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A huge inland sea called Hudson Bay extends into the heart of
Canada, and wrapped around this bay is a rocky region called the
Canadian Shield. Canada's largest geographical feature, it
stretches east to Labrador, south to Kingston on Lake Ontario
and northwest as far as the Arctic Ocean.
The Shield is considered to be the nucleus of the North American
continent. Its gneiss and granite rocks are 3.5 billion years
old, three-quarters the age of the Earth.
The region is a storehouse of
minerals, including gold, silver, zinc, copper and
uranium. The
mineral resources found in the Shield are predominantly metallic
minerals such as iron, silver, copper, gold, nickel, niobium and
zinc, and industrial minerals such as graphite, dolomite, mica
and ilmenite.
10 Key Facts on the Mineral and Metals sector
Canadian Mineral production
Annual Statistics on Mineral Trade
Scraped by the advance
and retreat of glaciers, the Shield has only a thin layer of
soil that can support forests only. In the south,
near the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region, the temperate
forests are a mix of evergreens, birch and maple. Spanning the entire country north of the Prairies and
the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region is the boreal forest
of spruce, fir and pine. The
Boreal Forest is usually snow-covered more than
half the year; its "summer" - the frost-free
period - lasts barely two months.
The
Boreal Forest circles the northern portion of
the globe and is found in Russia, Canada and
Alaska and Scandinavia. Canada's Boreal Forest
is one of the largest intact forest ecosystems
remaining on earth (over 1 billion acres). It is
home to the world's largest caribou herds, and
large populations of wolves and bears. The
Boreal is nesting ground for almost 300
different species of birds.
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Canada's Boreal forests
are being clearcut to create building materials and
consumer products like toilet paper, office paper,
books, and catalogues.The logging industry cuts down
over 290,000 hectares of forest in Quebec, 185,000
hectares in Ontario and 67,000 hectares of forest in
Alberta every year. Individual clearcuts sometimes
extending over 10,000 hectares in size.
A disappearing forest
means increased threats to the survival of the
species that inhabit it. Already, the Labrador
marten, wolverine, woodland caribou, eastern wolf
are listed on endangered species lists.
Climate change is
another real threat to Canada's Boreal forest.
Scientists predict that parts of the forest will
become much warmer because of climate change. This
will mean increased forest fires and insect
outbreaks.
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The landscapes of
the Canadian Shield - forests and lakes -
inspired many paintings by the Group of Seven,
which sought to express the true Canadian
aesthetics through a depiction of the rugged
northern landscape.
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