Ontario forestry guide
Forestry on Crown land in Ontario
Since 1994, Ontario law has required Crown forests to be managed for long-term forest health while meeting the social, economic, and environmental needs of present and future generations.
Managed Crown forests
About 44% of Ontario’s Crown forest is designated as managed forest. Ontario is responsible for its long-term health and shares day-to-day planning and implementation with forest companies, communities, and other forest managers.
The system is built around sustainability, public and Indigenous involvement, and adaptive management. It supports timber and jobs while conserving biodiversity, wildlife habitat, water, recreation, and other forest values. Ontario explains the full system here.
Forest management units
Ontario divides the managed Crown forest into geographic planning areas called management units. A Forest Management Plan is prepared for each unit and renewed through the provincial planning cycle.
Most units are managed under a Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL). An SFL can run for up to 20 years and assigns both harvesting rights and substantial responsibilities: preparing plans, gathering forest information, renewing the forest, monitoring compliance, and reporting results. A smaller number of units use Crown, Local Forest Management Corporation, or Algonquin Forestry Authority tenure. See Ontario’s current SFL information.
Explore forestry activity across Ontario
Start with Ontario’s 39 current management units, then choose a forest to see its 2026 work schedule. CrownAccess Plus adds reported harvest and tending history by year, plus the most recent 2024 Annual Report roads.
CrownAccess map
Explore current and reported forestry
View 2026 scheduled harvest and roads, reported harvest by year, 2024 roads, and herbicide or tending records.
Explore forestry dataCurrent management-unit list: Ontario, 2026–2027. Current work schedules and 2024 Annual Reports: Ontario MNR NRIP Forestry Viewer.
Forest Management Plans
Before forestry operations can take place, an approved Forest Management Plan must be in place. A registered professional forester leads an interdisciplinary planning team, with input from Indigenous communities, local citizens, stakeholders, and the public. Plans normally cover a 10-year period and must demonstrate forest sustainability.
Each plan brings the forest inventory, known natural-resource and cultural values, and long-term management direction together. It identifies objectives and indicators, where and how much harvesting may occur, primary and branch road corridors, forest renewal and tending, protection measures, monitoring, and how results will be reported and used in the next planning cycle.
The plan is put into action through a detailed Annual Work Schedule for each year. Annual Reports then record completed harvest, renewal, tending, natural disturbance, roads, and monitoring results. Read Ontario’s forest management planning guide or open the official 2024 Planning Manual.
CrownAccess Forestry
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