Canadas Boreal Forest

In Canada alone, the boreal forest (also called the taiga) covers more than 1.5 million square miles, fully one-third of the country and 20 percent of the entire North American continent. Terminating to the north with the treeless tundra, this region is inhabited and utilized by indigenous people and is home to unique populations of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet. J. David Henry challenges the perception of the boreal forest as an "economic wasteland" by explaining how economically and ecologically valuable it is. He begins by answering some common questions about the region and explains its intricate geology. An in-depth examination follows of three factors that play an enormous role in shaping the complex life of the boreal forest: snow, forest fires, and peatlands. Henry looks at the dynamics of the region's vegetation and the evolution of its animals, and discusses the fascinating ten-year predator-prey cycle of snowshoe hares and Canadian lynx, one of the most famous examples of ecological interconnection. In Canada's boreal forest, loggers have clear cut an area the size of Great Britain. The final portion of the book examines initiatives from Scandinavia and Finland in order to offer alternatives to large-scale logging and mining, suggesting how humans can live and work in the boreal forest in a sustainable and responsible manner.

A unique look at the boreal forest, Earth’s vast and vital wilderness. The boreal forest, the planet’s largest land biome, spans the northern regions like “a scarf around the neck of the world.” Besides providing homes for many species, the forest’s influence is far-reaching: its trees and wetlands clean our air and water and are helping slow global climate change. In this evocative tour, a lyrical fictional narrative is paired with informational sidebars that describe life in the forest throughout the year, from one country to another. One of the world’s most magnificent regions comes to vivid life through the art of storytelling.

To compile this book the authors, along with seven other First Nation trainees, five Métis trainees, and four other botany students, learned how to collect voucher plant specimens and record traditional knowledge about the use of plants for medicine, handicrafts, technology, and ritual practices. Over 100 elders contributed information that they felt should be shared among communities.

A page-turning memoir about a young woman's grueling, revelatory summers working alone in a remote lookout tower and her eyewitness account of the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire in the Canadian north. While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers--strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. How could you isolate yourself for that long? she wondered. "I could never do it," she told herself. Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello's, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job. Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly--labeled "a domesticated wolf" by her former owners--to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship--and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness--and freedom--that only solitude can deliver. Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.

In concert with the members of the council, the CBI created and launched the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework - a vision for the protection and sustainable development of Canada's entire Boreal ecosystem. [...] The Framework's goal is to conserve the natural, cultural and sustainable economic values of the Boreal region by protecting about half of the region in a comprehensive network of protected areas and promoting world-leading industrial practices on the remainder of the landscape where appropriate. [...] The southern fringe includes the mixed forests of the southern Boreal shield in the east and Boreal forest-prairie-parkland habitats in the west. [...] In the northern Boreal region is the taiga, an ecological crossroads between the forests to the south and the tundra to the north. [...] Although many Aboriginal people continue to about lumberjacks, Mounties, dogsled rely on the Boreal forest for their cultural and economic survival, teams, snowmobiles, hockey on a frozen most have not benefited from the development of its natural pond, the howl of the wolf and the cry of the resources, which accounts for billions of dollars of revenue and a loon?

This report presents the findings & recommendations of the Boreal Forest Program, established to examine how to advance conservation in balance with economic activity on public lands allocated for resource development in Canada's boreal forest area. After an introduction on the Program and the research approach for this report, section 2 outlines the ecological, economic, & social importance of Canada's boreal area and considers international & domestic trends affecting its future. Section 3 identifies opportunities for governance action by governments, industry, Aboriginal & community groups, and civil society organizations under four interrelated policy areas to promote conservation in the boreal in balance with economic development, and summarizes the debate on these key issues. The final section presents a set of observations on the Program findings.

The canadian forest. Early forest use. Industrialization of the forests. The rise of forest conservation. Sustainable forest management.