Historical Forest Inventory Maps of Alberta, 1949-1956

1949 to 1956 forest inventory maps covering publicly owned forested lands in Alberta, excluding Indian lands, national parks, and the Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve. The Government of Alberta created these maps through aerial photo interpretation to classify land productivity and tree cover types for agricultural and timber planning. The data is not available as geo-referenced rectified images or GIS-ready data.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical land suitability for agriculture based on the classification of productive, potentially productive, and non-productive land.
• Study historical timber harvest planning based on the classification of tree cover types, crown density, and height.
• Map historical forest disturbances based on the identification of burned or harvested areas classified as potentially productive.
• Research historical industrial development patterns based on the inventory's stated purpose for planning timber and industrial development.

Strengths

• Covers a defined historical period from 1949 to 1956.
• Specifies a minimum polygon size of 65 hectares.
• Explicitly defines spatial exclusions (Indian lands, national parks, Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve).

Limitations

• Data is not available as geo-referenced rectified images or GIS-ready data, limiting direct computational analysis.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Government of Alberta

Collection Method

Aerial photo interpretation

Time Range

1949-1956

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-17 14:37:58.117338; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Publicly owned forested lands in Alberta, Canada