the species' ecological role on a regional or national scale, their conservation status and achievability of conservation outcomes, their social and cultural value (particularly to Indigenous peoples), and the leadership/partnership opportunities that they present. Delivering conservation outcomes for targeted priority species can have significant co-benefits for other species at risk, and wildlife in general. For more information on the Pan-Canadian Approach and the priority species, see https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/wildlife-plants-species/species-risk/pan-canadian-approach.html.This dataset includes: 1) the range for the Boreal Caribou (see https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/consultations/2253); 2) the local populations for the Southern Mountain Caribou (see https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/consultations/1309); 3) the range for the Greater Sage-Grouse (see https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/consultations/1458); 4) local populations for the Peary Caribou (see https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/consultations/3657); 5) range for the Barren-ground Caribou (see https://www.maps.geomatics.gov.nt.ca/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer=NWT_SHV English only); 6) range for the Barren-ground Caribou, Dolphin and Union population (https://www.maps.geomatics.gov.nt.ca/Html5Viewer/index.html?viewer=NWT_SHV English only); 7) range for the Wood Bison (see https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/consultations/2914).

The Grazing Rental Zones is comprised of two polygons which determine which zone a grazing disposition (GRL, FGL, GRP) is in. These zones are used to apply the rental rate that grazing leases (GRL), grazing licenses (FGL) and grazing permits (GRP) pay to the government of Alberta for use of public lands. The Public Lands Modernization (Grazing Lease and Obsolete Provisions) Amendment Act came into force January 1, 2020. Under the new rental rate framework (Ministerial Order 01/2020), there are now two grazing rental rate zones based on the transition of the boreal region of the province. The North Saskatchewan River is the dividing line between the south (Zone 1) and north (Zone 2).

Wildfire location points for the current fire season. This includes both active and inactive fires. Data is supplied through various sources and is updated from the operational systems every 15 minutes. These points are rolled over to Historical Fire Points on April 1 of each year. Wildfire data may not reflect the most current fire situation, and therefore should only be used for reference purposes. Wildfire data is refreshed when practicable and individual fire update frequency will vary. The information is intended for general purposes only and should not be relied on as accurate because fires are dynamic and circumstances may change quickly.

Map of burned area in Canada's forested ecosystems for the 2023 fire session at 30-m spatial resolution mapped from time-series data from Sentinel-2A and -2B, and Landsat-8 and -9 using the Tracking Intra- and Inter-year Change (TIIC) algorithm (Pelletier et al. 2024). It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). Fires are grouped into two classes based on detection period: summer fires and fall fires. Summer burned pixels were detected between May 30 and September 17, and fall burned pixels were detected between September 17 and October 25. For summer fires, burned pixels were identified by TIIC as changed and typed as fire. For the fall period, TIIC only detected changes within a 4-km buffer of the NRCan fire perimeters (https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/datamart). This approach was used to limit commission errors that can occur due to known limitations of mapping with optical data in the fall due to phenology, snow cover, or low sun angles. For the 2023 fire season, the TIIC algorithm detected 12.74 Mha of burned area in Canada's forested ecozones, representing 1.8% of the total forest-dominated ecozone area. Of the 12.74 Mha, 11.57 Mha (90.9%) was burned by summer fires and 1.16 Mha (9.1%) by fall fires (Pelletier et al, 2024).When using this data, please cite as: Pelletier, F., Cardille, J.A., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Hermosilla, T., 2024. Revisiting the 2023 wildfire season in Canada. Science of Remote Sensing. 10, 100145. (Pelletier et al. 2024).

An Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) is defined as an area that contains habitat that is necessary to meet the winter habitat requirements of an ungulate species. UWRs are based on current understanding of ungulate habitat requirements in winter, as interpreted by FLNR regional staff from current scientific and management literature, local knowledge, and other expertise from the region. UWRs within this set of data are currently in the review and consultation stage of the area designation process. As UWRs are designated they will be moved into the [Approved Ungulate Winter Range](http://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/ungulate-winter-range) dataset.

Wildfire historic incident point locations for all fire seasons before the current season. Supplied through various sources. Not to be used for legal purposes. This data includes all incidents tracked by BC Wildfire Service, ie. actual fires, suspected fires, nusiance fires, smoke chases, etc. On April 1 of each year this layer is updated with the previous fire season's data

Wildfire perimeters for the current fire season, including both active and inactive fires, supplied from various sources. The data is refreshed from operational systems every 15 min. These perimeters are rolled over to Historical Fire Polygons on April 1 of each year Wildfire data may not reflect the most current fire situation, and therefore should only be used for reference purposes. Wildfire data is refreshed when practicable and individual fire update frequency will vary. The information is intended for general purposes only and should not be relied on as accurate because fires are dynamic and circumstances may change quickly.

The fire regime describes the patterns of fire seasonality, frequency, size, spatial continuity, intensity, type (e.g., crown or surface fire) and severity in a particular area or ecosystem.Annual area burned is the average surface area burned annually in Canada by large fires (greater than 200 hectares (ha)). Changes in annual area burned were estimated using Homogeneous Fire Regime (HFR) zones. These zones represent areas where the fire regime is similar over a broad spatial scale (Boulanger et al. 2014). Such zonation is useful in identifying areas with unusual fire regimes that would have been overlooked if fires had been aggregated according to administrative and/or ecological classifications.Fire data comes from the Canadian National Fire Database covering 1959–1999 (for HFR zones building) and 1959-1995 (for model building). Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) modeling was used to relate monthly fire regime attributes with monthly climatic/fire-weather in each HFR zone. Future climatic data were simulated using the Canadian Earth System Model version 2 (CanESM2) and downscaled at a 10 Km resolution using ANUSPLIN for two different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). RCPs are different greenhouse gas concentration trajectories adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its fifth Assessment Report. RCP 2.6 (referred to as rapid emissions reductions) assumes that greenhouse gas concentrations peak between 2010-2020, with emissions declining thereafter. In the RCP 8.5 scenario (referred to as continued emissions increases) greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise throughout the 21st century.Provided layer: annual area burned by large fires (>200 ha) across Canada for a reference period (1981-2010).Reference: Boulanger, Y., Gauthier, S., et al. 2014. A refinement of models projecting future Canadian fire regimes using homogeneous fire regime zones. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 44, 365–376.