About this database
History
Content of the Trees, Insects, Mites, and Diseases of Canada's Forests (TIMDCF) database comprises the knowledge amassed over decades by Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service (CFS), including researchers, research professionals, photographers, collection curators, and collaborators. It highlights a rich heritage in dendrology, entomology, and forest pathology accumulated during the last 125 years, including much work of the CFS’s former Forest Insect and Disease Survey. The database also makes use of data collected by provincial and territorial forest management agencies, who have collaborated with the CFS over much of its history.
The initiative to develop this database started in the late 1990s and early 2000s with an effort to digitize thousands of insect and disease photographs in CFS collections. CFS then launched a web portal, to facilitate public access to what was known as Insects and Diseases of Eastern Canada’s Forests, at the XII World Forestry Congress that took place in 2003 in Quebec City, Canada. A few years later, the database reached a truly national scope when it integrated a comparable CFS dataset on insects and diseases of western Canada. Content on Canada’s trees was added to the database a few years later, and then became Trees, Insects, and Diseases of Canada’s Forests. A comprehensive update of the fact sheets contained in the database was launched by CFS in 2020, following an earlier attempt to keep insect and disease content current and relevant at the turn of the 2010s.
The TIMDCF database currently contains information on more than 200 native tree and shrub species and 425 pests common in Canada's native, rural and urban forests. There is no comparable website with content available in both English and French. It is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of users from curious individuals to forest health professionals.
We hope you enjoy your visit!
Acknowledgements
First Edition
The team that designed and developed the first iteration of the database and web portal was made up of several employees of the Laurentian Forestry Centre, the Pacific Forestry Centre, and CFS headquarters including Normand Laflamme, Dr. Pierre DesRochers, Jean Thibeault, Ricardo Morin, Carole Germain, Patrick O’Donnell, Isabel Francoeur, Maurice Lebon, Dr. Christian Hébert, Dr. Eric Allen, Dr. Leeland Humble, Ken Farr, Benoît Arseneault, and many others supporting them in various capacities.
Second Edition
Many current and former CFS employees have contributed to the direction and implementation of the most recent initiative to revise the content available on the web portal, including the review, editing, translation, and comparative editing of scientific content, as well as the maintenance and improvement of the data infrastructure. Although it is difficult to name everyone who contributed directly or indirectly to this project, we would like to acknowledge the important work of the following people, in no particular order: Dr. James Brandt, Dr. Brenda Callan, Dr. Vince Nealis, Andrea Skinner, Bernard Daigle, Jean-Luc St-Germain, Rik Van Bogaert, Ken Farr, France Rollin, Réjean Lebrun, Patrick O'Donnell, Maurice Lebon, Isabel Francoeur, Alexandre Godbout, Kathryn McCaffrey, Lila Haile, Clovis Houet-Larouche, Christine Durocher, Hélène Davignon, Eric Sementilli, Steve D’eon, and Marie Anick Liboiron.
Most importantly, we salute the work of the many CFS research scientists and professionals who have contributed to updating and enriching content. A list of all contributors would, once again, be too long for this web page. For this reason, each fact sheet available on this portal indicates the name of the author(s) who prepared the information.