Temagami's Old Growth Forests

The numbers are in, only 7.3% of Temagami (excluding water) is forest over 140 years old. Of that, forests that aren't dominated by white and red pine make up the majority - many of these forests had the pine highgraded out of them between 1940 and 1980, but some are pristine.

It's hard to know what these numbers represent, especially since most of us have been so focused on old-growth pine that the other species were overlooked. By comparison, 10.3% of land in the Temagami management area is forest under 30 years old, and 2.6% of the area is scheduled to be harvested in the next 5 years. See Below for maps of Old Forest Around Lake Temagami or Old Forest Around Rabbit Lake. The long narrow strips of old growth pine beside lakes are shoreline or skyline reserves, these are remnants of larger forests that were logged just over the hill. Even some of these remnant forests remain unprotected and will be logged. Significant unprotected old-growth areas are found around Gull Lake, Cross Lake, and at the Cassels-Rabbit Lake Narrows.