Relative to other Canadian regions, the province of Ontario has a long experience with community forests. Since the early 1900s, policies and programs enabling local control of forests have been pursued across levels of government, yet oftentimes with hesitance, despite a relatively long and successful experience with models of local control. The concept has been frequently revisited during times of heightened public concern for ecological degradation, social conflict and economic disaster when it seemed a unique or experimental institutional response was needed.

Proliferation of community forests in southern Ontario had much to do with historic patterns of settlement and land use, and core–periphery dynamics between the provincial south and north respectively. Over time a conventional company town culture has evolved based on industrial use and control of forest resources concentrated in the provincial north. Conversely, the southern portion of the province is both more urban and agricultural, and conservation-oriented.

This chapter examines prominent local control models developed in Ontario. We present the ecological and socio-political contexts from which different forms of community forests emerged and discuss experiences across programmatic, geographical and cultural settings. Various factors, namely reforestation, community and regional development, and First Nations and public involvement have elevated government and social group interest in community forests periodically. Below we provide a brief historical sketch and overview of prominent models of community forests in Ontario (Table 4.1), namely the:

• Agreement Forest Program;

• Algonquin Forest Authority;

• Wendaban Stewardship Authority;

• Ontario Community Forest Pilot Program; and

• Westwind Stewardship Incorporated.