Mixed Wood Plains Ecozone (CEC)

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The Mixed Wood Plains Ecozone is an ecozone of North America that was defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to reconcile the American and Canadian land classification systems. According to the CEC, the Mixed Wood Plains of North America is a Level II Ecoregion 8.1, which includes the Mixedwood Plains of Canada, and the adjoining areas of the United States such as the Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands ecoregion. However, the CEC atlas also includes areas of Wisconsin, Maine and New Brunswick in the Mixed Wood Plain ecoregion. [1]

The United States uses a different terminology to Canada; the corresponding Level I ecoregion of the United States Environmental Protection Agency system is the Eastern Temperate Forest ecoregion. To deal with the differences in names between Canada and the United States, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation has produced a continental atlas, in which the Mixed Wood Plains is a Level II Ecoregion 8.1; this includes the above areas within Canada, as well as adjoining parts of the United States. [1]

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Wikipedia has articles relating to two separate ecoregion classification systems:

The North American Environmental Atlas is an interactive mapping tool created through a partnership of government agencies in Canada, Mexico and the United States, along with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trilateral international organization created under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). By "mapping North America's shared environment", the Atlas depicts environmental issues from a continental perspective.

Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands (ecoregion)

The Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands region extends along the south shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River to Lake Champlain, and south down the Hudson River. It is primarily within the state of New York, with smaller portions in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In the north it meets the Mixedwood Plains Ecozone of Canada. It is mostly temperate deciduous forest and agricultural land.

Mixedwood Plains Ecozone (Canada)

The Mixedwood Plains Ecozone is the Canadian ecozone with the most southern extent, covering all of southwestern Ontario, and parts of central and northeastern Ontario and southern Quebec along the Saint Lawrence River. It was originally dominated by temperate deciduous forest growing mostly on limestone covered by glacial till. It is the smallest ecozone in Canada, but it includes the country's most productive industrial and commercial region, and is home to nearly half of Canada's population, including its two largest cities, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Hence, little of the original forest cover remains, making protection of the remaining forests a high conservation priority. This ecozone includes two regions described by J.S. Rowe in his classic Forest Regions of Canada: the entire Deciduous Forest Region, and the southern portions of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest Region. In the province of Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources maps this area as Site Regions 6E and 7E.

Hudson Plains Ecoregion

The Hudson Plains Ecoregion is a vast, flat, and waterlogged landscape. This ecoregion covers a 369,000 square kilometer area along the south shoreline of the Hudson Bay, which includes the Canadian provinces of Eastern Quebec, Northern Ontario and Western Manitoba. Because of the location of the ecoregion, winter prevails for many months of the year and rising temperatures, along with melting ice, makes fog common. The short summers provide a home for thousands of migrating birds. The region is used by humans for its mineral resources and hydroelectric power as a result of the abundance of water and emergent societal needs. Though relatively uninhabited and undisturbed, the natural resources of the Hudson Plains are still subject to anthropogenic activities. Its climatic, geographic, and evolutionary patterns categorize it as one of many ecoregions in North America.

Forests of Canada

The forests of Canada are located across much of the country. Approximately half of Canada is covered by forest, totaling around 2.4 million km2. Over 90% of Canada's forests are owned by the public. About half of the forests are allocated for logging.

References

  1. 1 2 "North American Environmental Atlas; Terrestrial Ecoregions". Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2012.