The Territorial and Federal Governments have collected information on the status and condition of NWT's forests through a variety of programs since the 1950's. During most of this period the emphasis was on identifying potentially merchantable timber. ENR forest inventory systems are evolving to better address a full range of values related to sustainable management. Additional data is being collected to provide information on non-timber values and approaches to inventory are being updated to track changes to the resource over time. The Forest Management Division continues to develop the forest inventory program to provide information for a broad array of uses by the Department, communities and other levels of government.

A reconnaissance level inventory (hotlink to section on recon inv) has been completed for the NWT. Management level inventories have been completed for many of the potentially commercial forests in the NWT, although many are becoming out dated. The scope of new inventories has changed to recognize forest values besides timber. The values of ecologically based management are emphasized in national and international conventions to which the NWT is signatory such as the Canada Forest Accord. Ecologically based management addresses broader issues than traditional timber management, such as biodiversity, habitat management, sustainability, cumulative impact monitoring, multiple and traditional land-uses.