The forest

Nova Scotia is very heavily wooded. About three-quarters of the province (around four million hectares) is covered in forest. Although some of this forest is in national parks, about 70 per cent of it is privately owned. In contrast, in other Canadian provinces, over 90 per cent of the forested land is owned by the Crown.

In Nova Scotia forests tend to be mixed. The province's forests could be seen as a transition zone between the softwoods of the north and the hardwoods of central Northern America. There are large areas of softwoods as well as mixed wood forest, which contain maple, oak, birch, beech and hemlock.

In western Nova Scotia the forest is termed Acadian forest, as distinct from the Boreal forest that covers much of the rest of Canada. Boreal forest is typically found in central northern Canada and is dominated by softwoods such as fir, hemlock, pine and spruce. Acadian forest is more typical of the central part of North America. It has a greater representation of hardwoods and is more diverse in terms of plants and animals.

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