Great Northern Timber Group of Companies

Nova Scotia's total land area is 5.5 million hectares with approximately 75% or 4.0 million hectares forested. Nearly 90% of the forest land is productive for forest management and timber growth. Land ownership is predominantly private with 50% small privately owned and 25% large industrial private land. The remaining lands are Nova Scotia Crown land and Federal Parks.

The forest is generally mixed softwood and hardwood species of spruce (Picea); fir (Abies); maple (Acer) and birch (Betula). Spruce comprises 70% of the softwood component while maple 70% of the hardwood resource.

Spruce is a world renowned species for lumber and paper with long fibre and high density due to the northern climate. Maple provides excellent fibre for paper and board manufacturers as well as great characteristics for biomass and pellet production. The higher quality maple is used for furniture, cabinets and flooring.

Approximately 5.5 million cubic meters of wood is harvested annually with 85% of the volume softwood. Nova Scotia has a diversified softwood sawmill industry and three pulp & paper mills. The forest inventory indicates annual surpluses of low grade softwood and hardwood fibre at approximately 400,000 and 1 million cubic meters respectively.

Great Northern Timber (GNT) has a diversified fibre supply network and works cooperatively with other industrial wood fibre consumers. GNT procures wood from private landowners & contractors as well as produces wood from company land and stumpage.

Additional information on the forest resource in Nova Scotia is available at:

www.gov.ns.ca/natr/forestry/