SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — The Ontario government is investing more than $14 million to build a modern, digital system to inventory the province’s forest resources, giving industry access to better information to invest, grow and create jobs. 

As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, this investment will modernize the Forest Resources Inventory (FRI) Information Management System, the essential database of Ontario’s managed forests, by replacing outdated systems with cutting-edge technology to make critical forest data more accurate, accessible and easier to use.

“Ontario’s forest sector is a key economic driver that supports good-paying jobs and the workers and communities that depend on them across the province,” said Kevin Holland, Associate Minister of Forestry and Forest Products. “As a leader in advanced forest inventory technology, Ontario is equipping industry with the data it needs to stay competitive, make faster decisions and establish the regulatory framework needed to support long-term growth.”

Through a strategic partnership with Microsoft, powered by Databricks technology, the province is developing customized digital tools to modernize how Ontario collects, stores and shares forest inventory information, strengthening the sector’s long-term competitiveness and resilience in the global economy. This work is a key commitment in the Roadmap to Protecting Ontario’s Forest Sector, Ontario’s 10-year plan to defend forestry workers and businesses, adapt to global market pressures and grow long-term demand for Ontario wood products.

Historically, a forest resources inventory was produced using static, digital images stored on physical drives. By leveraging cutting-edge lidar technology, a sophisticated remote-sensing tool that measures distances using laser pulses of light, Ontario can capture precise information about forest structure and ground elevation, some individual tree characteristics and three-dimensional views of forest landscapes. This provides a far more detailed and accurate picture of Ontario’s forests than was previously possible.

Today’s investment will support the secure storage and analysis of more than 3,700 terabytes of lidar data on a cloud-based, secure data platform, more than eight times the amount of data stored in NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope data archive. In addition to supporting forest industry, this inventory plays a vital role in informing broader natural resource management decisions including landscape analysis, land use planning decisions and wildfire management.

“This investment puts better tools in the hands of the people who manage and depend on Ontario’s forests,” said Mike Harris, Minister of Natural Resources. “By investing in this innovation, we’re giving the forestry sector clearer, more reliable information to plan ahead, reduce operational burden and make confident decisions that will drive growth and protect the land and resources Ontarians depend on, today and for generations to come.”