Interception of rain by a forest canopy and the subsequent evaporation of the water is a significant term in the forest water balance. Thus, the removal of forests through harvesting and the subsequent regrowth of the forest can result in significant changes in the amount of water reaching the soil. Regulatory limits to forest removal in British Columbia are intended to reduce potential negative hydrologic impacts. Measurements of throughfall and stemflow were made in mature and young forests in coastal and interior regions of British Columbia. Less than 2% of the rain reached the ground as stemflow in the mature forest compared to up to 10% in the young forests. The fraction of rain intercepted and lost (rainfall minus [throughfall plus stemflow]) decreases as the size of the storm increases. A greater fraction of a rainstorm is lost as interception in the mature coastal forest than for the young forest. This is due to a greater amount of intercepting biomass (mosses, lichens, bark, branches and foliage) and its ability to absorb water. In coastal forests, maximum interception loss for storms greater than 100 mm was 14 +-3 mm for the young forest, and was 25 +-10 mm for the mature coastal forest. The mature stand had a lower interception loss during the winter than in the spring for long duration storms. In contrast, the mature interior forests, which have a differnt rinfall regime, had a maximum interception loss of 4 +-1 mm for storms greater than 20 mm. These forest have a canopy cover of 45 to 50% whereas the coastal forests have canopy covers of 70 to 85%. Over the year, 20 to 30% of rainfall was intercepted and evaporated back to the atmosphere, depending on forest type.