The author describes what he sees as the five biggest challenges facing stakeholders of the Canadian forest sector at the beginning of the XXI century. The first is building strong political support for forest development through information and education at a time when public opinion is opposing it; the second is prioritizing the development of private forests by reversing the northerly direction historically followed by forest activities in Canada; the third is defining sustainable forest development and implementing it on a stable land base, following sound forest practices codes and certification standards, with full public involvement; the fourth is convincing forest land owners to invest more attention, time, effort and even money in growing more wood and offering more services on their properties in order to fulfill an increasing demand; and the last challenge is convincing all levels of government to each support their share of the forest activities to ensure a sustained flow of benefits to forest land owners, industrial shareholders, and society as a whole.
Forecasting forest development through modeling based on the legacy of forest structure over the past 43 years