Where is the northernmost place in Canada where deciduous trees predominate? (live, land)

[pdw]

As in the northernmost point in the St Lawrence Lowands where you're likely to see more hardwoods than conifers.

[mikeyyc]

Probably Wood Buffalo National Park. Huge stands of aspen and birch. You go much further north, there's no trees at all.

[Stubblejumper]

Originally Posted by mikeyyc

Probably Wood Buffalo National Park. Huge stands of aspen and birch. You go much further north, there's no trees at all.

Those mixedwood forests extend pretty well through to the north side of Great Slave Lake in some places, and they actually extend all the way up along the Mackenzie right into the delta, though only in the river valley, of course.

This is a tougher question to answer than it seems, as we haven't defined what dominate means in terms of area. The boreal forest can be a lot of different things, in a lot of different places, all in close proximity to each other. High, sandy or rocky areas are mostly jack pine. Muskeg is dominated by tamarack and black spruce. Mixedwood is often dominated by white poplar and is found in low, but well drained areas.

If we're talking about a specific site, then there are places in the Mackenzie Delta that are dominated by poplar. If we're talking about a major ecosystem as a whole, the northern end of the parkland.

[Stubblejumper]

Here's a worthwhile map to look at:

http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/_live/docum...ster_Large.pdf

[Stubblejumper]

Something else I just thought of:

Though it's a bit of techicality, tamarack are considered deciduous as they shed their needles annually. Using that definition, deciduous forests extend right to the treeline, as the last scrub forests are usually tamarack and black spruce.

[pdw]

I'm thinking more about temperate deciduous forests.

[Stubblejumper]

Originally Posted by pdw

I'm thinking more about temperate deciduous forests.

I know. The last post was meant in jest.

The previous two posts, however, were not. The land cover map from the NWT is especially useful.

[belmont22]

If you're talking about Ontario I notice a change around the town of Coldwater, going up towards Sudbury. A bit past there and you're in the boreal forest. Parry Sound probably looks more like Moosonee than like St. Catharine's.

[BMI]

Originally Posted by belmont22

If you're talking about Ontario I notice a change around the town of Coldwater, going up towards Sudbury. A bit past there and you're in the boreal forest. Parry Sound probably looks more like Moosonee than like St. Catharine's.

Good point. As soon as I cross into the Canadian shield I notice the change, like in Muskoka.
Southern Ontario's Carolinian forest zone is where broadleaf deciduous trees really predominate,
that zone is from SW Ontario Windsor-Sarnia, east to just past Toronto.
Eastern Ontario including Kingston and Ottawa is in a different forest zone, same zone as Montreal area,
Laurentian mixed deciduous-evergreen. More deciduous than evergreen but not like the almost
pure deciduous forest of the Carolinian zone.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by BMI

Good point. As soon as I cross into the Canadian shield I notice the change, like in Muskoka.
Southern Ontario's Carolinian forest zone is where broadleaf deciduous trees really predominate,
that zone is from SW Ontario Windsor-Sarnia, east to just past Toronto.
Eastern Ontario including Kingston and Ottawa is in a different forest zone, same zone as Montreal area,
Laurentian mixed deciduous-evergreen. More deciduous than evergreen but not like the almost
pure deciduous forest of the Carolinian zone.

Yippers.

One thing that is interesting is that the Canadian Shield dips southward a few hundred km east of Toronto on the 401 in the Thousand Islands area. There is a distinct scenery and vegetation change for a short distance and it really looks like the rocky forest and lake country of Muskoka and mid-northern Ontario. And then you get into that zone you describe which is Laurentian and mixed. And this zone persists for a fairly long distance in eastern Ontario and covers most of the populated part of southern Quebec too.