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Boreal Canada:
State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry,
Emerging Issues, and Projections
Report to the National Roundtable on
the Environment and the Economy
Prepared by:
Peter Lee
Edited by:
Jeannette Gysbers
Maps:
Zoran Stanojevic
Cover Design and Report Layout:
Jeannette Gysbers
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
ISBN: 0-9734210-4-5
©Global Forest Watch Canada, 2004
Citation:
Lee, P. 2004. Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues and
Projections. Report to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Global
Forest Watch Canada. Edmonton. 77 pp.
Global Forest Watch Canada
Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Acknowledgements
Some of the content of the sections on the state of the ecosystem and the state of industry was
derived from an earlier draft paper about boreal Canada by the author. Global Forest Watch Canada
wishes to thank the advisors, reviewers and contributors to this earlier draft paper. They include: Dr.
Stan Rowe, Dr. David W. Schindler, Dr. Richard Thomas, Dr. Eric Butterworth, Dr. Richard
Schneider, Herb Hammond, Dr. Jay Malcolm, Dr. Justina Ray, Dr. Fiona Schmiegelow, Sherri
Watson, Dr. Kevin Timoney, Dr. Stan Boutin, Phil Lee, Anne Janssen, and Lisa Semenchuk.
The draft paper Forest Conservation in Canada: A Summary of Issues and Opportunities, by the Canadian
Environmental Grantmakers’ Network; several reports by Global Forest Watch Canada, especially
Canada’s Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000; and several Natural Resources Canada
publications, especially from the Canadian Forest Service (e.g., Forest Health: Context for the Canadian
Forest Services Science Program) provided an important base of information, especially for the section on
emerging issues. Global Forest Watch Canada wishes to thank the following contributors and
reviewers of the sections on emerging issues, projections and solution themes: Dr. Kevin Timoney,
Dr. Rick Schneider, Jim Pojar, Peter Sandiford, Richard Brooks and Martin Von Mirbach.
This report is dedicated to Stan Rowe.
Photo Credits
Pages 7 (moose), 16 (snow), and 49 (canoeist): Alberta Community Development
Page 37 (pump jacks): Charles Truscott
All other photographs: Global Forest Watch Canada
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Global Forest Watch Canada
Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Table of Contents
Summary................................................................................................................................................ 3
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4
State of the Ecosystem ........................................................................................................................ 6
What is the boreal ecosystem? ............................................................................................................... 6
What is happening to boreal Canada? ................................................................................................12
What is boreal Canada’s state of health? ............................................................................................18
State of Industry .................................................................................................................................26
Economic importance of industry in boreal Canada .............................................................................26
Scan of industries operating in boreal Canada .....................................................................................27
Emerging Issues and Projections.....................................................................................................34
Main issues / regional issues / case study areas ..................................................................................34
What are the likely directions of industrial activity in the boreal in the next 5-10 years? ......................48
Solution Themes.................................................................................................................................49
Review Process ...................................................................................................................................50
Map Section ........................................................................................................................................51
Notes and References........................................................................................................................62
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Summary
At the global level, the boreal region represents Earth’s most extensive
terrestrial biome. Canada’s boreal region is almost as large as the
combined area of Canada’s ten provinces. It is a key part of the
national identity of Canadians, and is the only biome that is almost
trans-Canadian, linking Canada as a nation. The boreal region is vitally
important to Canadians — economically, environmentally, and
culturally.
This paper on Boreal Canada describes the state of the boreal
ecosystem, including key aspects of its ecology, key threats, and its state
of health. It also discusses emerging issues, the relative importance of
industry, and future projections.
Although the ecology of Canada’s boreal region remains poorly understood, realization is growing
that it supports an important range of ecological diversity, structures and functions. Both the
Canadian and global human economies are dependent upon the ecological services provided by the
boreal region, including climate regulation and carbon storage.
Canada’s boreal ecosystems are more intact compared to most other countries that contain boreal
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biomes, but the increasing world demand for forest products and energy is accelerating
development pressure on these systems. The boreal is increasingly impacted by human activity,
especially in the south. The cumulative impacts of these activities remain largely unstudied. Some of
the dominant industrial activities that impact Canada’s boreal region include logging and pulp, paper
and saw mills operations, agriculture, oil and gas exploration and development, and mining. Power
generation and water storage and the pollution-emitting heartland of North America also have
significant impacts on Canada’s boreal. Other impacts include settlements and transportation
corridors, aggregate extraction, intensification of recreation activities, peat mining and burning for
power generation, active fire suppression and wildlife management.
Forestry, minerals and energy contribute a substantial amount to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product,
balance of trade and employment. A significant portion of this amount comes from the boreal. Many
communities in Canada’s boreal region depend on logging, mining or oil and gas exploration and
developments but the economies of such communities are generally less diverse than those in more
southern locales. Many of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples reside in the boreal.
Ecological changes to the boreal in the next 5 to 10 years will likely include greatly increased habitat
fragmentation, due mainly to logging throughout the southern boreal and oil and gas (especially in
the western boreal), fisheries declines, forest conversions from softwoods to hardwoods and from
treed areas to shrublands and grasslands, and pressures on sensitive species. Climate change “trumps
all;” it may well have the most significant impacts.
Some of the key emerging political issues include: increasing influence of Aboriginal peoples,
increasing global trade competitionand protectionism, market actions that target the logging industry,
substantial changes to forest management policies, protection and sustainable development advances,
regional energy developments, and alternative economic generators such as tourism.
The major themes that will likely drive solutions toward greater environmental and economic
integration in boreal Canada include: a) emerging Aboriginal leadership, b) market paradigm shifts, c)
emerging economies, and d) improving government leadership.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Introduction
Canada’s boreal region is almost as large as the
combined area of Canada’s ten provinces. It sweeps
across the country and links Canada as a nation.2 At
the global level, the boreal biome represents Earth’s
most extensive terrestrial ecosystem type.3
After Russia, Canada contains the largest area of
closed-canopy forests in the world; 4 most of these
forests are in the southern boreal region. Large,
ecologically intact areas in the boreal region support a
wide range of biological diversity and supply critical
ecological services, including climate regulation and carbon storage.5 The boreal region contains
numerous natural features and processes of major importance to the conservation of national and
global ecosystems, ameliorates climate and stores carbon, and is key to the economies of its regions
and nations. This is hardly surprising given its size, extent, and variation in terms of its geology,
geomorphology, climate, vegetation, soils, flora and fauna.
Recently, the boreal biome has become the world’s main source of industrial wood and pulp,6 and it
is increasingly important for other industrial uses such as hydroelectricity, petroleum exploration and
development and agricultural activities. As such, it is experiencing a wide range of accompanying,
rapidly escalating, human activities.
This paper describes the state of the boreal ecosystem, including key aspects of its ecology, key
threats, its state of health, the relative importance of industry, and emerging issues and future
projections.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
2 Box 1. Summary of the ecological importance of boreal Canada7
Canada’s boreal is home to one of the largest remaining intact forest ecosystems in
the world: 8
2 Canada’s boreal region is home to more than 90 percent of the country’s remaining large
intact forestlands.
2 Covering more than a half billion hectares (about 1.3 billion acres) and 53 percent of
Canada’s land mass, the boreal region forms a broad green belt across the centre of the
country, stretching from Newfoundland to the Yukon.
2 It represents 25 percent of the world’s remaining large intact forests.
2 Thirty percent of it is covered by wetlands (consisting of bogs, fens, marshes), an estimated
1.5 million lakes, and some of the country’s largest river systems. Canada’s boreal contains
35 percent of the world’s wetlands and has the largest coverage of peatlands in the world.
Canada’s boreal wetlands comprise over 40 percent of the world’s Wetlands of International
Importance.
Canada’s boreal is biologically important:
2 The boreal forest houses some of the world’s largest remaining populations of woodland
caribou, wolves and bears.
2 The boreal region is a rich habitat for migratory songbirds. More than 1 billion birds migrate
north to breed after wintering in warmer climates. Just a few square kilometers of mixed
boreal forest may support 600 breeding pairs of these long-distance travelers.
2 More than 75 percent of North America’s waterfowl rely on Canada’s boreal wetlands and
forests at some point in their lives for breeding, staging and molting.
Canada’s boreal plays an invaluable role in providing key environmental services:
2 The boreal region filters water, produces oxygen, rebuilds soils and restores nutrients, holds
back floodwaters and releases needed water into rivers and streams, and provides food and
shelter for hundreds of species, big and small, including humans.
2 Canada’s boreal region plays a particularly vital role in mitigating the impacts of climate
change. Boreal forests and wetlands store massive amounts of carbon, and make up one of
the planet’s few intact natural areas still big enough to help buffer the changes in habitat that
climate change will bring about.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
State of the Ecosystem
What is the boreal ecosystem?
Definition and extent
Named after Boreas, the Greek god of the North Wind, the boreal biome is also known by the
Russian term taiga. The latter generally refers to a coniferous northern forest containing no
deciduous trees other than birches and poplars.9 Although technically the term “boreal” should be
limited to the closed canopy portion of this forest biome, in practice it usually also includes areas in
the subarctic and sometimes subalpine woodland ecozones.
In this paper, the term “boreal” refers to both the boreal and taiga ecozones, as defined by the
Government of Canada’s terrestrial ecozones. The northern treeline and the dividing line between
the boreal and taiga ecozones are not sharp, but occupy wide transition areas.10 The seven terrestrial
ecozones that comprise the boreal are the Boreal Shield, Boreal Plains, Taiga Shield, Taiga Plains,
Hudson Plains, Boreal Cordillera and Taiga Cordillera.
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The boreal occupies more than 60 percent of the total forested area of Canada and Alaska.
Forested areas are a combination of trees and open areas that comprise a “forest” biome. With a
north-south extent of about 1,200 kilometres, the 5.3 million square kilometre boreal region of
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Canada comprises up to 53 percent of the nation’s total land area and is its largest ecosystem.
Key environmental factors and ecological processes
13
Several major environmental factors and ecological processes unify Canada’s boreal region. Many
of these key environmental factors and ecological processes are not unique to boreal ecosystems, but
they interact to form the unique mosaic-like pattern (at a hierarchy of scales) of heterogeneous
habitat that characterizes the boreal region.
These key environmental factors and ecological processes include cold climate, low solar radiation,
snow and species adaptations, dry to saturated cold soils, permafrost in the north, predominance of
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lichens and mosses, hydrology, lake turnover, herbivory and predation. Natural disturbances are an
important category of ecological processes in the boreal. Senescence and death of individual trees and
small groups of trees (i.e., gap dynamics), windthrow, flooding, insect outbreaks, and wildfires are the
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important disturbance events of the boreal region.
Characteristic ecosystems
Canada’s boreal region can best be categorized within four major ecosystem types: (1) upland forests;
(2) wetlands; (3) river valley systems; (4) lakes and ponds.
Upland boreal forests have low tree species diversity.16 Boreal uplands exhibit gradual north-south
and east-west changes in vegetation composition, primarily in response to variations in climatic
factors.
The northernmost portion of the boreal region consists of a pattern of tundra “barrens” and patches
of stunted forest; the latter usually (but not exclusively) occur along the shore of lakes and rivers and
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the former are found on the upland interfluves. The pattern shows a gradient change from south to
north as forests shrink and tundra expands.17 Conifer forests predominate across the bulk of the
boreal region.18 The southernmost area consists of the mixedwood deciduous and coniferous forests
of the western and central boreal region and the coniferous forests of the east. In the south, open
woodlands occur only in exposed or very dry areas and the remaining forests are closed canopy
forests.
A basic subdivision into western and eastern boreal regions is recognized with the dividing line
drawn between the crystalline rocks of the Canadian Shield in the east and the sedimentary rocks in
the west.
Wetlands are a notable component of the boreal region. They comprise 20 percent of Canada’s
boreal region19 and include swamps,20 marshes, bogs and fens, with the vast majority of wetlands
being peatlands (peatlands comprise 17 percent of Canada21 ). Canada has the largest coverage of
peatlands in the world, followed by Russia.
Large river systems, such as the Peace-Athabasca-Mackenzie and Saskatchewan-Winnipeg-Nelson
water basins, flow through the boreal region, carrying water to the Arctic Ocean. These larger river
systems have deeply incised to broad valleys, and associated riparian areas.22 They are among the
boreal region’s most complex ecological systems and are also among the most important for
maintaining the vitality of the landscape and its watersheds and rivers.23
Softwater boreal lakes, underlain by ancient igneous rocks, are among the most numerous of any lake
type on Earth. For example, the region of Canada east of the Manitoba-Ontario border and south of
52º, contains over 600,000 lakes larger than 4 hectares in area. Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
Alberta and much of the Northwest Territories contain similar densities of lakes.24 In total,
freshwater covers about 7 percent of Canada’s boreal region and globally, boreal freshwaters may
contain 80 percent or more of the world’s unfrozen freshwater (much of the volume of this
freshwater is contained in a few large lakes, such as Lake Superior, with Lake Baikal in Russia
containing 20 percent of the earth’s freshwater). 25 Beaver ponds represent an especially significant
ecological (and cultural) element of the boreal landscape. The beaver is considered a keystone species
in the boreal landscape26 and beaver ponds enhance the biodiversity of the boreal region.
Selected elements of biodiversity
General
Boreal forests have been characterized as simple
formations, which, by comparison with tropical forests, are
species-poor in aboveground organisms.27 Tropical
forests may contain up to 200 tree species in a single
hectare compared to just a few in a hectare of boreal
forest.28 Despite low tree species diversity, at the level of
genetic diversity, boreal tree species and non-woody forest
plants are no less variable than tropical species.29 Boreal
freshwaters likewise contain few species when compared
with temperate or tropical lakes; small boreal lakes often have either a single predatory species of fish,
no fish predators, or may even have no fish at all.30
As we learn more of the boreal region, our understanding of the levels of biodiversity within it has
been expanding. The Canadian Forest Service estimates that Canada’s forests, most of which are
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boreal, contain approximately 140,000 kinds of living organisms, half of which are not yet classified.
Plants and vertebrates comprise only about 5 percent of boreal species, while invertebrates (there
may be more than 4,000-5,000 saprophytic beetles alone,31 with close to 900 beetle species in one 200
square kilometre Finland forest32 ), fungi (there may be more than 500 species of ectomychorrizal
fungi33 ), and microbial organisms comprise over 90 percent.34
Tracts of old-growth forests and river valley ecosystems in the boreal region are proving to be
especially species-rich as more sampling is performed.35 Moreover, soil microorganisms and
ectomycorrhizal fungi and below-ground organisms are “hidden” from everyday view, and likely
represent a significant proportion of the overall biodiversity in the system.
When the tremendous environmental heterogeneity of the boreal region is considered, together with
the multitude of adaptive strategies developed by species for living in environments with harsh
northern climates, it no longer seems so simple.36
Birds
Sixty-three percent of Canada’s regular, native birds occur in the boreal region;37 these 279 species
break down as follows: 35 residents (12.5 percent), 4 winter visitors (1.4 percent), 38 passage visitors
(13.6 percent), 202 summer visitors (72.4 percent).38
As a consequence of the severity and duration of boreal winters, migrants account for 87.5 percent of
the boreal avifauna.
Boreal bird species richness decreases as latitude increases and, at any given latitude, decreases from
west to east.39 Ironically, despite the fact that bird species richness declines northwards in the boreal
biome, the proportion of vertebrate diversity represented by birds (due to parallel decreases in
herptofauna and mammal species numbers) usually increases from south to north.40
Two basic groups of boreal birds are recognized, namely, waterbirds and landbirds. At most
(including the majority of shorebirds), 107 “waterbirds” make up roughly 38.4 percent of the boreal
avifauna. Numerous sites of national and regional significance for waterbirds exist within the mid and
high boreal regions, including breeding and migrating habitats for colonial birds, shorebirds, and
other waterfowl.41 According to Ducks Unlimited, North America’s western boreal region supports
an average of more than 13 million breeding ducks, three times more than the Prairie Pothole
Region. 42 This represents some 40 percent of North America’s annual breeding waterfowl. The
western boreal region contains the majority of the North America breeding range for lesser scaup,
American wigeon, green-winged teal, ring-necked duck, bufflehead, goldeneye and scoter and is a
major breeding area for mallard, northern pintail, black-winged teal, canvasback, Canada and whitefronted geese.
Two hundred and twenty-two landbird species breed in Canada’s boreal.43 Of these, 78 also have
some winter range in the boreal. Nearly 200 landbird species have been recorded within Canada’s
boreal. Data suggest that a total of 227 species of landbirds breed in Canada’s boreal region. Of
these, 41 species extend their range to the boreal forest only occasionally or accidentally, as less than
an estimated 1 percent of their population is found there. The remaining 186 species, from 35
landbird families, are regular boreal residents. Of the regular boreal residents, 39 species are circumboreal in distribution, meaning that they breed in Eurasia as well as North America.
About 133 (or 47.7 percent) of the boreal species can be regarded as partially or wholly forestdependent. Some 30 species (i.e., 12.6 percent of boreal breeding birds) nest in tree cavities.44 At least
23 boreal species (especially various owls, woodpeckers and finches) are irruptive, i.e., their numbers
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in any given region can vary dramatically from year to year. Populations are prone to large-scale
movements in response to failure of their normal food resources (particularly during winter). The
canopy foliage-gleaner guild is the most abundant and species-rich feeding guild across all boreal
forests.45 Numerically, wood warblers dominate this guild in Canada. They, and a majority of their
fellow insectivorous birds, are Neotropical migrants that breed in the boreal region to harvest the
bloom of summer arthropods.
From a conservation perspective, some of the most significant and problematic forest-dependent
bird groups in the boreal region include area-demanding species,46 old-growth dependent species,47
keystone species,48 area-sensitive species,49 forest interior species,50 early succession specialists,51 and
spruce budworm specialists.52 To further complicate matters, many of the species comprising these
groups are neotropical migrants. These long-distance migrants live under “triple jeopardy” from the
diverse array of threats they face on both their breeding and wintering grounds and along their
migration routes. As a result, neotropical migrants represent the most challenging and complex
component of any comprehensive strategy designed to protect Canada’s boreal biodiversity.
Mammalian carnivores
Carnivores are of ecological and conservation value for Canada’s boreal region because their
maintenance may encompass the habitat requirements of many other species,53 and because they
collectively (or as sub-groups) may serve as “guilds” (i.e., share a distinct ecological profile or “exploit
the same class of resources in a similar way”54 ). Six species or populations of carnivores are listed by
the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) – grizzly bear (prairie
population is listed as extirpated), grizzly bear (non-prairie populations listed as special concern),
wolverine (eastern population – endangered), wolverine (western population – special concern),
eastern wolf (special concern), and eastern cougar (special concern).
The native mammalian carnivores of Canada’s boreal region consist of five Families representing 10
genera and consisting of 18 terrestrial species.55 The list includes: coyote, gray wolf, red wolf, red fox,
American black bear, grizzly bear, northern raccoon, fisher, American marten, ermine, least weasel,
wolverine, badger, mink, striped skunk, northern river otter, cougar, and Canada lynx.56 These
species are still present throughout much of their historic range, although there have been range
contractions in the more developed (usually southern) extents of their ranges. The grizzly bear is
limited to the western boreal region, whereas the cougar is restricted to the southern boreal region.
There are recent northward range expansions of cougar and grizzly bear.
Species and ecosystems at risk
Species at risk
There are 7 boreal taxa on Canada’s endangered species list (3 birds – one of these, the eskimo
curlew, is now considered extinct – 1 mammal; 1 fish; 1 mollusk; and 1 plant); 10 species designated
threatened by COSEWIC (3 birds; 2 mammals; 4 fish; and 1 plant); and 20 listed as species of special
concern (5 birds; 2 mammals; 3 fish; 1 amphibian; 1 lepidopteran; and 8 plants). Many of these
species have very restricted ranges (aurora trout, hotwater physa, margined madtom, long’s braya,
fernald’s braya) and others have probably always existed at comparatively low-to-very low numbers
(e.g. whooping crane). Some others historically had large ranges and healthy populations that have
rapidly declined (e.g. eskimo curlew, yellow rail, harlequin duck-eastern population, American marten
- Newfoundland population, peregrine falcon, wood bison, short-jawed cisco, blackfin cisco). Some
other species still have substantial populations but are declining rapidly or may be on the verge of a
rapid decline (e.g., woodland caribou, grizzly bear, wolverine, deepwater sculpin).
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Current threats to the continued existence of these species include over-hunting (e.g. eskimo curlew);
over-trapping (e.g. marten, wolverine), over-fishing (e.g. shortjaw cisco, blackfin cisco); depletion of
prey (e.g. wolverine); habitat loss such as clearcutting (e.g. marten57 ), lake acidification (aurora trout);
pollution (e.g. hotwater physa, deepwater sculpin); habitat destruction (e.g. long’s braya, woodland
caribou); pesticides (e.g. peregrine falcon); habitat fragmentation (e.g., woodland caribou, grizzly
bear); agricultural expansion (e.g. yellow rail); hydro-electric projects (e.g. harlequin duck - eastern
population); and damage from off-highway vehicles (e.g. Mackenzie hairgrass, large-headed woolly
yarrow).
Several other species or populations are of concern to various experts.
2 Several inhabit the rivers and deltas of the boreal forest (e.g. Pygmy whitefish;58 White pelican
colonies).59
2 The biota of oligotrophic lakes may be at risk, as they tend to be highly vulnerable to
toxicological impacts. For example, fish in lakes with low productivity tended to bioaccumulate
increased levels of the insecticide toxaphene.60
2 Although the reasons are not understood, the boreal chickadee has experienced dramatic declines
in the previous 35 years.61 Populations of several other boreal-dependent birds are suffering. The
numbers of boreal-breeding Connecticut Warblers, Rusty Blackbirds and Canada Warblers, for
example, have fallen sharply in recent years.62
2 Canvasback brood size is reduced in the western boreal region, relative to parkland habitats.63
2 Excessive commercial fishing may pose risks to all diving waterbirds.64
2 White-winged scoter, a species that is considered to be sensitive throughout the majority of its
range, tends to only be observed on wetlands in unharvested landscapes.65 The white-winged
scoter breeds on wetlands in the western boreal forest. Wetland selection by breeding scoters
appears to be linked to the abundance of freshwater amphipods, such as Hyalella azteca,66 and
since the 1950s, populations of this species appear to be declining.
2 Lesser scaup, which utilize boreal wetlands, are currently experiencing dramatic continental
population declines,67 and current estimates of population densities are well below the goal of the
North American Waterfowl Management Plan.68 Declines of scaup are most pronounced in the
western boreal region and may be linked to reduced survival rates and reduced recruitment.69
Ecosystems at risk
Unlike species at risk, little investigation has been conducted into boreal ecosystems at risk. Examples
would likely include:
2 Riparian and valley ecosystems that may be flooded by dams, or downstream hydrologic regimes
that may be altered by dams or water diversions;
2 South-central boreal mixedwood forests that are undergoing deforestation due to agricultural
clearing (especially in Alberta and Saskatchewan) or conversion to plantation forestry;
2 Areas of the Boreal Plains ecozone that are undergoing petroleum exploration and developments
throughout the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin; and
2 Ecosystems subject to pervasive infrastructure developments, and logging-induced losses of
major forest types such as old growth forests (and losses of coniferous forests, such as in
Ontario70 ).
In most cases, related habitat loss and conversion has been accompanied by widespread habitat
fragmentation, most notably in the southern boreal region.
Of all the ecosystems at potential risk, perhaps the most significant threat is loss of old growth forest,
in large part because of the continuing high economic value of old-growth timber and because we
stand to lose much with regard to biodiversity if old growth disappears from the landscape to any
significant extent.71
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Ecological services
Natural ecosystems provide varied ecological services.72 The boreal region as a whole functions as an
enormous and complex biodiversity-support system wherein its various biophysical elements furnish
critical habitat for a host of species. The most commonly acknowledged services include production
of materials for consumptive uses such as timber and wildlife and fisheries harvesting.
The region’s old-growth forests and wetlands are important contributors to biodiversity at all spatial
scales.73 Populations of some species are absolutely dependent on old-growth forests for breeding
and other purposes, and their continued survival hinges upon the perpetuation of this special habitat
type.74
Riparian ecosystems within the region provide essential habitat for many aquatic plants, animals, and
other organisms, including many species of fish and invertebrates. In addition, they perform a vital
linking function between the region’s various upland catchment areas and its lowland ecosystems.
Stream and river valleys also act as traditional, seasonal migration, and dispersal corridors for both
aquatic and terrestrial animals and provide important wintering habitat for wildlife such as ungulates.
The boreal region has a significant impact on the seasonal and annual climate of much of the
Northern Hemisphere.75 Boreal forests warm surface air temperatures and increase atmospheric
moisture at all times of the year. These effects, although greatest in high northern latitudes, extend to
the tropics. At a smaller scale, boreal forests also help determine local temperature, rainfall and
weather conditions.76
Carbon is the essential building block of the main greenhouse gases. Forests hold about 62–78
percent of the world’s terrestrial biospheric carbon, about 14–17 percent of which is in the forests of
North America, of which circa 86 percent is in the boreal region.77 The boreal regions of the world
play a vital role in the global carbon cycle78 because north temperate forest regions, of which the
boreal region is the major part, may equal the oceans historically as a net annual sink for atmospheric
carbon.79 Canada contains 35 percent of the world’s boreal biome.80 Most of the carbon contained
within Canada’s boreal region is held within peat deposits (about 50 percent81 ), soils ( about 30
percent82 ) and lake sediments (about 15 percent83 ). Boreal surface vegetation contains less than 8
percent of the total carbon storage in boreal landscapes.84
Wetlands provide hydrologic, water quality control, bio-remedial and life-support services. They
attenuate flood peaks and storm flows (through their water storage capabilities); and “control” water
quality via the process of nutrient cycling, since they act as permanent or temporary sinks (and
sources to adjacent water bodies) of chemicals, sediments and nutrients.
Peatlands perform an array of essential ecological, hydrological and biogeochemical services and
functions, including the “regulation” of floods through flood peak reduction (i.e., they act as
reservoirs for surface water), and biogeochemical cycling (e.g., ion and biomass retention/export),
which serves to prevent or diminish erosion. On a global scale, peatlands act as CO2 sinks and as CH4
sources; support aquatic food chains; and, through various biophysical processes, help maintain or
improve water quality.85 In addition, peatlands function as critical wetland buffers since they
“remove” pollutants and reduce the effects of siltation (resulting from land disturbances) on aquatic
habitats.86
There are methodological and interpretation problems associated with assigning dollar values to
ecosystem services and to loss of those services — one of the main ones being the weakness of
comparing global GDP with the global ecosystem services as GDP is totally dependent on global
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ecosystem services.. However, it is noteworthy that the total global value of ecosystem goods and
services has been estimated at U.S. $16-54 trillion per year (for comparison, total gross global
product in 1994, the base year of the estimates, was around U.S. $25 trillion).87
The Canadian and global human economy is dependent upon the services performed by natural
ecosystems throughout Canada’s boreal region. A focus on these ecological services is important
because they are generally ignored or undervalued by society, and because many anthropogenic
human-initiated disruptions of boreal ecosystems are difficult or impossible to reverse on time scales
relevant to human society.88
What is happening to boreal Canada?
Although large, fairly pristine areas of Canada’s boreal
ecosystems exist, the boreal region in general is far from
untouched by human activity.89 Today the boreal region is
undergoing human-induced changes of unprecedented
magnitude and rapidity, many of which are potentially
irreversible in cultural timeframes. There has been a massive
increase in industrial logging activity across the world’s
boreal biome, especially with respect to new pulp mill
developments – in the last few decades concentrated
primarily in Canada and Siberia – and regionally intensive oil
and gas exploration and developments. The boreal biome has become the world’s main source of
industrial wood and wood pulp fibre.90 Logging in the boreal biome has opened up a new frontier for
the industry.91
According to some experts, in global terms we are near or even beyond sustainable logging levels,92
and the present increase in world demand for forest products is likely to accelerate logging pressures
on boreal and temperate forests.93 Only 20 percent of the world’s major virgin, or frontier, forests
remain, almost all of them in the far north of Canada and Russia, together with Brazil’s Amazon
region. Most of the world’s forests in other areas are unhealthy, threatened by logging and
development, or too small and fragmented to sustain complete biological systems.94
This section focuses on what is happening to boreal Canada in terms of human occupation, industrial
use, ecological footprint, protection and climate change.
Human presence
Historic
Before intensive European immigration in the 1800s to early 1900s, Canada’s boreal region was not
terra nullius – empty land.95 Aboriginal peoples have occupied Canada’s boreal region for thousands of
years, thriving as nomadic hunting, fishing and gathering societies. This historical use was much more
compatible with the ecological character and ecological limits of boreal ecosystems. These peoples
continue to regard the boreal region as vital to their spiritual, cultural and economic survival.
Hunting (moose, caribou), fishing, and gathering were the standard way of life for northern First
Nations people until the late 1800s.96 Historic culture was strongly tied to the aquatic environment,
as most human activity focused along the rivers, streams, and lakes of the region.97 Although the
traditional lifestyle of eastern Aboriginal peoples had come to an end much earlier, by 1870, the
traditional lifestyle of the western Plains Indians had also essentially come to an end with the
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widespread demise of bison populations and the arrival of European fur traders.98 The fur trade
resulted in further development of permanent First Nations settlements close to major waterways.
The river networks throughout the boreal were critical in the European settlement of the region.
The river systems were used extensively for transport, as a fisheries resource, and for trapping.99
Current
Despite a history of occupation and utilization by various groups of humans, until recently the boreal
region remained comparatively little-altered by human activities. This was mostly due to its vast size,
relative inaccessibility, insect pests and severe winter temperatures. Even today, fewer than 20
million people live in all of the earth’s boreal regions.100
As of 1991, Canada’s boreal ecozones contained approximately 3.5 million people or 13 percent of
the country’s population, with over 10 percent being located in the Boreal Shield ecozone;101 and
with approximately 57 percent of those living in the region’s urban areas.102
Subsistence trapping, fishing and hunting, and tourism/recreation are pervasive human activities
throughout the boreal region. Logging is a prevailing human activity in the southern boreal region.
Oil and gas is significant in the western boreal region. Agriculture is significant in the southern
portions of the Boreal Plains, portions of the Clay Belt in the southern Boreal Shield and extends
into a few southern portions of the Taiga Plains. Mining occurs in scattered locations, but primarily
in the Boreal Shield.
Industry and resource extraction
Today, as is the case throughout the world’s frontier areas, Canada’s boreal region is being impacted
by a massive increase in industrial activities - primarily timber, hydrocarbon, hydroelectric and
mineral extraction operations –which is unprecedented in terms of both scale and accelerating rate of
occurrence.
Most anthropogenic alterations of boreal habitats, species, and processes result from pollution,
invasions of exotic species, habitat destruction, habitat alteration, and habitat fragmentation.
Pollution includes air, water, and land pollution, usually from point sources, but often affecting vast
areas of boreal terrestrial and/or aquatic ecosystems. Invasive exotic species include both plants and
animals. Habitat destruction includes “habitat conversion” - whereby structurally and functionally
complex habitats such as forests are converted, for example, to cropland. Fragmentation of forested
landscapes usually takes place in a series of recognizable stages, and ultimately results in the
conversion of natural ecosystems into human-dominated ecosystems.103
Some of the dominant human activities that pose threats to Canada’s boreal region include logging
and pulp, paper and sawmill operations, agriculture, oil and gas exploration and development,
mining, the pollution-emitting industrial “heartland” of North America, and power generation and
water storage. Other impacts include: settlements and transportation corridors; aggregate extraction;
intensification of recreation activities; peat mining and peat burning for power generation; active fire
suppression;104 and, certain wildlife management practices (such as predator culling and some aspects
of fisheries management105 ).106
Massive changes due to human activities, particularly in the southern boreal areas, are taking place in
Canada’s boreal region. Some of the changes are widespread, some are increasing gradually and some
are increasing exponentially. Their cumulative impacts remain largely unstudied although they are
undoubtedly evolving rapidly. Given the compounded ecological impacts wrought by these
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anthropogenic changes in the boreal, some authors have predicted a future era of unpleasant
ecological surprises.107
Population and ecological footprint
The Boreal Shield sub-region has the highest population density in Canada’s boreal (154 persons per
100 square kilometres), followed by the Boreal Plains (106 persons per 100 square kilometres).108
Projected future population and consumption patterns will potentially have an enormous impact on
Canada’s boreal region.109 In 1996, Canada’s population was 29,760,000. In that year, Statistics
Canada made three Canadian population projections to the year 2041. Projection 1, a low-growth
scenario, shows that the Canadian population will peak at around 35.5 million in 2030, before slowly
receding. Projection 2, a medium-growth scenario, shows that the population will be 37 million by
2016, and 42 million by 2041. Projection 3, a high-growth scenario, shows what effect a higher
fertility rate, life expectancy and immigration rate might have on total population: under this
projection, the population would be about 52 million by 2041 and not stabilize in the foreseeable
future.
The population growth would not be evenly distributed across the nation. Newfoundland and New
Brunswick would see their population decline, whereas Ontario would absorb 56 percent of the total
increase in the Canadian population. According to United Nations’ population projections, world
populations will increase from 6 billion in 1999, to 8 billion in 2028, and 9 billion in 2054. This
increase will occur despite a predicted slowdown in the annual rate of population growth, from the
current rate of 1.3 percent to 0.3 percent in 2050.110
With increasing population, both in Canada and worldwide, the demands on resources, including
those of Canada’s boreal region, will increase in response to both expanding numbers of people and
predicted consumption patterns.
Keeping humanity’s “ecological” footprint within the planet’s biocapacity is a minimum requirement
for sustainability. Ecological footprint analysis is an accounting tool that enables an estimate to be
made of the resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a defined human
population or economy in terms of a corresponding productive land area.111 For example, the global
ecological footprint is currently 2.85 hectares per person; Canada’s is 7.66.112
Protection
Protection of Canada’s forests is a high priority for Canadians. A 1997 survey commissioned by
Natural Resources Canada113 found that Canadians most valued their nation’s forests for: (1)
protecting water, air, soil; (2) balancing global ecosystems; (3) providing habitat for wildlife and
plants; and, (4) wilderness preservation (these values were higher than, or in the case of #4, equal to,
economic wealth and jobs).
“Protection” measures can range widely, from mitigating the impacts of scarification after logging, to
selective rather than clearcut logging, to the retention of “snags” and other forest structures, to policy
restrictions on streamside logging, to air and water pollution regulations, to the legal designation of
protected areas.
Creation of an extensive network of development corridors throughout the boreal region is
considered by some to be the single most contributing factor to loss of ecological integrity.114 Many
are of the view that, with respect to a broad range spectrum of conservation issues, controlling
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access, and hence development, is the key to maintaining ecologically functional habitats and viable
populations of species.115
Although for some it is sufficient to say that “Canada’s forest community continues to improve
forest management by developing, integrating and adapting stewardship approaches… against a
backdrop of forest values that range from wilderness to wildlife, to wood supply, to recreation and to
water supply,”116 the best strategy – albeit at times a controversial one – for conserving landscapes
and the animals and plants that depend upon them, is the establishment and management of parks,
reserves or other forms of protected areas. In the absence of sufficient ecological knowledge to
adequately assess the impacts of an imposition of wide-scale and/or intensive human-caused
activities on the boreal region, it is desirable to take an approach termed the precautionary principle.
This approach rightly shifts the burden of proof to the proponents of such activities.117
Protected areas
“With 9.6 percent of Canada’s land mass protected, Canada places 13th out of 29 OECD nations,
below the OECD average of 12.6 percent…. If one looks at the percentage of land in the IUCN’s
strict conservation categories, Canada’s performance is less impressive, falling to 4.32 percent
protected. This is largely because many provinces continue to allow industrial activities like logging,
mining and oil and gas development within protected areas under their jurisdiction.” 118 Canada has
made significant strides in recent decades at both the federal and provincial levels in establishing new
protected areas. The amount of Canada that is protected has risen from 5.5 percent in the early 1980s
to 9.6 percent in the late 1990s.
Although the southern boreal and the northern taiga ecozones are roughly equivalent in size, the
southern boreal region contains almost 30 times the number of protected-type areas as the northern
taiga region, but the mean size of the areas in the southern boreal region is less than 10 percent the
mean size of those in the northern boreal region.119 Many of the “protected-type” areas, particularly
in the southern boreal region, were selected, not due to ecological and science criteria for
“representation” and biodiversity conservation, but due to lack of conflict with industrial interests or
for tourism value.
Ecosystem management120
2 Box 2. Ecosystem management
The eight requirements of ecosystem management include: long-term sustainability as a
fundamental value; clear, operational goals; sound ecological models and understanding;
recognition of the dynamic character of ecosystems; attention to context and scale; humans as
ecosystem components; and, adaptability and accountability.123
In some cases, new concepts for managing logging and other industrial activities so as to preserve
biodiversity have found their way into management procedures. The general paradigm under which
this is occurring has been termed ecosystem management.121 There has been an explosion of logging
and ecosystem management-related research in Canada’s boreal region, and a parallel explosion in the
number of forest sustainability commitments through the 1990s, by industry and governments. Much
direction on logging is supplied by this research and by those commitments.
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A comparison of management recommendations and commitments to sustainable forest ecosystem
management versus actual forest company operational procedures indicates a discrepancy. 122 For
example, logging practices, as they occur “on the ground,” involve increasingly extensive industrial
clearcut logging.
Ecosystem management usually entails a focus on processes rather than on species diversity. The key
processes identified in ecosystem management for boreal forests are disturbances, with industry
attention being focused almost wholly upon fire.
Riparian forests
The protection of riparian forests during forestry operations has been internationally and nationally
recognized as an important objective for sustainable forest management.124
A new study (still in draft form at the time of writing) by Global Forest Watch Canada discloses a
vast array of differing standards and policy instruments for the conservation and management of
Canada’s riparian forests.125 The most noticeable differences are found within the boreal forest
ecozones. The nature and extent of riparian forest protection in Canada varies widely between and
within the provinces and territories. For examples: riparian reserve zones, which would prohibit most
logging or road-building in riparian forests, are not commonly required for forest management in
Canada, and; only one jurisdiction in Canada, the Northwest Territories, has mandatory no-logging
reserve zones on all its streams, lakes and wetlands.
Canada’s standards for riparian boreal forest protection on large streams and lakes are significantly
weaker than comparable standards in Russia, although enforcement of these standards in Russia is
presently unclear.
Climate change
Present concerns about climate change arise from two basic premises that
are undisputed by the scientific community: (1) greenhouse gases, such as
carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ), retard the rate at which the
Earth loses heat to space, and thus contribute to the warming of the
earth’s atmosphere; and, (2) concentration of these gases is increasing in
part as a result of human activities.126 There is a discernible human
influence on emissions of CO2 and global climate due to fossil fuel
burning, and this is virtually certain to be the dominant influence on the
trends in atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the 21st century.127
Despite disputes over detail, barring a massive intervention by all major
greenhouse gas-emitting nations, climate warming is substantial, rapid,
and may well accelerate in the next few decades.
Rate of climate warming
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations did not exceed 280 parts per million for at least 10,000 years prior
to the Industrial Revolution and have been less than 300 parts per million for the last 400,000 years128
(perhaps even for the last 20 million years129 ). Worldwide, CO2 emissions have tripled over the last 40
years130 and CO2 concentrations have risen from about 280 ppm in 1800 to about 365 ppm in 1995,
an increase of 30 percent.131
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Average global surface temperatures increased by 0.6 ± 0.2°C during the 20th century.132 At the
present rates of increase, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has been predicted to double within the
next 30-50 years.133 Concomitantly, the global average temperature is expected to increase by 1.4 to
5.8°C by 2100 relative to 1900, although the degree of warming and precipitation increases and
decreases would vary by region. Warming is expected to be greatest in higher latitudes. 134 A rate of
temperature change of this magnitude would be unprecedented and 15-30 times more rapid than that
measured for the past 20,000 years.135 Other studies are Canada- and region-specific and show the
projected changes in annual temperature and precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere.136
Why is climate warming of significance to Canada’s boreal region?
Climate warming is of special significance to Canada’s boreal region for two reasons:
1. Average temperatures may rise in Canada’s boreal region substantially more than the world
average. Regional changes will be quite different from global averages. Because landmasses warm
faster than oceans, it is anticipated that the more dramatic increases in global temperatures will occur
in high latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including Canada’s boreal region.137
2. Canada’s boreal region may very well move from a globally significant sink for carbon from the
atmosphere to a globally significant source of carbon to the atmosphere. Canada contains 35 percent
of the world’s boreal region138 (i.e., 8-11 percent of the world’s terrestrial biospheric carbon is in the
boreal region of North America). Most of this carbon is held within peat deposits (about 50
percent139 ), soils (about 30 percent140 ) and lake sediments (about 15 percent141 ). Boreal surface
vegetation contains less than 8 percent of the total carbon storage in boreal landscapes.142 Because of
its historic role as a key carbon sink and because it is a major potential future source of atmospheric
carbon, the boreal region has the capacity to profoundly affect the course of future climate warming.
Climate warming, in turn, via a series of positive and negative feedback loops, will ultimately
determine the boreal region’s fate. Some studies now suggest the boreal region sink significantly
143
weakened between 1970-1989 and recent studies have shown net losses of carbon from peatlands.
Boreal region feedback loops = the “carbon bomb”?
There is uncertainty regarding the details of projected effects of climate warming. This is because the
Earth’s climate system is bewilderingly complex and involves interactions with the world’s oceans,
land masses, living things and polar ice masses, any of which can trigger important changes and cause
a variety of feedback effects.144 Although uncertainty about projected climate warming effects
increases at the regional and local levels, some of the many potential climate warming positive
(carbon release) and negative (carbon storage) feedback reactions involving the boreal region are as
follows:
2 The anticipated northward shift of the boreal region and other vegetation belts caused by climate
warming will itself amplify high-latitude warming by about 4°C in spring and 1°C during the
other seasons.145
2 As a result of climate warming, the frequency and intensity of fires in the boreal region are likely
to increase significantly – the increase in annual area of boreal region burned is predicted by
some studies to be 50 percent,146 although there will be large regional variation, with declines of
area burned in Canada’s eastern boreal region. Since fires decrease forest biomass and release
carbon, this is an important positive feedback that could exacerbate the warming trend. Warmer
summers will likely spawn more thunderstorms and hence, more lightning strikes and fires.
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2 Climate warming also has the potential to release vast amounts of carbon from oxidation of
peats, from evaporation of CH4 locked up as methane hydrates in permafrost,147 and from lake
sediments.148 This alone could trigger a vicious circle of still more climate warming.
2 The warming of boreal soils would lead to increased soil microbe respiration, promoting decay
and would result in additional release of carbon.149 However, there has been considerable debate
about whether warmer boreal soils would enhance (positive feedback) or retard (negative
feedback) climate warming. This is because nitrogen mineralization also increases with soil
temperature and promotes tree growth.
The major concern of many climatologists and environmental scientists is that the combined result of
all the above-described feedback processes will be to convert the boreal region from a net carbon
sink to a major carbon source. This would promote further climate warming and combined with
anticipated massive releases of methane (CH4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from permafrost and tundra
soils, would trigger an irreversible “runaway” climate warming effect, leading to rapid and
unstoppable increases in global temperatures.150 This scenario has been graphically described as “The
Carbon Bomb.”151
Schindler’s triple whammy - individual and synergistic effects on Canada’s
boreal region
In addition to climate warming, ecologist David W. Schindler considered acid deposition and
stratospheric ozone depletion and termed their individual, combined, and perhaps synergistic effects
a “triple whammy.” He concluded that these, along with other human activities, might result in the
boreal region being one of the global ecoregions most affected by climate change over the next few
decades.152
What is boreal Canada’s state of health?
International context
The Scandinavian boreal region (especially in Sweden and Finland) has
been highly altered by intensive logging and plantation-forestry
practices, which have resulted in factory forests with diminished
biological diversity.156 Today less than 5 percent of Scandinavia’s
original old growth taiga survives.157 Intensive silviculture is practised in
Scandinavia and, while this has restored fibre production, it has led to
many problems involving exotic species and instability of ecosystems.
Approximately 1,500 forest species are listed as threatened in Sweden,158
with many of these species relying on old growth forests. For example,
the existence of 400 species of wood-living beetles is threatened because large-diameter, dead trees
are now a sparse resource, and more than 200 species of cryptograms are in danger of becoming
extinct because of the lack of old trees, logs and snags.159 One telling statistic is that Sweden’s
200,000 kilometres of logging roads cover an area larger than all the forest reserves in the country.160
Less than 1 percent of the Norwegian boreal region has been protected as nature reserves.161
Between 1988 and 1993, Siberia’s forests switched from being a net carbon sink to a new source,
with its carbon accumulation from the atmosphere already cut possibly by one-third.162 Some large
areas of the former Soviet Union’s Taiga, notably the Kola Peninsula and parts of Siberia, have been
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devastated by atmospheric pollution from numerous smelting operations, radioactive contaminants
and oil spills.163 In addition, Siberia has experienced a “timber rush” and an influx of transnational
2 Box 3. Summary of the state of health of boreal Canada
Historically, ecosystem health in forests has been associated with protecting forests against
insects and diseases and salvaging stands of damaged or infested timber. However, the concept
of forest ecosystem health has greatly expanded both in scope and in application.153 How forest
ecosystem health is viewed depends on how forest ecosystems are valued -- whether for timber,
watershed services, carbon sinks, recreation, aesthetics, wildlife habitat, or spiritual renewal.
Long before European settlement, Canada’s vast forests evolved in response to recurrent and
often profound, but inherent, influences including wildfire, wind, ice storms, floods, drought,
insects, diseases, and climate change. Human activities have disrupted the natural range of
variation in structure, composition, and landscape patterns of boreal Canada. These activities
include introductions of insects, disease, and other foreign organisms; land use and resulting land
cover change; fires, both accidental and deliberate; atmospheric pollutants, including acidic
deposition; changes in tropospheric ozone and ultraviolet-B radiation; and carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases linked to climate change.
Changes in ecosystem condition may have negligible or even beneficial effects on ecosystem
productivity and resilience, but may cause hardship to communities dependent on the forest or
reduce a forest’s attractiveness to tourists. Effects of some catastrophes may be essentially
permanent if the ecosystem, for example, is reduced to bare rock.
Determination of the health of Canadian forest ecosystems is not an exact science. The definition
of “health” is more qualitative than quantitative. It is not always clear how much change in
ecosystem condition is due to natural processes and how much result from human activities.
Also, the natural range of variation and the appropriate period of time to consider is not always
clear.
Some initial conclusions of the Canadian Forest Service regarding the state of health of boreal
Canada are as follows:154
2 The world’s boreal forests are forecast to bear the brunt of global climate change when
compared to potential impacts on temperate and tropical forests. Two of the potentially
devastating impacts are greatly increased catastrophic fire events and alteration of the
distribution and degree of infestation and diseases.
2 Acid rain continues to adversely impact biological growth and productivity of the eastern
Boreal Shield ecozone.
2 Approximately 10 percent of the harvested area of Canada has not regenerated successfully
by twenty years after harvest. If this backlog continues to accumulate, the health of the
timber-productive forest landbase of the country may be threatened.
2 The aspen forests of the Boreal Plains are threatened due to extensive fragmentation caused
by the conversion of forestland for agricultural purposes.
2 The entire Boreal Plains and significant portions of the Taiga Plains (Mackenzie River valley)
are threatened due to extensive fragmentation caused by exploration and development of
petroleum resources.
2 In portions of the Boreal Shield and Boreal Plains ecozones, the forest cover is shifting from
softwoods to hardwoods, mostly aspen and birch, where harvesting has replaced fire as the
dominant disturbance. These hardwoods are natural aggressive colonizers of cutover lands.
2 Due to climate change, future wood availability will be uncertain at best. 155
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logging companies. Massive logging and high grading of mature conifers has taken place, resulting in
a decline of this type of forest.164 China is expected to exert a major influence in Russia’s taiga and
China is poised to become the world’s leading importer of wood.165
In European Russia, only 14 percent of the Taiga forest landscapes are still intact (i.e., essentially
undisturbed by human development with an area of at least 50,000 ha). The vast majority of these are
located in the most remote areas of the far north.166
Health of major boreal ecozones in boreal Canada167
2 Box 4. Forest health
In general terms, a healthy forest is one that maintains biodiversity, resiliency, wildlife habitat,
aesthetic appeal and resource sustainability.168 Forest ecosystems are generally considered
healthy when their underlying ecological processes operate within a natural range of variability,
so that on any temporal or spatial scale, they are dynamic and resilient to disturbance.169 Natural
range of variability refers to ecosystem composition, structure, processes, and patterns for a
specified time and a specific area.
Boreal Shield Ecozone
Changing forest landscape and watershed conditions
2 Large intact forest landscapes (Map 1): The Boreal Shield has 53 percent of its area remaining as
large intact forest landscapes, the lowest percentage of any boreal ecozone after the Boreal Plains
(at 17 percent).
2 Watersheds (Map 2): The area covered by Boreal Shield watersheds that have developments in at
least some portion total approximately 70 percent of the ecozone. The area covered by
watersheds that have developments in more than more than half of each watershed total almost
20 percent of the ecozone.
2 Fire (Map 3) and insects: Fire polygons have covered almost 10 percent of this ecozone between
1980 and 1997, the second largest percentage of all the boreal/taiga ecozones (after the Taiga
Plains). Insect defoliators are the greatest contributors to mortality and forest change. However,
only a few species routinely infest large areas and are economically damaging to the commercial
forest.
Changing biodiversity
2 Changing tree species mix: In southern boreal Ontario and Québec, a permanent shift from
softwood to hardwood cover is occurring in areas where harvesting has replaced fire as the
dominant disturbance.170
2 Plants under pressure: Red pine and white pine have suffered serious declines in Newfoundland;
and both pine species have been greatly reduced in the continental portions of their ranges. In
the case of white pine, this demise is attributable to excessive harvesting and white pine blister
rust, an introduced disease. Red pine decline may be related to the reduced incidence of wildfire.
Changing atmospheric environment
2 Acid deposition and forests: In the mid-latitude regions of Ontario and Québec, relatively high
rates of acid deposition have resulted in adverse impacts on soils associated with upland
forests.171 There is a continuing problem with acid deposition.172
2 Acid deposition and boreal lakes: The effects of acid runoff from forest soils on boreal lake
ecosystems have significantly reduced fish populations.173 Conservative estimates suggest that at
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least 162,000 populations of fish have disappeared from the lakes of the eastern Boreal Shield
and Atlantic Maritime ecozones since the start of anthropogenic acidification of these lakes.
2 Ground-level ozone: Forests in the south-central portion of the ecozone have been exposed to
damaging levels of ground-level ozone concentrations.174
2 Especially in the western boreal, increasing vegetation productivity and related biodiversity
changes are likely, due to climate warming.
Boreal Plains Ecozone
Changing forest landscape conditions
2 Large intact forest landscapes (Map 1): The Boreal Plains has only 17 percent of its area
remaining as large intact forest landscapes, the lowest percentage of any boreal ecozon.e
2 Watersheds (Map 2): The area covered by Boreal Plains watersheds that have developments in at
least some portion total over 90 percent of the ecozone. The area covered by watersheds that
have developments in more than more than half of each watershed total almost 60 percent of the
ecozone.
2 Fire (Map 3) and insects: Together, fire, forest tent caterpillar, lodgepole pine dwarf mistletoe,
spruce budworm, and jack pine budworm typically affect millions of hectares of forests each year
in this ecozone. Although they cause tree mortality, and reduction in growth amounts to tens of
millions of cubic metres of wood annually,175 these agents of change are essential to the
ecological well being of these forests. However, volume losses due to these disturbances, which
exceed volumes harvested, have implications for the available timber supply in the region. Fires
have affected almost 7 percent of this ecozone between 1980 and 1997, the fourth largest
percentage of all the boreal/taiga ecozones.
2 Fragmentation of the aspen forest: Northward expansion of agriculture over the last 100 years
has resulted in the loss of much of the most productive aspen forests in the southern portion of
this ecozone. A belt of land ranging in width from a few to over 100 kilometres has been
converted from trembling aspen and mixedwood forests to agricultural land.176
Changing biodiversity
2 Species richness: The southern mixedwood forests of this ecozone have among the highest
diversities of breeding birds of any forest type in North America.177 They also support at least six
bat species, the highest concentration of bat species recorded anywhere in Canada.178 The
habitats of many of these bird and bat species are being placed under increasing levels of stress
as a result of agricultural and industrial development.
2 Currently, this ecozone contains a number of species considered at risk. They include the
woodland caribou, wolverine, grizzly bear, wood bison, and whooping crane. The northern part
of the Boreal Plains supports the world’s only breeding area of the whooping crane.
2 Increasing development: The upsurge in forestry, oil and gas exploration, mining, and agriculture
and associated infrastructure such as roads, is adding a major stress to the forests within the
Boreal Plains. Technology improvements during the 1980s have led to a 20-fold increase in the
harvesting of previously little-valued aspen. The rate of anthropogenic-caused disturbances is
rapid (Map 4).
2 Introduced species: Dutch elm disease was introduced into the region in 1975. This disease poses
a serious risk to native American elm, a tree that grows in the southeastern part of the ecozone.
As settlers moved west across the continent, they brought with them many European vascular
plants. These plants have become established along roads and railways, in agricultural fields, and
in other disturbed areas. These non-native plants are now invading relatively pristine forest areas
such as Wood Buffalo National Park and, in some cases, they are displacing native plants.
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Changing atmospheric environment
2 No regional air pollution: Tree condition, mortality rates, and regeneration are all within normal
ranges. No damage from air pollution has been detected. Acidic emissions are low when
compared to southeastern Canada. Broad-scale threats to forest ecosystems will likely come from
long-range sources rather than from within the ecozone.
2 Oil and gas processing and production, electrical power production, chemical plants, and pulp
and paper mills are the local industrial sources of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, and volatile organic compounds.
2 Climate change and the boreal forest-grassland transition: Predicted climate warming scenarios
and decreased soil moisture may result in dramatic ecological responses where the boreal forest
meets the grasslands.
Taiga Plains Ecozone
Changing forest landscape conditions
2 Large intact forest landscapes (Map 1): The Taiga Plains has 61 percent of its area remaining as
large intact forest landscapes, the third lowest percentage of any boreal ecozone after the Boreal
Plains (at 17 percent), and the Boreal Shield (at 53 percent).
2 Watersheds (Map 2): The area covered by Taiga Plains watersheds that have developments in at
least some portion total almost 50 percent of the ecozone. The area covered by watersheds that
have developments in more than half of each watershed total almost 20 percent of this ecozone.
2 Fire (Map 3) and insects: Fires have affected almost 12 percent of this ecozone between 1980
and 1997, the largest percentage of all the boreal/taiga ecozones. Insect and disease outbreaks
are common but are essential to the ecological integrity of these forests. Spruce budworm is the
most widespread, being concentrated in white spruce stands along rivers, particularly the
Mackenzie, Nahanni, and Liard rivers.
2 Range extension of forest tent caterpillar: Of interest is the recent outbreak, between 1995 and
1997, of forest tent caterpillar in the Liard River valley. It was the first documented outbreak of
the insect this far north.
Changing biodiversity
2 The overall biodiversity within these forests is not threatened. The forest wetland ecosystems of
the Taiga Plains are particularly important, as they are essential to the survival of many North
American migratory species, including lesser snow geese, trumpeter swan, Caspian tern, and
lesser yellowlegs.
Changing atmospheric environment
2 Potential climate change impacts: A warming climate would have various impacts, including
lower water levels, less permafrost, longer growing seasons, increased fire frequency, increased
incidence of insect infestations, and less caribou habitat.179
2 There has been a northward shift of the permafrost boundary by 140 kilometres in Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Manitoba due to general warming conditions over the last 200 years. Under
current projections of climate warming, this northward retreat of the permafrost line would be
accelerated.
Taiga Shield Ecozone
2 Large intact forest landscapes (Map 1): The Taiga Shield has 93 percent of its area (south of the
treeline) remaining as large intact forest landscapes, a very high percentage.
2 Watersheds (Map 2): The area covered by Taiga Shield watersheds that have developments in at
least some portion total almost 10 percent of the ecozone. There are no watersheds in this
ecozone that have developments that cover more than half of the watershed.
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2 Fire (Map 3): Fires have affected almost 9 percent of this ecozone between 1980 and 1997, the
third largest percentage of all the boreal ecozones (after the Taiga Plains and Boreal Shield).
2 The forests within this ecozone, in large part, are considered healthy. The James Bay and
Churchill Falls hydroelectric-power developments have resulted in the diversion of several rivers
and the flooding of large tracts of forested land. Currently, 2,640 square kilometres of land, much
of it previously forested, has been flooded as part of the Churchill Falls project. Reservoirs
associated with the La Grande complex of the James Bay hydroelectric project have resulted in
12,000 square kilometres of flooded forestland. If the Great Whale River phase of this project is
implemented, thousands of hectares of additional land will be flooded.
Boreal Cordillera Ecozone
2 Large intact forest landscapes (Map 1): The Boreal Cordillera has 89 percent of its area remaining
as large intact forest landscapes, a very high percentage.
2 Watersheds (Map 2): The area covered by Boreal Cordillera watersheds that have developments
in at least some portion total over 70 percent of the ecozone. There are no watersheds that have
developments in more than more than half of the watershed.
2 Fire (Map 3): Fires have affected almost 5 percent of this ecozone between 1980 and 1997, the
fifth largest percentage of all the boreal ecozones.
2 The forests of this ecozone are healthy. Intensive land-use practices are minimal and no
widespread air pollution has been noted outside of the city of Whitehorse.
2 There is some concern within southeast Yukon that the harvesting taking place is not being
adequately replenished through natural regeneration. Over the 5 years from 1991 to 1995, an
estimated 4,571 hectares were harvested and 622 hectares were replanted. Since 1993, the Yukon
and federal governments have begun to plant cutover areas in order to augment regeneration by
natural means.
Cumulative impacts and rates of change
In regards to cumulative impacts, logging activity, oil and gas exploration and development,
agricultural clearing, hydropower generation and other industrial exploration and developments,
“accessed areas” (i.e., areas that have linear disturbances such as roads, and seismic lines180 ) have
rapidly increased such that, by the year 2000, 31 percent of the southern boreal region (generally the
Boreal Shield and Boreal Plains) and 1 percent of the northern boreal region (generally the Taiga
ecozones and Boreal Cordillera ecozone) had been accessed.181 The amount of area accessed is
indicative of ecosystem degradation and, although difficult to quantify, can rival forest loss in terms
of ecological impact.182
Although reliable data are not available, Global Forest Watch Canada estimates that in terms of
converted forests, the southern boreal region (generally the Boreal Shield and Boreal Plains) has lost
7.7 million hectares or about 3 percent of its forest due to clearing and conversion in the last 100
years (i.e., about 0.03 percent per year). The northern boreal region (generally the Taiga ecozones and
Boreal Cordillera ecozone), on the other hand, has lost very little in total. There are huge regional
differences, with the boreal region in the Prairie Provinces containing the vast majority of the
southern boreal region conversions.
There are strong regional differences in rates of change to boreal ecosystems. Based on draft results
of a recent study by Global Forest Watch Canada on rates of anthropogenic-caused changes in the
Boreal Plains Ecozone during the 1990s, Alberta experienced 1.6 times the rate of disturbance as
British Columbia or Saskatchewan and 6 times the rate of disturbance as Manitoba. The differences
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are likely due mainly to the predominance of the fragmentation effects of the oil and gas industry in
Alberta.
Sustainability
A central question about the sustainability of Canadian boreal forests is: how much disturbance due
to cumulative impacts can the system absorb before its resiliency is lost? The question is divided in
two:183
(1) Is the disturbance rate increasing?
2 The area of undisturbed boreal “original” or “frontier” forest in the boreal of the Prairie
Provinces has continued to decline due to logging, oil and gas, and agriculture, as has the degree
of fragmentation and dissection consequent to these activities. The area disturbed by insects has
apparently decreased in recent years, but the trend is dominated by aspen defoliators (primarily
forest tent caterpillars), which may be obscuring changes in the populations of spruce budworm,
jack pine budworm, etc.
2 Overall in Canada, between 1975 and 2001, the total area cut for timber extraction increased 50
percent.184 Most of this increase came from the boreal region.
2 Since fire is the dominant stand-replacing disturbance in the boreal forest, any change in
disturbance would have major implications for the system. Some scientists have noted an apparent
increase in national fire activity (dominated by the Prairie Provinces) over the 20th Century.185 A
recent study concluded that despite increasing fire suppression efforts, forest fires have been
increasing over past decades186 including during the 1990s. There is an apparent decrease in fire
activity over eastern Ontario and central Québec.187 Application of a predictive climate model
found that fire weather indices would rise in the western boreal and decrease over the eastern
boreal.188 Concurrent increases and decreases in fire activity may be occurring.189 There appears
to be little reason to expect climatically driven changes in fire frequency to be expressed
uniformly across all of boreal Canada.
2 For the Canadian boreal forest, from 1920-69, the average disturbance rate (primarily from
wildfire and insects) was 1.7 million hectares per year; from 1970-89, the average disturbance rate
was 3.9 million hectares per year.190
(2) Is there evidence that forest losses are exceeding accruals?
2 Forest accruals (due to growth) and losses (due to harvest, fire, and pests) in area and in volume
were calculated in one study by region for the period 1977-81.191 There was a net loss in forest
area for the Prairie Provinces of 0.145 million hectares per year, and a net loss in forest volume
of 15.93 million cubic metres per year. The largest amount of non-satisfactorily regenerated lands
in Canada is in the Prairie Provinces.192 Whether these negative trends are typical of the Prairie
Provinces is uncertain, as fire activity during the study period was high. Conversely, some recent
years have had comparably high burn rates, logging rates have increased, and land losses due to
oil and gas and agriculture continue. In corroboration, total forest biomass in Canada rose from
1920 to 1970 and has since declined.193 The negative trend is also corroborated by regional
studies.194 Nationally, about 20 percent of the areas logged, burned, or killed by insects or disease
do not regenerate and go out of production. The land base is being eroded by regeneration
failures and land withdrawals.
In summary, then, the evidence indicates that boreal region disturbance rates are increasing and that
forest losses are exceeding accruals. The boreal region is shrinking and becoming more fragmented
under its current disturbance regime.
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The cumulative and synergistic environmental impacts resulting from the variety, intensity and
expansion of human activities throughout Canada’s boreal region comprise enormous threats to
long-term maintenance of ecological function and biological diversity. Although under public
ownership, a large portion of the boreal region, particularly the southern portion, has already been
allocated to multiple and layered (i.e., more than one allocation on the same land base) industrial
interests.195
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State of Industry
As of 2002, natural resources – forestry, minerals, energy — contributed 12.7 percent, or $133.3
billion, to Canada’s gross domestic product, and comprised 6.1 percent, or 941,000, of Canadian
jobs, 22.1 percent, or $45.4 billion, in new capital investments, 38.5 percent, or $140.5 billion, of
Canada’s domestic exports, and $67.7 billion to Canada’s balance of trade.196 Much of this economic
generation is from Canada’s boreal region.
Economic importance of industry in boreal Canada
The logging industry is a significant presence in the
southern boreal region, and provincial governments derive
significant financial benefits from logging activities.197 In
Canada’s boreal region, employment in logging and related
industries totaled 395,000 jobs in 1997 — 48 percent of
the Canadian total in the forest sector.198 Many
communities in the boreal region have a significant
dependence on logging and the economies of such
communities are generally less diverse than those in more
southern locales. For example, it is estimated that in
nearly 50 northern Ontario communities, logging is the
sole industry.199 The estimate is much higher in Québec, with more than 250 communities thought
to be directly dependent on logging and related industries in the boreal region.
Canada is one of the largest mining nations in the world, producing more than 60 minerals and
metals. Less than 0.03 percent of the land area of Canada has been used to produce minerals and
mineral products. At the start of 2003, there were some 190 principal metal, non-metal and coal
mines, more than 3,000 stone quarries and sand and gravel pits, and about 50 non-ferrous smelters,
refineries and steel mills operating in Canada. Approximately 80 percent of the mining in Canada is in
the boreal region.200 About 75 percent of total Canadian non-fuel mineral production is accounted
for by Ontario (32 percent), Québec (21 percent), Saskatchewan (13 percent) and British Columbia
(10 percent). Canada is one of the world’s leading exporters of minerals and mineral products. Some
80 percent of Canada’s mineral production is exported. These products make a significant
contribution to Canada’s international trade, accounting for about 13 percent of Canada’s total
domestic exports. Canada continues to be the world’s leader in the production of potash and
uranium, and ranks in the top five for the production of nickel, aluminum, gold, zinc, gypsum,
molybdenum, platinum group metals, salt, cadmium, titanium concentrate and asbestos.
In regards to energy, remaining established reserves at the beginning of 2002 for natural gas are 59.8
trillion cubic feet (Tcf) — 59.3 Tcf in conventional areas and 0.5 Tcf in frontier areas — for a
reserves-to-production ratio of 10 years. The total in-place, raw, undiscovered potential of natural gas
in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is estimated to be 310 Tcf. Crude oil reserves in 2002 were
estimated at 11.4 billion barrels, consisting of conventional, 3.3 billion barrels; oil sands, 6.7 billion
barrels; and frontier, 1.4 billion barrels (of which 0.95 billion are from off the East Coast), for a
reserves-to-production ratio of 9 years. The ultimate recoverable potential from the Alberta oil sands
is more than 300 billion barrels. Coal reserves are estimated at 6 294 million tonnes for a reserves-toproduction ratio of 84 years. Total coal resource estimates are more than 200 gigatonnes, of which 90
percent are in the three western provinces. All of the oil sands and most of the Western Canada
Sedimentary Basin are in the boreal region.
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In 1991, the three boreal ecozones produced $64 billion in GDP, or 10 percent of Canada’s total,
with a labour force of 1.7 million people. The largest employment sector throughout the ecozones
was services, accounting for 31 percent of the labour force, while the mining-related sectors
employed 103,237 people, or approximately 6.1 percent of the boreal labour force.201 Fifteen percent
of Canada’s resource- related employment occurs in the boreal shield ecozone. In 1991, this ecozone
contributed $28 billion annually to the economy from resource extraction, mainly from hydroelectric
generation ($16.5 billion), mining ($6 billion) and forestry ($5.8 billion from pulp and paper), while its
total GDP is $49 billion.202
Scan of industries operating in boreal Canada
Ecosystem-wide
Logging
Over the last few years, logging practices in Canada have been the subject of increasing public and
scientific attention. About 31 percent of the southern boreal region and only 1 percent of the
northern boreal region is considered accessed203 (i.e., areas that have linear disturbances such as
roads, and seismic lines204 ), primarily as a result of logging activities, but also as a result of the energy
industry’s activities in western Canada. In many areas, as a result of logging and silvicultural
operations, the age-class distribution and species composition of boreal forests is undergoing
significant changes.205 The biggest impact is the loss of old growth habitats from the landscape and
the broad-scale conversion from conifer to hardwood domination. The United States is the major
importer of Canada’s forest products and as the U.S. economy continues to grow, demands for
Canada’s forest products will also increase substantially, unless other world suppliers can
accommodate the U.S. demand at lower prices.
Logging of Canada’s boreal region began in earnest in the 1890s. Today, “forestry is our largest
natural resource industry, we are the world’s greatest exporter of wood products, [and] an estimated
165,000 Canadians are employed by boreal industries.” 206 The decade of the late 1980s and early
1990s resulted in 45 new pulp mills or other wood-processing plants, worth more than $7 billion,
being established in Canada’s boreal region.207 By 1999, at least 47 percent of Canada’s southern
boreal region and 2 percent of the northern boreal region were under volume- and/or area-based
tenures for logging.208
Throughout Canada, the rate of logging has increased substantially throughout the 20th century.209
The current rate of logging – about 1 million hectares annually210 – equates to a harvest of 0.4
percent of Canada’s commercial forest base of 235 million hectares, or 0.8 percent annually of the
119 million hectares currently managed primarily for timber production. Between 1975 and 2001, the
amount harvested rose nearly 50 percent. In the 1990s, logging increased by about 15 percent.
Provincial and territorial data indicate that the increase in area logged in the 1990s was primarily in
the boreal forest. For example, the combined increases from Québec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan the three provinces that showed the largest percentage increase in area logged during the 1990s –
accounted for most of the national increases in the 1990s.211 The area clearcut in these three
provinces accounted for 84 percent of the total cut and the remainder was logged using selective
methods.212
Apart from this expansion of area logged, it is also instructive to examine logging volume in the
boreal region. For example, since the early 1960s, logging in Alberta has been increasing at an
exponential rate.213 The dramatic increase, specific to Alberta, is attributable to government policies
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promoting expansion of the forest industry, the development of infrastructure (roads, mills, etc.),
changing technology (e.g., the ability to use aspen for making pulp) and the continuing liquidation of
high volume, old-growth forests.
Within Canada’s southern boreal region, which is where the commercial forest zone is mostly
located, about 128 of the zone’s 182 million hectares are within the commercial forest zone and most
of the area is allocated via volume and area-based tenures to the logging industry (Map 5).214 With
much of the southernmost forest logged in many regions, timber companies are expanding their
operations northward into increasingly economically marginal timber areas. In recent decades,
provincial governments have issued forest tenures within extensive portions of Canada’s northern,
previously undeveloped boreal region; and this trend continues today.215 Some believe that these
expansions are ecologically unsustainable.216 This logging industry trend is having a severe impact on
Aboriginal peoples in some regions.
Agriculture
Despite the short growing season and other constraints imposed by the boreal climate, a significant
amount of agricultural activity has occurred within the southern fringe of Canada’s boreal region. In
fact, economically marginal boreal lands continue to be cleared for this purpose.217
Agriculture is not only the oldest major, primary industry in the boreal region; it is also the most
important with respect to the absolute area of associated forest loss. Between 1949 and 1995,
200 square kilometres per year of boreal forest cover was converted to agricultural land, primarily for
small grain cropping and pasture.218 Overall, forest conversion (for agricultural purposes) in the
boreal region amounts to about 7.7 million hectares, or about 3 percent of the southern boreal
ecozone, and only about 1,000 hectares of the northern taiga ecozones.219 In the Boreal Plains
ecozone, farmland has increased by 8 percent between 1975 and 1996.220 Locally, as in parts of
Russia, deforestation rates in the boreal-parkland transition area, due to agricultural clearing, have
surpassed those in Amazonia, even recently.221 (It is important to recognize the substantial
differences in the biodiversity and scale when using these comparisons.)
In some Canadian provinces, there is considerable and rapid growth in agriculture and it is officially
promoted.222 Although it is not yet known how much future expansion will occur in the boreal
region, more land will be required for grazing and forage and for manure disposal. Additional water
supplies will be required for new intensive livestock operations.
Conventional oil and gas, and oil sands
Although Alberta is Canada’s nexus of the oil and gas sector, drilling and seismic work is currently
underway in 11 of 13 provinces and territories.223 In addition to its conventional oil and gas deposits,
Alberta’s oil sands have 300 billion barrels of proven reserves, more than in all of Saudi Arabia.
There has been $51 billion in realized or promised investment in oil sands development between
1996 and 2010. The areas of highest conventional oil and gas potential are in the Western Canadian
Sedimentary Basin.
Conventional oil and gas exploration and development occurs primarily in Alberta and
northeastern British Columbia’s boreal region. While the forest industry may eventually supersede it
in terms of its environmental impact, the oil and gas industry has likely left the most pervasive and
intense “ecological footprint” of any human activity in those provinces’ boreal region. Currently, the
oil and gas industry is booming. For example, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers, over 16,000 petroleum industry-related wells are now drilled every year. Pipelines
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constitute another significant component of oil and gas industry-related habitat loss and
fragmentation.
The hydrocarbon industry is likely to expand its activities considerably in Canada’s boreal region over
the next few decades. United States President G.W. Bush is calling for:224 working with Alaska and
Canada to construct a gas pipeline from the north; working with Mexico and Canada to supply
United States’ needs; and, developing Alberta’s oil sands. Canada has an “open arms” response to the
Bush proposal. “On energy, they have a problem and they know that Canada is a good provider.
Let’s roll up our sleeves together, and get to work.” (Jean Chrétien, Canada’s Prime Minister, April 6,
2001).225 There is pressure to fast track development of Alberta’s oil sands; open up vast areas in
Canada’s boreal region for exploration and development, particularly within the western 15-25
percent of Canada’s boreal region; and, open up environmentally sensitive and protected areas.226
The number of natural gas wells drilled in western Canada has increased from about 2,200 in 1990 to
about 8,900 in 2000 and this number closely correlates with the price of gas.227 The infrastructure
required to support these expected expansions would be both extensive and intensive.
Oil Sands Developments. Alberta’s oil sands constitute the world’s second-largest known potential
source of oil and represent one-third of its recoverable petroleum resources. Virtually the entire
extent of the oil sands lies within the boreal region. The bulk of the oil sands comprise bitumensaturated (bitumen is a black, tar-like substance with a naphthalene base, which characteristically
contains a high percentage of sulphur, nitrogen, and trace metals228 ) Together these deposits are
estimated to contain 600 million cubic metres of bitumen - equivalent to approximately 300 billion
barrels of synthetic crude oil.229
Hydropower generation and water storage
Canada is the world’s largest producer of hydro-generated electricity, diverts more water than any
other country in the world and has built the largest number of dams, with most of these in the boreal
region. 230 As of 1993, the area covered by power generation-related reservoirs in Canada was about
equal to that of Lake Ontario, and new reservoirs covering an area one-half that size again were
planned.231 Many of the drainage basins in the boreal region have been altered, in whole or in part, by
hydroelectric developments (e.g., 85 percent of those in the Boreal Shield Ecozone are affected).232
Probably the best-known and controversial dams in Canada’s boreal region are the La Grande,
Phases I and II (i.e., the Great Whale project) in Québec, the Williston Reservoir (the W.C. Bennett
Dam) on the Peace River in British Columbia, and the Churchill-Nelson in Manitoba.233 There have
been many other controversial dam projects, as well, including the one at Churchill Falls, Labrador.
The rivers impounded by the La Grande on the eastern side of James Bay now form some of the
largest reservoirs in North America – Phase I alone has a total surface area of impounded water of
11,345 square kilometres.234 Some of these dams, such as the Churchill-Nelson, have been proposed
for expansion. The Williston Reservoir, completed in 1968, resulted in the formation of the largest
body of fresh water in British Columbia,235 and NRBS [Northern River Basins Study] studies “confirm
that the dam has a significant impact on the flow patterns, sediment transport, river morphology, ice
formation and habitat along the mainstream Peace River.”236 All of these reservoirs have caused high
mercury, and large methane CO2 fluxes to the atmosphere, as well as the loss of subsistence or
commercial fisheries. 237 Common to all of these large dams is the loss of indigenous people’s
livelihood.238
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Mining
Approximately 80 percent of the mining in Canada is
in the boreal region (Map 6).239 In 1999, mining in
Canada contributes: 2.7 percent of national
employment; 3.7 percent of national GDP [the
contribution of all four stages (mining, smelting and
refining, semi fabricating, and metals fabricating) is
reported to be 3.7 percent of GDP, for a total of $27.7
billion. Primary mineral production contributes $7.5
billion, or 1 percent];240 7.2 percent of national
greenhouse gas emissions; 8 percent of national energy
use; 40 percent of national sulphur dioxide emissions;
and more than 95 percent of national solid waste
generation (650 million tonnes per year, at least 20 percent of which is toxic). Direct employment in
mining was 52,300, including quarrying aggregates such as sand and gravel. This is less than half of
one percent of national employment.
The long-term impacts of mining and the slow recovery rate of the boreal ecosystem couple to make
mining of great concern, particularly considering its prevalence. As a result of more readily accessible
ore reserves having already been depleted, more mines are being developed in more remote locations.
This phenomenon ensures that the mining industry will retain its deserved reputation as a frontierbuster, bringing the roads, power developments and infrastructure with them into the last remaining
remote or semi-remote areas.
In the boreal region, there are approximately 7,000 abandoned mines (Québec = 800; Ontario =
3,000; Manitoba = 30-100; Alberta = 2,000; Yukon = 120; NWT = 37), 80 operating mines, 42
closed and suspended mines, 66 acid generating abandoned mines, and 25 projects that are in
advanced exploration stages or are under development.
Primary metals include lead-zinc (Yukon), gold (Yukon, BC, NWT, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec,
Labrador-Newfoundland), coal (Alberta), copper-zinc (Manitoba, Ontario, Québec), uranium
(Saskatchewan), nickel (Manitoba), platinum group (Ontario), asbestos (Québec), iron ore (Québec,
Labrador-Newfoundland). The Boreal Shield Ecozone alone produces about 75 percent of the total
Canadian production of iron ore, copper, nickel, gold and silver.241 The Boreal Shield Ecozone in
northern Saskatchewan is the largest producer of uranium in the world, accounting for 42 percent of
the world’s uranium production.242
Eighty communities in the boreal shield ecozone supply 75 percent of Canada’s iron, nickel, copper,
gold and silver. But while mines provide employment and purchase goods and services in
communities where they are located, the operations are strongly tied to commodity prices in a cyclical
market. The results are often suspended operations and laid-off workers.243 Populations in mining
communities fluctuate dramatically. For example, Flin Flon, Manitoba lost 26 percent of its
population between 1981 and 1991, Schefferville, Québec lost 85 percent, and Uranium City,
Saskatchewan lost almost its entire population (which dropped from 2500 to less than 100).244
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Tourism and recreation
Tourism is the world’s largest industry; the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that
globally, travel expenditures will increase to U.S. $2.3 trillion by 2010.245 In 2001, tourism spending in
Canada was $54.6 billion; of this, Canadians accounted for 70 percent.246 Tourism economic
information specific to the boreal is not available.
Canadian boreal tourism depends on sustaining the region’s natural capital, as is evidenced in tourism
slogans – from “Discover our true nature” (Canadian Tourism) and “Super Natural BC” (British
Columbia) to “Land of the Living Sky” (Saskatchewan).247
Jurisdictions in Canada’s boreal have room to enormously expand their tourism industries. Tourism
is a fast growing sector internationally, and nature/heritage tourism is the fastest growing component
of the tourism sector worldwide. Ecotourism is the fastest growing sector of the worldwide tourism
market and was expected to double between 1994 and 2005. According to a U.S. travel survey, 8
million U.S. travelers have taken ecotrips, while 35 million more say they are likely to take one over
the next three years. Many of these travelers (27 percent of actual ecotourists and 13 percent of
potential ecotourists) live in the Great Lakes Region. Although the boreal is still a minor player in this
market, it has real potential for growth.
To date, tourism investment in the boreal has been low. For example, in a 2000 report, the Alberta
Economic Development Authority stated that “we can develop new tourism opportunities, attract
visitors from around the world, and sustain Alberta’s position as a thriving, world class tourism
destination. . . . However, a major new tourism destination or international caliber resort facility has
not been developed in the province in the last 25 years and Alberta’s infrastructure of tourism is
aging.”248
A focus on the tourist potential of boreal Canada is one way of bringing the region’s natural capital
assets into bolder relief. However, having suffered through the effects of 9/11, the war in Iraq, and
SARS, Canada’s tourism industry unfortunately seems to be facing more bad news. A sharply
depreciated U.S. dollar against all major currencies including the Canadian dollar will further crimp
foreign travel spending in Canada.249 The speed of recovery and growth of this industry is presently
uncertain.
2 Box 4. Examples of tourism-recreation issues and potentials in the boreal
Alberta
An Alberta study found that outdoor activities account for approximately 50 percent of
respondents’ recreational activities.250 The same study found that 59 percent of Albertans visited
a provincial park in the past year. The tourism data show that parks and protected areas do
generate revenue, that they have economic value in the face of increasing pressure for
development in environmentally sensitive areas. For example, another Alberta study found that
tourism generates revenue for the province that, while not in the leagues of the energy, forestry
and agriculture sectors, is still considerable.251
Ontario252
Tourism makes a significant contribution to Ontario’s economy; it generated $11.5 billion in direct
expenditures in 1994.253 It is the province’s fourth largest export, close behind the wood products
industry. It is even more important in northern resource-based communities, where the
employment generated by tourism often rivals the forestry, mining or manufacturing sectors. In
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1992, visitors spent $14.5 million on Ontario provincial park fees and a total of $299.5 million on
their trips to the parks. Provincial parks in Ontario received 8.4 million visitors in 1993, a 62%
increase from 1981.
Northern Ontario254 — In Northern Ontario hunting and fishing lodges currently employ more
than 15,000 people. Remote fishing and guided-hunting operations rely on remote lakes with no
road access. There are now only 40 roadless areas larger than 200 sq. km left in Northern
Ontario, south of the 50th parallel. Only four areas over 1,000 sq. km. in size exist outside of
parks.
Bruce Peninsula255 — People in the local community have the ability to benefit economically —
particularly if they take the initiative to work together in promoting the region’s natural values
and providing facilities and services that cater to the new clientele. The experience of the Bruce
Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five Marine Park in Ontario is a case in point. Where only
one park-operated campground existed in the 1970s, today there are 6 other privately operated
campgrounds and the facilities are at capacity during high season. With park visitors directly
spending $8 million annually in the region, 90% of the local economy is tourism based. More
than 130,000 people hiked the Bruce Trail from July to November, 1994. Two key reasons were
cited for this success. First, the wide range of available activities, including boat tours, hiking,
guided birdwatching, scuba diving and visiting the islands, encourage multiple-day excursions.
Secondly, Bruce County and parks personnel have collaborated with the private sector to form
the Bruce Peninsula Tourism Association to promote and market the area.
Algonquin — Communities around Algonquin Park have taken advantage of opportunities,
surrounding the park with lodges, outfitters and suppliers. The Muskoka region sees itself as the
gateway to the park. The region is very successful in capturing dollars from tourists en route to
Algonquin.
In addition to attracting park visitors, the scenic quality of the area attracts 88,000 cottagers who
each make an average of 13 trips each year to the region. Tourism brings $300 million into the
area annually and is responsible for half of all jobs in a district population of 35,000.2 The region
has more than 300 hotels, lodges, and bed and breakfasts, and regularly organizes events such
as a cranberry festival and an artists’ studio tour. As well, hiking, biking and snowmobiling trails
have been built through both private and Crown land in the area.
Algoma256 -- The Algoma region has not developed as a tourist destination point to the same
degree as Muskoka and the Bruce Peninsula, even though it has a beautiful and rugged
landscape and several high-quality wilderness areas. Algoma could benefit greatly from the
creation of new protected areas as well as through cooperative tourism ventures and marketing.
A greater emphasis on bringing together tourism attractions in Algoma would help to keep
tourists in the region longer and could increase revenues greatly.
Demand is increasing for natural wilderness experiences in the Algoma region. For example,
passenger numbers on the Algoma Central Railway (ACR) Snow Train in 1996 were up 25% over
the previous year, with more than 13,000 passengers taking the day trip. The ACR’s summer
train to Agawa Canyon, meanwhile, carried more than 80,000 riders, which clearly demonstrates
the attractiveness of the area for tourism. The ACR, however, is considering closing its unique
flag-and-whistle train service that links a number of wilderness lodges along the rail line, which
would be a step back for tourism in the region.
Park visitors are not the only source of economic gains for nearby areas. New “footloose”
industries — businesses not tied to any one geographical area — are also attracted to highquality scenic areas. In the U.S. “footloose” information, engineering and service industries have
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relocated next to parks for years. For example in the Pacific Northwest, where parks were
opposed for many years on the basis of potential resource-industry job losses, growth in jobs and
earnings have been two- to four-times that of the national economy. The attractive natural
environment is especially important in attracting new high-tech businesses that are driving the
economy.
Elliot Lake257
In Elliot Lake, the $60 million per year in lost wages from closed uranium mines has been largely
replaced by $40 million from retirees. It was, in part, the region’s 4,000 undeveloped lakes, miles
of good trails, and high-quality scenery in Mississauga Provincial Park that made the area
attractive to the newcomers.
Industry “hot spots”
Concentrations of industry activity in the boreal over the coming years are likely, as follows:
2 Petroleum exploration and development in the boreal portions of the Western Canada
Sedimentary Basin
2 Logging and associated roading in the southern boreal (Boreal Plains and southern portion of the
Boreal Shield)
2 Agricultural expansion in the southern boreal in the Prairie provinces
2 Hydro developments in Québec, Manitoba and perhaps the Northwest Territories.
2 Mines – both abandoned industrial sites (mines, orphan petroleum sites), and new mines in the
taiga.
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Emerging Issues and Projections
Main issues / regional issues / case study areas
Main issues258
Aboriginal influence
Throughout Canada’s boreal region, Aboriginal peoples may eventually have one of the dominant
decision-making influences. In the allocated portions, conflicts will likely escalate among energy (both
hydro and petroleum), forest company tenure holders and Aboriginal peoples, as many Aboriginal
peoples will view some allocations as having occurred without their consent.
2 Aboriginal peoples have interests in most of Canada’s forested lands, with historic treaties,
2
2
2
2
2
modern-day treaties, ongoing negotiations and other assertions of claim.
Aboriginal peoples have rights to self-government, rights to land, rights to hunt, trap and fish,
customary law, and distinct cultural and religious practices.
Recent court decisions have determined that management activities that curtail traditional
Aboriginal activities (through fragmentation or loss of habitat) impede existing Aboriginal and
treaty rights, and that forestry companies have the obligation to exercise due diligence in order to
ensure that Aboriginal rights are not infringed upon.
Aboriginal communities within forest regions have significantly lower average incomes and
employment rates than Aboriginal communities outside the forest regions. Aboriginal
communities within the commercial forest zone have significantly lower average incomes than
Aboriginal communities within forest regions but outside the commercial forest zone.
Aboriginal organizations (such as the National Aboriginal Forestry Association) are becoming
increasingly active players, with interests in establishing and protecting Aboriginal and Treaty
rights, protecting cultural and traditional places, uses and values, conserving the ecological
integrity of their forests and participating more directly in commercial forestry.
Increasingly First Nations and other Aboriginal peoples are engaging in community forestry and
First Nation-led land use planning.
Alternative economic generators
2 Alternative fibers/recycling are a growing issue. A number of publishers are printing books on
recycled stock, with the most notable recent case being the Canadian edition of the newest Harry
Potter tome. Agricultural wastes offer another potential source of fiber that could reduce logging
pressures.
2 A focus on the tourist potential of boreal Canada is one way of bringing the region’s natural
capital assets into bolder relief. However, 9/11, the war in Iraq, SARS and a sharply depreciating
U.S. dollar may result in Canada’s tourism industry making a slow economic recovery. Advances
in new boreal tourism initiatives may be slow during the next 5-10 years.
2 Ecotourism (responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the
well-being of local people) is the fastest growing sector of a worldwide tourism market which has
been expected to double between 1994 and 2005. According to a United States travel survey, 8
million U.S. travelers have taken ecotrips, while 35 million more say they are likely to take one
over the next three years. Adventure tourism (activity-based with a distinction between hard and
soft adventure tourism: hard adventure tourism introduces tourists to natural outdoor settings,
engages them in a variety of activities in a challenging environment where risk taking is the key
motivation; soft adventure tourism is exciting and is often educational -- discovery, the
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environment, heritage, and indigenous culture are common aspects -- and guided tours are
frequently the medium by which tourists achieve that experience) is also growing in popularity.
2 Increasing the role of value-added industries259 (e.g., production of processed wood products,
such as furniture and cabinetry, using regionally-sourced raw materials) is often cited as an
important mechanism to stabilize the economies of boreal communities.
Certification and market action
Market-driven change through independent certification and/or specific anti-producer market
actions is already having an impact which will likely increase and peak in the next 5-10 years. Leading
players will be large, integrated forest companies. As of 2001, Canada lagged behind other major
competing regions in the certification of softwood lumber products.260
2 Market mobilization campaign organizations focus their campaigning attention on consumers of
boreal forest products and the logging companies that supply the wood and pulp.
2 Forest certification offers companies independent assurance that their forest management and
2
2
2
2
forestry practices meet predetermined criteria. Surveyed forest companies selected ISO 14001 as
the certification vehicle best matched to their companies needs (48 percent), followed by
Canadian Standards Association (17 percent), and with Forest Stewardship Council at 6
percent.261
The Canadian Standard Association system (28.4 million hectares certified in Canada) has strong
requirements for public participation, but has been criticized for its lack of performance
requirements.
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (unknown amount of certified forests in Canada) is an
initiative of the American Forest and Paper Association, and is not accepted by most
conservation groups.
The Forest Stewardship Council (4.2 million hectares certified in Canada) is the only system that
has the strong support from the major conservation groups and Aboriginal groups.
Although certification started out as voluntary initiative, it is quickly becoming the norm, and has
been made a requirement by both the Forest Products Association of Canada for its members as
well as by the government of New Brunswick for license-holders on public land in that province.
Clean-up of polluted sites and pollution-rich industries
2 Some have estimated that more than 50,000 orphaned petroleum sites exist in the Western
Canada Sedimentary Basin. (An orphan in this sense is a well, pipeline, facility, or site left with no
one to clean it up.)
2 There are approximately 7,000 abandoned mines in boreal Canada.
2 Effluents from forest product mills will continue to receive attention, although much progress
has been made since the 1992 regulations.
2 Such cleanups can create job opportunities in local boreal communities.
Climate change
There will likely be numerous and profound changes to boreal Canada as a result of climate warming
along with atmospheric insults such as acid deposition and increased exposure to ultraviolet (UV)
radiation. Although some of the most profound changes in wetland, aquatic and upland boreal
ecosystems will occur beyond the next 5-10 years, others are already well underway.
2 Large unfragmented forests offer crucial opportunities for species to adapt to a changing climate
and migrate into more suitable climatic regions.
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2 Although most boreal carbon is stored in peatlands and lake sediments, trees store carbon in
biomass and release carbon into the atmosphere as a result of logging or natural disturbances.
Where growth exceeds the losses from disturbances (such as a young regenerating forest) the
forest is a net carbon sink. In primary forests being logged for the first time, however, there is a
significant loss of carbon as the average age (and volume) of the forest is reduced.
2 The Kyoto Protocol will require Canada to account for carbon changes (positive and negative)
due to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation. Canada has the option of accounting for all
of the changes in carbon stocks across the entire managed forest. Depending on how decisions
unfold in the coming two years, there could be tradeable offsets for certain forest management
activities, which would create the possibility of a new source of financial resources, flowing from
the energy sector to the forestry sector. Those resources have the potential to help or hinder
forest conservation efforts.
2 Overall, there is an ineffective response to the sufficiently robust current results that conclude
that global warming poses sufficient environmental and economic risks to the boreal, including
increased impacts of diseases, insects, fires, severe weather events and other stressors.
Community-based forestry and decision-making
2 There is a growing interest in community-based forestry, although the term covers a wide range
of degrees of delegation of control, from community input to active community involvement to
community ownership and control. However, existing long-term tenure arrangements with large
integrated (often multi-national) companies, reduce opportunities for community-based forestry.
2 Many governments have experimented only on a limited basis with community-based forestry,
with British Columbia having the most experience.
2 Community-based forestry has the greatest potential for substantial growth, in the next 5-10
years, among First Nations communities in British Columbia, the Kaska Nation in southeastern
Yukon, and the Innu Nation in Labrador.
2 Escalating interest in community-based decision-making will conflict with globalization.
Creative partnerships and alliances
In searching for solutions, partly as a result of companies wanting to increase their market share,
there will likely be many creative partnerships and alliances:
2 The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework was signed in 2003 by some conservation organizations,
First Nations and resource companies and proposes a vision to safeguard Canada’s boreal forests
and wetlands.262
2 Increasing partnerships are likely among Canadian environmental groups and between them and
hemispheric and international conservation organizations.
2 Increasing regional partnerships and coordination between conservation organizations and First
Nations have resulted and will continue to result in significant conservation gains.
2 Some government agencies, such as Natural Resources Canada, industry associations and
companies, will likely increasingly “reach out” to environmental organizations to form
partnerships.
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Energy developments
There will be increasing attention to upstream and
downstream effects of the petroleum and hydro
industries, plus to alternative energy sources and to
energy conservation and more efficient use. Petroleum
(conventional – oil and gas, and non-conventional – oil
sands) and hydro-electricity will place enormous
demands for rapid exploration and developments up to
potentially 25 percent of Canada’s boreal region.
Endangered species and species at risk
Increasing national and hemispheric attention to the weak endangered species laws in Canada will
result in a focus on some boreal species and their habitats, such as widespread but sensitive
woodland caribou and secondarily, on regional charismatic and sensitive species such as grizzly bear.
Such attention will assist in drawing attention to the need to strengthen endangered species
legislation so that it will provide a lever to gain habitat protection for non-charismatic endangered
species that would otherwise be completely forgotten, because of the difficulty of generating highprofile public sympathy for them.
Environmental reviews
2 There are unreasonable exemptions for public environmental reviews of long-term tenure
allocations.
2 There are de facto exemptions when existing laws are not enforced (e.g., Fisheries Act, Migratory
Birds Convention Act).
2 Public individuals and groups will be increasingly interested in citizen audits of industries’
behavior, as a reaction to reduced government oversight (reduced budgets, staff reductions, and
move toward voluntary compliance) and expanding industrial ecological footprints.
2 Citizens and citizen groups will increasingly be looking at international organizations and
agreements (e.g., Commission on Environmental Cooperation).
Forests and forest landscapes of special interest
Old growth forests, endangered forests, intact forests, high conservation value forests (including
non-treed areas within forested boreal ecological regions) will receive increasing attention through
Forest Stewardship Council certifications and markets campaigns. Provincial, territorial and federal
governments will respond to varying degrees. Alberta and British Columbia will likely be the most
intransigent governments to respond, due to intensive boreal forestland uses by the lucrative oil and
gas energy sector.
2 The term “old growth forest” once referred mainly to the ancient coastal rainforests in B.C., but
is now applied more broadly to boreal forests that are old (roughly 18 percent of Canada’s
forests) or to all forests that have never been harvested (70 percent).
2 In recent years there has been growing attention paid to the world’s remaining intact or primary
forests, about a quarter of which are located in Canada’s northern boreal region
2 The terms “endangered forests” or “high conservation value forests” are used to delineate
forests and forest landscapes (including non-treed areas such as wetlands) that meet any of a
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number of criteria, including intactness, habitat for species at risk, critical importance for local
needs, etc.
2 Federal protected areas, existing and proposed, for the boreal will continue to receive special
attention (e.g., national parks, national wildlife areas, migratory bird sanctuaries).
Global trade
Since Canada’s primary resource extraction products sector depends on exports, especially to the
United States, global and particularly hemispheric demand will drive the intensity of resource
extraction operations in Canada, and will tend to drive prices downward in the near future, at least
for wood products. (Domestic factors such as minimum-stumpage salvage logging of trees with
insect epidemics will also continue to flood the international market with cheap wood.) Competition
from plantation forestry in the southeast United States will continue to influence protectionist
interests in the Unites States. Competition from forest plantations in South America (especially
Brazil) and from cheap wood from Russia will have a potentially enormous but-as-yet-unknown
impact in the next 5-10 years.
2 The demands of the United States for boreal Canada’s wood, wood products, and energy will
have an escalating influence on Canada’s boreal. Canadian forest products exports to U.S.
dominate global trade and 80 percent of Canada’s forest product exports go to United States.
Canada supplies one third of the United States consumption of dimensional lumber. Countering
the United States’ increasing demands for cheap wood is its increasing protectionism, as
witnessed in the softwood lumber negotiations.
2 There will be enormous downward pressure on prices due to retailer demands (e.g., Home
Depot, IKEA) for cheaper supplies. Increasing competition is likely from Russia as it is presently
harvesting at most 20 percent of its apparent sustainable annual allowable cut and as it has
relatively lax enforcement of laws. The harvest is likely to double or triple in next 10 years or so.
As well, plantations in Brazil and other more productive regions with better climate are
increasingly producing rapid growing and cheaper trees. The losers will be traditional, higher cost
producers (perhaps in Canada and Europe).
2 There will be enormous demands from the United States for energy (hydro and petroleum).
Focal areas will be non-conventional petroleum sources from Alberta oil sands, conventional
sources from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (focused increasingly along the Mackenzie
River valley), and hydro-electricity from Québec, Manitoba and perhaps the Northwest
Territories.
Government/industry approaches to economic/environmental issues, information and
disclosure
2 Unnecessarily divisive government-sponsored actions that prevent or constrain cooperative
2
2
2
2
problem solving (there are many examples of flawed land use planning exercises) will come
under increasing scrutiny.
There will be expanded opportunities for political leadership to implement progressive land use
plans.
The presumption that the economic benefits of increasing extractive and development activities
necessarily exceed the full accounting costs will be aggressively challenged.
Key information, such as detailed forest inventories (timber and other forest values), will be in
high demand.
Data and information regarding public forestland which is held by governments and companies
will come under increasing pressure to be disclosed at zero to minimal costs, as public rights to
access of information are behind that of some other countries.
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Government progress on addressing boreal issues
In 1999, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry’s Subcommittee on the Boreal Forest
published Competing Realities: The Boreal Forest at Risk.263 The Subcommittee Report contained 35
recommendations intended to ensure that Canada adopt “a natural forest landscape-based approach
to managing a boreal forest that is coming increasingly under siege.”
Governments have initiated a number of strategies and accords:
2 National Forest Strategy Coalition. National Forest Strategy (2003-2008): Sustainable Forests: A
Canadian Commitment (May 2003).
2 Canadian Council of Forest Ministers/National Forest Strategy Coalition. Canada Forest Accord
2003-2008 (May 2003).
2 Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. National Forest Strategy, 1998-2003: Sustainable Forests—A
Canadian Commitment and the Canada Forest Accord (May 1998).
2 Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. Forest 2020: What is it, and where is it going?
The Canadian Boreal Initiative assessed progress toward meeting the recommendations of the Senate
Committee.264 Some progress has been made to promote conservation of the boreal forest region
since the Senate report was tabled in 1999. Governments have made efforts to extend the range of
parks and protected areas in the boreal region, and to improve data collection. The forestry industry
has moved forward on promoting certification of sustainable forestry practices.
However, the Canadian Boreal Initiative concluded that overall, governments have made little
progress in meeting many of the Subcommittee’s recommendations. Of most serious concern is that
governments have taken little action in response to the Senate Subcommittee’s main
recommendation of creating a land-use planning process that would set the conservation of natural
ecosystems as the priority in 80 percent of the boreal region. It is also of strong concern that little
progress has been made to address the committee’s recommendations related to Aboriginal peoples.
In 1998, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development reported that, far too
often, the government was failing to meet the promises made to Canadians and the international
community in environmental matters.265 The Commissioner focused on the United Nations
Framework on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and
reported that Canada will not meet its commitments and has no overall strategy, respectively.
Incentives for resource conservation
Increasing attention will be paid to perverse subsidies (tax-payer funded infrastructure and
research/information support, tax benefits) and inefficient pricing (e.g. stumpage), as subsidies and
inefficient pricing encourage waste and discourage conservation by hiding from consumers the full
costs of resource-intensive activities.
Management of public forests
There will be many key emerging issues regarding government and industry management of public
forestlands, including:
2 Land use planning initiatives, especially in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Yukon, and British
Columbia
2 Tenure allocations and public consultation.
2 First Nations economic benefits agreements
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2 Clearcutting versus partial cutting
2 Non-timber forest values (e.g., conservation/recreation/tourism) as dominant forest land use in
key locations
2 Demands for shift from timber-based to ecosystem-based forest planning and management
2 Removal of the requirement for forest companies to construct mills in exchange for tenure
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
allocations (could be considered abrogation of a social contract)
Demands for full cost accounting for adverse impacts on ecological services and biodiversity
Reduced oversight by federal and provincial agencies
Increasing voluntary audit and compliance of industry by citizen groups
Growth in demands for increasing role of Aboriginal peoples
Slow shift from cutting primary forests to secondary, post-regeneration forests.
Increased attention to southern boreal conversion of softwoods to hardwoods due to reduced
second-cut timelines, fires and pests
Plantations and intensive forest management will be at least locally significant.
Plantations and intensive forest management
There has been increasing interest in using plantations and intensive forest management to reduce
logging pressures in natural forests and/or to compensate for timber lost through protected area setasides. However, some experts believe that Canada’s generally poor soils and harsh climate are not
conducive to plantation forestry on a large scale and that claims of potential yields are often inflated.
Plantation forestry is usually only a concept considered for the allocated forests and has not
commonly been applied to unallocated forests.
2 The Senate Subcommittee on the Boreal Forest recommended a “triad” approach, with 20
2
2
2
2
percent intensively managed, 20 percent protected and 60 percent managed primarily for
biodiversity conservation.
The Canadian Boreal Initiative has called for all forests to be managed under ecosystem-based
plans and harvested with best practices where logging is appropriate.
The federal government is exploring an initiative called “Forest 2020,” which would promote the
establishment of fast-growing plantations on marginal or abandoned farmlands, which may
largely be outside the boreal region. Alberta Pacific Forest Industries is investigating a significant
move toward plantation forestry of hardwoods on marginal farmland in Alberta’s southern
boreal.
There is an interest in plantations from agencies interested in buying or selling carbon credits
that may arise under the Kyoto Protocol for afforestation efforts.
Plantations are likely to continue to be viewed critically by conservation groups, with some
opposed in principle, and others whose acceptance will depend on the prior land use, the
practices employed and the use to which the fiber is put. Some plantation systems will not be
certifiable under some certification schemes.
Protected areas
The demand for large protected areas to serve as benchmarks and to contain the ranges of wideranging, sensitive species, will be achievable in the northern, un-allocated boreal and will be highly
challenging throughout the southern boreal, where long term, often multi-layered tenures have
already been allocated.
2 World Wildlife Fund Canada’s current assessment shows that of the 437 forested natural regions
in Canada only 5 percent are adequately represented in protected areas, 19 percent are
moderately represented, 41 percent are partially represented and 35 percent are not represented.
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2 In 2003 there was significant federal progress (with commitment to establish new and expanded
2
2
2
2
2
national parks) as well as progress in some provinces (especially Québec). However, many of
these are still “paper” commitments.
Increasing attention is being paid to broad-scale conservation area design and giving
consideration to a variety of protection, mitigation and restoration measures across the entire
landscape, including core protected areas, buffer zones, special management areas and
connectivity corridors.
There is widespread inadequate investment in parks and protected areas, at provincial and
national levels for assessment, legislation, and management.
All terrain vehicles will increasingly be an issue in parks and protected areas.
Demands for “fire-proofing” the forest will result in political pressure to log protected areas.
The petroleum and mining industries will continue to strongly advocate for access into protected
areas.
Examples of emerging conservation hot spots are:
2 Newfoundland and Labrador – northern peninsula; Mealy Mountains
2 Québec – allocated (tenured) forest region
2 Ontario – “Heart of the Boreal” north of the allocated forest (51o north); intact areas along the
northern edge of allocated forest.
2 Manitoba – east side of Lake Winnipeg to Ontario border, Manitoba Lowlands.
2 Saskatchewan – Black Bear Island Lake (Churchill River), Foster Lakes, Fond du Lac River
2 Alberta – Chinchaga, Athabasca Heartland, Lakeland
2 British Columbia – Muskwa-Kechika Management Area
2 Yukon – southeast Yukon; creating new national park in Natural Region 7 (Northern Cassiar
Mountains); Peel River watershed (Wind, Snake, and Bonnet Plume Rivers).
2 Northwest Territories – Mackenzie River valley, Nahanni.
Regional issues
Newfoundland and Labrador
2 Large forest tenures expire in 2005 and 2010. A wood shortage on the Island makes conservation
difficult to achieve; the Premier has promised to keep the mills supplied with wood.
2 Increasing attention will be paid on conserving old growth boreal forests on the Great Northern
Peninsula.
2 A partnership between the provincial government and the Innu Nation has resulted in a genuine
ecosystem-based forest management plan in Labrador.
Québec
2 In response to the huge impact of the scathing documentary film L’Erreur Boreale, Québec’s
auditor general issued a similarly scathing review of forestry practices.
2 An independent Forestry Commission will hold public hearings and make recommendations to
government in 2004.
2 Planned and potential hydro projects (Rupert River diversion, reviving Great Whale) would likely
have enormous negative conservation impacts.
2 Recent progress on protected areas identification and establishment.
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Ontario
2 The “Northern Boreal Initiative” will expand logging north of the existing frontier if First
Nation communities agree.
2 The Ontario Forest Accord’s “Room to Grow” agreement delineates a compromise agreement
with ensures that subsequent increases in wood supply will be shared between industry growth
and establishment of protected areas in the existing forestry tenure areas.
2 The recent Timber Environmental Assessment ruling fails to develop an old growth policy,
removes requirements for government to develop access management plans, and removes upper
limits on clearcuts.
2 Increasing conflict between Aboriginal peoples First Nations, and logging companies and
government on traditional territories (e.g., Grassy Narrows).
Manitoba
2 Planning is currently underway to develop the east side of Lake Winnipeg with new roads, hydro
projects, mills and logging leases.
2 Additional proposed hydro developments.
Saskatchewan
2 Government plans to double the level of forestry activity.
2 Significant problem of under -stocked and poorly regenerated forests due to past logging
practices.
2 Three land-use planning processes underway, showing varying degrees of promise.
Alberta
2 Serious forest fragmentation due to oil and gas exploration and development. The provincial
government is reluctant to constrain the petroleum industries’ activities due to lucrative revenues.
2 Exponential growth in logging rates over the last few decades.
2 Overlapping quotas and other tenures for forestry companies make it hard for private sector
innovation to be effective without government cooperation.
British Columbia
2 Results Based Code shifts monitoring to forest companies; moves away from prescriptive
measures in previous Code.
2 Government proposing logging in parks, including boreal parks, ostensibly to control mountain
pine beetle in southern portion of province and to “fire-proof” the forest.
2 Good models for government-led planning processes (Muskwa- Kechika) as well as marketbased ones (Great Bear Rainforest).
2 British Columbia’s boreal region, especially in the Boreal Plains Ecozone, is under intensive and
escalating logging and petroleum developments and has received little attention for conservation,
in comparison with the Pacific Coast and Montane Cordillera ecozones.
Yukon
2 Forest policy is under development, with a focus on smaller-scale approaches and local/FN
economic benefits from logging.
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2 Government MOU with the Kaska First Nation calls for the development of an ecosystem-
based management plan for 110,000 square kilometres.
2 Development of a new Environmental Assessment policy that encompasses socio-economic
assessment.
2 Cancellation of the territorial protected areas strategy. No formal context for integrated
protected areas planning.
Northwest Territories
2 The Mackenzie Valley pipeline promises to be a divisive issue, with some First Nations
supporting it as part of a comprehensive agreement, some conservation groups supporting it in
exchange for conservation commitments and others opposing the pipeline because of its role in
oil sands developments and detrimental effects on local cultures.
Nunavut
2 Few forests and virtually no forestry in Nunavut.
2 Wildlife Act currently in development.
Case study areas
The following section briefly examines three case study areas – the Alberta Pacific FMA area, the
Abitibi-Consolidated Iroquois Falls area, and the Muskwa-Kechika Management area – in relation to
general information on major economic drivers, tourism issues/potentials, and amount of remaining
large intact forest landscapes.
Alberta Pacific FMA Area
This case study area focuses on Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, the oil and gas (especially oil sands),
and tourism in the Alberta Pacific FMA area.
This study area in northeastern Alberta is focused on the 59,000 square kilometre Forest
Management Agreement Area (FMA) (Map 7a) and the pulp mill in Boyle, Alberta.266 AlbertaPacific’s mill is North America’s largest single line kraft pulp mill. It is budgeted to produce 560,000
air-dried metric tonnes (ADt) of kraft pulp per year, 90 percent of which is hardwood and 10 percent
of which is softwood. The FMA area is heavily impacted by logging, conventional oil and gas
exploration and development and non-conventional (oil sands) petroleum exploration and
development (Map 7a shows the distribution of energy wellsites in the larger region). Within the
FMA, there are over 112,000 kilometres of linear disturbances (roads, pipelines, seismic lines,
railroads and powerlines), and over 155,000 hectares covered by these and other land uses (wellsites,
settlemenets)267 (Maps 7b, 7c and 7d). Very little of the FMA area consists of large intact forest
landscapes (Map 7a).
Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Inc. provides more than 1,000 jobs directly and through contracts,
and contributes nearly $200 million annually to the regional economy. 268 In 1999, the company’s
$191 million expenditures in Alberta included $39 million in salaries and benefits, $5 million in
property taxes, $4 million in road and bridge maintenance, and $40 million for contracting and locally
purchased supplies and equipment.
Alberta’s oil sands comprise one of the world’s two largest sources of bitumen; the other is in
Venezuela. Oil sands are found in three places in Alberta – the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold
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Lake regions – and cover a total of nearly 141,000 square kilometres. Oil sands currently represent 40
percent of Alberta’s total oil production, and about one-third of all the oil produced in Canada. By
2005, oil sands production is expected to represent 50 percent of Canada’s total crude oil output, and
10 percent of North American crude oil production. Much of the oil sands is within or adjacent to
Alberta Pacific’s FMA area. Bitumen makes up about 10-12 percent of the actual oil sands found in
Alberta. The remainder is 80-85 percent mineral matter – including sand and clays – and 4-6 percent
water. While conventional crude oil flows naturally or is pumped from the ground, oil sands must be
mined or recovered in situ – meaning “in place.” Oil sands recovery processes include extraction and
separation systems to remove the bitumen from sand and water.
Some statistics:
2 1.6 trillion barrels of oil sands are in place, 311 billion barrels of which are ultimately recoverable;
2 Present production is 740,000 barrels per day;
2 In the 2001-02 fiscal year, royalties amounted to $185 million; and
2 Employment (total oil and gas) is 66,000.
Although tourism figures specifically for the Alberta Pacific case study area are not available, a study
for northern Alberta concluded that 1.5 million person visits were made to destinations within
northern Alberta by Albertans, other Canadians and visitors from the U.S. and overseas.269 The trips
included day trips and overnight trips. Tourism generated $251 million in consumer spending in the
region during the one-year period. Alberta North received 7 percent of the total person visits to
Alberta. The region was responsible for 5.7 percent of Alberta’s total tourism revenues. The majority
(97 percent) of the 1,468,000 person visits in Alberta North were made by Canadians. Most (82
percent) of these person trips were made by Albertans, while BC visitors accounted for 15 percent.
This area will undergo enormous environmental challenges in the next few decades due to the multilayered resource extraction tenures and the intensive activity that will be required to develop the
infrastructure to support the various industrial sectors.
Abitibi-Consolidated Iroquois Falls Area
This case study area focuses on Abitibi-Consolidated tenures and mills, the mining sector, and
tourism in the Abitibi-Consolidated Iroquois Falls area (Map 8a).
Abitibi-Consolidated in the Iroquois Falls and Nighthawk Forests area, which extend from the
Québec border in the east to the north, south and west of Cochrane and Timmins (Ontario), covers
approximately 1.6 million hectares of Crown land (Map 8a). 270 The Abitibi-Consolidated mill in
Iroquois Falls is the largest consumer of forest products in the area and consists of two groundwood
pulp paper machines (newsprint and specialty paper) that produce approximately 300 million tonnes
of newsprint and specialty papers. Abitibi employs approximately 1,000 people in the Iroquois Falls
area (500 in the mill).271
Mining is an important industry in the general area (Map8b). There are several mines that produce
gold, silver, lead, cadmium, selenium, zinc, and indium.
Tourism plays an important role in the regional economy. There are a total of 47 commercial outpost
camps on the Abitibi forestland area, of which 32 are remote (fly-in). There are 4 Provincial Parks
within or adjacent to the area that plays a role in tourism: Kettle Lakes, Esker Lakes, Little Abitibi
and Abitibi-deTroys Provincial Parks. Bear hunting is another important non-industrial use of the
forest, with 27 bear outfitters operating on specified Bear Management Areas (BMAs) in the forest.
Other uses of the forest include trapping and baitfish harvesting. Trapping is conducted on 72 active
traplines.
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There are remaining substantial areas of large intact forest landscapes both within and adjacent to this
area. Properly managed, the area could remain viable for a variety of economic sectors and ecological
and wilderness protection.
Muskwa-Kechika Management Area
This case study area focuses on the Muskwa-Kechika management area, the mining sector, and
tourism in this area.
The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area encompasses an area of approximately 4.45 million hectares
of Crown land in British Columbia where extensive boreal plains and muskeg of the east meet the
Rocky Mountains of the west (Map 9). It is one of the few remaining large, intact and almost
unroaded wilderness areas south of the 60th parallel in Canada.
The management intent for the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area is to ensure wilderness
characteristics, and wildlife and its habitat are maintained over time while allowing resource
development and use, including recreation, timber harvesting, mineral exploration and mining, and
oil and gas exploration and development. The integration of management activities especially related
to the planning, development and management of road accesses within the Muskwa-Kechika
Management Area is central to achieving this intent. The long-term objective is to return lands to
their natural state, as much as possible, as development activities are completed.
Timber resources in the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area are relatively limited. The majority of
the timber harvesting land base for the Fort Nelson, Peace, and Mackenzie forest districts exists
outside of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area.
In the general area in which Muskwa-Kechika is located, i.e., the Fort Nelson Land and Resource
Management Plan area, the petroleum reserves are provincially significant. As of 1994, an estimated
1500 persons in the planning area were employed in the oil and gas sector, likely in mainly seasonal
occupations. Since most of these individuals do not reside in the area, it is estimated that 250-450
area residents are employed in the energy sector on a relatively permanent basis, accounting for 10-20
percent of the local economy. The Census also indicates that there are almost 100 local gas
processing jobs, and given the high amount of oil/gas activity in the mid-1990s, there may now exist
up to about 350 local full-time and seasonal jobs in natural gas exploration/extraction.
In the general planning area, there are no major metal mines operating, or seeking approvals through
the Environmental Assessment process. Most of this sector’s current activity involves exploration
projects; there are a number of promising indications of potential for new mines at some point in the
future, even though the area is relatively unexplored. Current employment is estimated at some 25-30
Fort Nelson residents directly or indirectly employed in this sector (about 1 percent of local
employment).
The general region is experiencing growth in commercial tourism and general public outdoor
recreation.272 The planning area also offers nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation experiences
with significant longer term potential. It is this “backcountry” component that is quite dependent on
relatively pristine environmental resources to attract visitors, and therefore is the portion of the
sector that is most sensitive to changes in Crown land use. The industry can therefore be divided into
two main categories: “front-country” (i.e., highway/community) tourism and “back-country” (i.e.,
nature-based) tourism, which collectively drive from 5 percent to 15 percent of the local economy.
The front-country component accounts for the majority of the area’s 250-300 tourism jobs, and
much of this activity is currently dependent on accommodation, food, etc. expenditures made by
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
workers in the resource industries. The back-country portion consists mainly of the guide-outfitters,
who are responsible for an estimated 47 “person years” of employment, but due to the seasonal
nature of the work, there are actually about 180 individuals who work at least part of the year in this
sector. The Fort Nelson LRMP should offer greater certainty to the area’s guiding industry for at
least the foreseeable future, since 8 of the area’s 15 guide-outfitting territories at least partially overlap
protected areas, within which this activity is an allowable use subject to permit. In addition, several
other territories guide outfitting territories overlay in the Muskwa-Kechika Special Management
Category of Resource Management Zones. While the outlook is therefore reasonably optimistic,
future growth in backcountry tourism could be constrained in the long term due to expanding timber
harvesting and petroleum/mineral activities into currently unaccessed areas.
The area contains very substantial amounts of large intact forest landscapes and the regions to the
west and north also are comprised mostly of large intact forest landscapes.
Landsat 7 Satellite Image of the Swan Hills area in Alberta, 2000. The colours
represent the following: Pink - large irregular areas are recent fires; small
blocks are recent clearcuts. Dark Green - coniferous forest. Light green - large
irregular area is and older fire area; other irregular areas are deciduous
forests; small blocks are young forest (i.e., older clearcuts). The yellow line
represents a potential intact forest landscape.
What will the boreal ecosystem generally look like in the next 5-10
years?
Climate change “trumps all”
There will likely be many and profound changes to Canada’s boreal region as a result of climate
warming, along with atmospheric insults such as acid deposition and increased exposure to ultraviolet
(UV) radiation. Some of these changes, although perhaps beyond the next 5-10 years, include:
2 temperature increases greater than the world average;
2 shift from a carbon sink to a global carbon source;
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2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
release of vast amounts of carbon from oxidization of peat lands;
reduction of the area of the boreal region;
northward shift of the boreal region;
large increases in biological activity;
increases in timber supply in some areas but overall decreases due to increased fires and insect
outbreaks and a decrease in the extent of the boreal region;
likely declines in older-aged forests as the fire cycle intensifies;
hydrological changes and reduction of total area of wetlands;
increase in warm water aquatic species;
shrinkage of permafrost extent;
expansions of exotic and invasive species; and,
species extirpations and perhaps extinctions.
Increased fragmentation
2 Exploration and development of petroleum resources;
2 Roading due to expansion of logging.
Forest conversion
2 Cutting timeline reduced for second cut and resulting decline of old growth;
2 Shift from softwoods to hardwoods, and from treed to non-treed areas due to regeneration
challenges and fires.
Fisheries declines
2 Increased access;
2 Conversion of some southern boreal lakes from cold water species to warm water species.
Sensitive wildlife species declines and local extirpations
2 Woodland caribou throughout its southern range, especially in Alberta;
2 Grizzly bear, especially in Alberta;
2 Wood warblers (Connecticut Warblers, Rusty Blackbirds and Canada Warblers), especially in the
Prairie Provinces;
2 Ducks (Canvasback, White-winged scoter, Lesser scaup), in western boreal region;
2 Newfoundland marten;
2 Amphibians, throughout the range.
Protected areas
2 Significant new protected areas, especially in the taiga ecozones and those boreal ecozones that
are north of the commercial forest zone.
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What are the likely directions of industrial activity in the boreal in the
next 5-10 years?
2 Hydro expansion in eastern boreal Canada (especially Québec) and perhaps in central (Manitoba)
northern boreal Canada (North West Territories)
2 Oil and gas expansion in Mackenzie Valley and further fragmentation in Alberta, northeastern
2
2
2
2
British Columbia, portions of Saskatchewan, and southeast and northern Yukon.
Continued agricultural clearing along southern boreal fringe, especially in the Prairie Provinces.
Possibility of significant agriculture expansion in the boreal in Alberta and British Columbia.
Intensive logging of remaining areas of mature timber within the southern commercial forest
zone.
New logging areas opened up in northern boreal regions.
Potential for new mines in the Boreal and Taiga Shield, especially in Québec, Ontario, Manitoba
and Yukon. New diamond mines are also a potential.
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Solution Themes
The themes that will likely drive solutions toward
greater environmental and economic integration
in boreal Canada include:
Emerging Aboriginal leadership
2 Implementing First Nation-led land use
planning; increased realization of resource
entitlements; and legal actions.
Market paradigm shifts
2 Taking actions to elevate national and international awareness of the boreal – These will include:
market actions and forest certification, and; a focus on boreal characteristics that have national
and international “resonance,” such as birds, woodland caribou, carbon storage, fresh water and
wilderness.
Emerging economies
2 Finding alternative economic generators – Incentives and removal of disincentives for tourism;
use of alternative fibers and forest products; promoting education/research economies;
2 Improving energy policy and markets – Transition to hydrogen and renewables; more aggressive
responses to climate change; widespread implementation of carbon trading.
Government leadership
2 Implementing provincial government-led integrated land use planning; protected areas planning
initiatives; planning for the desired future forest condition.
2 Committing to substantial boreal protected areas establishment by provincial and federal
governments.
2 Improving information and availability of data – Timber and habitat inventories; monitoring of
forest changes; cumulative impact research; company operations; product flows.
2 Improving forest policy and legislation – Enforcement of existing legislation such as the
Fisheries Act; requirements to conduct environmental reviews of logging operations in relation
to tenure allocation on Crown land; creating incentives and removing disincentives for
certification; implementation of cumulative impact management as a legislative/policy
requirement.
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Review Process
A key principle of Global Forest Watch Canada is that transparency and accountability are essential
for developing improved forest management. In the interest of promoting open, public, and
transparent information policies, Global Forest Watch Canada products include a review process and
publication of a summary of the major comments provided by the reviewers, including how these
comments were addressed.
The information compiled during the course of this paper underwent a review process involving
Global Forest Watch Canada and external reviewers. The project consisted of extensive literature
review of the ecology and economic use of boreal Canada, most of which was completed for an
earlier draft of the paper, plus an analysis of the emerging issues and a viewpoint on future
projections and solution themes.
Fifteen people, consisting of 7 biologists/ecologists from academia, 3 consulting
biologists/ecologists, 2 biologists/ecologists from conservation organizations, 2 conservationists, and
1 student reviewed the ecology and economic use portion of this paper. These earlier review
comments were focused on content issues related mainly to the ecology of the boreal. As well, basic
editorial comments were made. Changes were made to the earlier draft paper as a result of these
comments.
Ten people, from the conservation community, were invited to review the sections on emerging
issues, future projections and solution themes. Six people responded. Comments included the
provision of new information related to regional and main emerging issues and corrections to the
existing information, the need to emphasize the importance of land-use planning, cumulative effects
research, the and implementation of cumulative effects planning and management. These comments
were incorporated into the revised document.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map Section
Map
Map 1.
Map 2.
Map 3.
Map 4.
Map 5.
Map 6.
Map 7a.
Map 7b.
Map 7c.
Map 7d.
Map 8a.
Map 8b.
Map 9.
Title
Large intact forest landscapes in boreal Canada
Development Status of Boreal Watersheds
Forest Fires 1980-1997
Forest Change 1990-2000, Boreal Plains Ecozone
Forest Tenures
Mines and Petroleum Activity in boreal Canada
(Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Energy subsurface dispositions for
oil/gas, oilsands and coal within the AlPac FMA
(Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) AlPac FMA in the context of Alberta’s
oil and gas wells and large intact forest landscapes
(Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Landsat satellite image of oil sands
mining operations north of Fort McMurray
(Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Landsat satellite image of recent
clearcuts, recent fire scars, major roads, seismic/pipelines, wellsites
(Abitibi-Consolidated [AC] Iroquois Falls Case Study Area.) Tenures and mills
(Abitibi-Consolidated [AC] Iroquois Falls Case Study Area.) Tenures and mines
Muskwa-Kechika Case Study Area
51
Page
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 7a. (Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Energy subsurface dispositions for oil/gas, oilsands
and coal within the AlPac FMA.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 7b. (Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) AlPac FMA (red lines) in the context of Alberta’s
oil and gas wells (pink dots) and large intact forest landscapes (green).
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 7c. (Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Landsat satellite image of oil sands mining
operations north of Fort McMurray.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 7d. (Alberta Pacific FMA Case Study Area.) Landsat satellite image of recent clearcuts (white
rectangles), recent fire scars (pink), major roads (thick white lines), seismic/pipelines (thin white
lines), wellsites (small white rectangles).
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 8a. (Abitibi-Consolidated [AC] Iroquois Falls Case Study Area.) Tenures and mills. AC forest
tenures are outlined in red, AC pulp/paper mills are yellow dots, AC sawmills are black triangles, and
all other forest product mills are pink triangles.
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Map 8b. (Abitibi-Consolidated [AC] Iroquois Falls Case Study Area.) Tenures and mines. AC forest
tenures are outlined in red, and mines are pink stars.
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Map 9. Muskwa-Kechika Case Study Area.
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Notes and References
1
Lee, P, D Akesenov, L Laestadius, R Noguerón, W Smith 2003. Canada’s large intact forest landscapes.
Global Forest Watch Canada.Edmonton, Alberta. 84 pp. AND
Aksenov, D and 10 other authors. 2002. Atlas of Russia’s Intact Forest Landscapes. Moscow. 185 pp.
2
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island do not have true boreal forest. See: Ward, P.C., and W. Mawdsley.
2000. Fire management in the boreal forests of Canada. Pp. 66-84. (In: Fire, Climate Change, and Carbon
Cycling in the Boreal Forest. Ed. E.S. Kasischke, and B.J. Stocks. Springer, New York. 461 pp.)
AND Rowe, J.S. 1972, Forest Regions of Canada. Department of the Environment. Canadian Forestry Service.
Publication No. 1300.
3
Acharya, A. 1995. Plundering the Boreal Forests. World Watch, 8, no. 3, 20-29.
4
Closed forests are all lands with a forest cover of trees with their crowns interlocking and a canopy density of
40 percent or above. The boundary of 40 percent coverage is convenient because it can be estimated with ease
when the coverage of trees is 40 percent the distance between two tree crowns equaling the mean radius of a
tree crown. AND
United Nations Environment Program. 2001. An assessment of the status of the world’s remaining closed
forests. By: Singh, A., H. Shi, Z. Zhu, and T. Foresman. UNEP/DEWA/TR 01-2. Available at: (February
2004).
5
Bonan, G.B., F.S. Chapin, III and S.L. Thompson.1995. Boreal forest and tundra ecosystems as components
of the climate system. Climatic Change 29: 145-167.
6
Acharya, A. , 1995. Plundering the Boreal Forests. World Watch, 8, no. 3, 20-29.
7
Canada’s Boreal Initiative. 2003. Aout Canada’s Boreal.
Available at: http://www.borealcanada.ca/about_boreal_e.cfm (February 2004).
8
Lee, P, D Akesenov, L Laestadius, R Noguerón, W Smith 2003. Canada’s large intact forest landscapes.
Global Forest Watch Canada.Edmonton, Alberta. 84 pp.
9
Elliott-Fisk, D. L., 1988. The Boreal Forest. Pp. 33-62, in: Barbour, M.G., and Billings, W.D. (editors),
North American Terrestrial Vegetation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 434 pp.
10
Despite finer levels of classification, it is important to recognize the basic distinction between the boreal and
taiga ecozones as the boreal ecozones have experienced the greatest human impact, and possesses the highest
biodiversity (e.g., tree species, bird species, plant species). However, certain species, such as woodland caribou,
are more abundant in the taiga vs. boreal.
11
Johnson, D., Kershaw, L., MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., Goward, T., and Vitt, D.,1995. Plants of the Western
Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, AB., 392 pp.
12
This figure includes the Forest regions ‘Boreal-predominantly forest’ and ‘Boreal-forest and barren’ as listed
on the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers “Compendium of Forestry Statistics,” Available at:
http://nfdp.ccfm.org/framesinv_e.htm. Also referenced in: Smith, Wynet, and Peter Lee, eds. Canada’s
Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000. World Resources Institute and Global Forest Watch
Canada. http://www.globalforestwatch.org/ (February 2004).
13
Bonan, G.B., and Shugart, H.H., 1989. Environmental factors and ecological processes in boreal forests.
Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 20, 1-28. Page 21.
14
Disturbance in forest ecosystems is defined as “any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystems,
community or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment.”
AND
White, P.S., and S.T.A. Pickett. 1985. Natural disturbance and patch dynamics. In: The Ecology of Natural
Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Edited by S.T.A. Pickett and P.S. White. Academic Press. San Diego. Pp. 313.
15
Bonan, G.B., and Shugart, H.H., 1989. Environmental factors and ecological processes in boreal forests.
Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 20, 1-28. Page 21.
16
Elliott-Fisk, D. L., 1988. The Boreal Forest. Pp. 33-62, in: Barbour, M.G., and Billings, W.D. (editors),
North American Terrestrial Vegetation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 434 pp.
62
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Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
17
Rowe, J.S. 1972, Forest Regions of Canada. Department of the Environment. Canadian Forestry Service.
Publication No. 1300.
18
Johnson, D., Kershaw, L., MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., Goward, T., and Vitt, D.,1995. Plants of the Western
Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, AB., 392 pp.
19
National Wetlands Working Group – Canada Committee on Ecological Land Classification. 1988. Wetlands
of Canada. Sustainable Development Branch, Canadian Wildlife Service, Conservation and Protection,
Environment Canada. Ecological Land Classification Series, No. 24. 452 p.
20
Kevin Timoney. 2001. pers. Comm.
21
Gorham, E. 1990. Biotic impoverishment in northern peatlands. In: The earth in transition: patterns and
processes of biotic impoverishment. Edited by G.M. Woodell. Cambridge University Press, New York. Pp. 6598.
22
Riparius, a Latin word meaning “belonging to the bank of a river,” refers to biotic communities living on the
shores of streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and some wetlands. AND
Naiman, R.J., R.E. Bilby, and P.A. Bisson. 2000. Riparian ecology and management in the Pacific Coastal Rain
Forest. BioScience 50 (11): 996-1011.
23
Naiman, R.J., R.E. Bilby, and P.A. Bisson. 2000. Riparian ecology and management in the Pacific Coastal
Rain Forest. BioScience 50 (11): 996-1011.
24
Schindler, D.W. 1998. Sustaining aquatic ecosystems in Boreal Regions. Conservation Ecology 2 (2): 18.
Available at: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol2/iss2/index.html (February 2004).
25
Environment Canada. 2000. Terrestrial Ecozones of Canada. Available at: http://www.ec.gc.ca/soerree/English/vignettes/Terrestrial/terr.cfm. Last updated: 05/22/01. (February 2004)
26
Johnston, C. A., J. Pastor, and R. J. Naiman. 1993. Effects of beaver and moose on boreal forest
landscapes. In: Landscape Ecology and Geographic Information Systems. Edited by R. Haines-Young, D. R.
Green, and S. Cousins. Taylor and Francis, London and New York. Pp. 237 – 254. AND
Ford, T. E. and R. J. Naiman. 1988. Alteration of carbon cycling by beaver: methane emission rates from
boreal forest streams and rivers. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66: 529 – 533. AND
Woo, M. K. and J. M. Waddington. 1990. Effects of beaver dams on subarctic wetland hydrology. Arctic
43(3): 223 – 230. AND
Johnston, C. A., J. Pastor, and R. J. Naiman. 1993. Effects of beaver and moose on boreal forest landscapes.
In: Landscape Ecology and Geographic Information Systems. Edited by R. Haines-Young, D. R. Green, and S.
Cousins. Taylor and Francis, London and New York. Pp. 237 – 254. AND
Rempel, R. S., K. F. Abraham, C. A. Adamopolous, P. K. Ross, T. R. Gadawski, S. Gabor, and W. R. Watt.
1992. Preliminary report on associations between waterfowl habitat and population parameters in the Greater
Clay Belt of Ontario. Unpublished report for Ducks Unlimited Canada. 29 pp. AND
Sturtevant, B. R.. 1998. A model of wetland vegetation dynamics in simulated beaver impoundments.
Ecological Modelling 112: 195 – 225 AND Butler, D. R. and G. P. Malanson. 1995. Sedimentation rates and
patterns in beaver ponds in a mountain environment. Geomorphology 13: 255 – 269. AND
Mitchell, C. C. and W. A. Niering. 1993. Vegetation change in a topogenic bog following beaver flooding.
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 120(2): 136 – 147. AND
Gabor, T. S., H. R. Murkin, J. W. Ingram, R. T. Clay, and R. F. Maher. 1999. Beaver pond management
assessment program (1993 – 1997): Final report. Unpublished report. Ducks Unlimited Canada, Oak
Hammock Marsh, MB. 76 pp. AND
Naiman, R.J., Melillo, J.M., and Hobbie, J.E., 1986. Ecosystem alteration of Boreal Forest streams by Beaver
(Castor canadensis). Ecology 67, no. 5, 1254-1269. AND
Naiman, R.J., Pinay, G., Johnston, C.A., and Pastor, J., 1994. Beaver influences on the long-term
biogeochemical characteristics of Boreal Forest drainage networks. Ecology 75(4): 905-921. AND
France, R.L. 1997. The importance of beaver lodges in structuring littoral communities in boreal headwater
lakes. Canadian Journal of Zoology 75(7): 1009 – 1013. AND
Nummi, P. 1992. The importance of beaver ponds to waterfowl broods: an experiment and natural tests.
Annales Zoologici Fennici 29: 47 – 55. AND
Snodgrass, J. W. and G. K. Meffe. 1998. Influence of beaver on stream fish assemblages. Ecology 79(3): 928
– 942. AND
Schlosser, I. J. and L. W. Kallemeyn. Spatial variation in fish assemblages across a beaver influenced
successional landscape. Ecology 81(5): 1371 – 1382. AND
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Clark, W. R. 1994. Habitat selection by muskrats in experimental marshes undergoing succession. Canadian
Journal of Zoology 72: 675 – 680. AND
Gabor, T. S., H. R. Murkin, J. W. Ingram, R. T. Clay, and R. F. Maher. 1999. Beaver pond management
assessment program (1993 – 1997): Final report. Unpublished report. Ducks Unlimited Canada, Oak
Hammock Marsh, MB. 76 pp. AND
Mauser, D. M., R. L. Jarvis, and D. S. Gilmer. 1994. Survival of radio-marked mallard ducklings in
northeastern California. Journal of Wildlife Management 58: 82 – 87. AND
Monda, M. J. and J. T. Ratti. 1988. Niche overlap and habitat use by sympatric duck broods in eastern
Washington. Journal of Wildlife Management 52: 95 – 103.
27
Pojar, J., 1996. Environment and biogeography of the western Boreal Forest. The Forestry Chronicle, 72,
no.1, 51-58.
28
Hanski, Ilkka. 1995. Biodiversity in boreal forests. TREE Vol. 10 No. 1. p 5-6.
29
Boyle, T.J.B. Biodiversity of Canadian forests: current status and future challenges. The Forestry Chronicle
68 (4): 444-453.
30
Schindler, D.W. 1990. In G. Woodwell, editor. The Earth in transition: patterns and processes of biotic
impoverishment. Cambridge University Presds, Cambridge, UK.
31
Puntilla, P., J. Siitonen, P. Lindstrom, and M. Sallinen. 2001. Extinction of saproxylic beetles in protected
old-growth forests: surrounding landscape matters. Page 29 in K.-M. Vuori and J. Kouki, editors. International
conference: ecosystem management in boreal forest landscapes. Koli National Park, Finland, May 27-30, 2001.
North Karelia Regional Environment Center, Joensuu, Finland.
32
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33
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As of March 2001, a total of 634 bird species has been reliably recorded in Canada. Of these, 456 are
‘regular,’ while the remaining 178 are classified as ‘vagrants’ and are not considered further in this paper.
Approximately 430 species breed within Canada every year but 10 of these are non-native. The extant avifauna
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38
Passage visitors pass through/over the Boreal en route to their nesting grounds further north. Summer
Visitors come to the Boreal in order to breed. These categories are not as clearcut as they may seem. For
instance, northern shrike (and bohemian waxwing) has been counted as a “resident,” although in different
64
Global Forest Watch Canada
Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
portions of the Boreal Forest it occurs primarily as either a winter visitor, a passage visitor or a summer visitor.
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Global Forest Watch Canada
Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
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Ibid.
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Kurtz, W.A. and M.J. Apps. 1995. An analysis of future carbon budgets of Canadian boreal forests. Water,
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Smith, Wynet, and Peter Lee, eds. Canada’s Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000. World
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204
Accessed forests are forests that are within one kilomter of a known access corridor. Access corridors are
include roads, railines, trails, railways, pipelines, hydroelectric and telephone transmission lines, seismic lines,
and known motorized backcountry routes. 61,423,000 hectares or 31 percent of the southern boreal has been
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Acharya, A, 1995. Plundering the Boreal Forests. World Watch, 8, no. 3, 20-29.
208
Smith, Wynet, and Peter Lee, eds. Canada’s Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000. World
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209
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Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. 2001. National Forestry database Program: Silvaculture. Table 6.2.
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Herb Hammond. 2001. “Statistics from provinces that classify some logging as “not clearcutting” are
misleading. In my experience, virtually all logging, particularly in the boreal forest is a variation of clearcutting.
A good way to deal with this problem is to define what is a clearcut, and what is partial cutting. An important
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Schneider, R. 2001. Forest Management in Alberta: A Review. Available at:
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214
Smith, Wynet, and Peter Lee, eds. Canada’s Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000. World
Resources Institute and Global Forest Watch Canada. www.globalforest watch.org (February 2004). 114 pp.
215
Ibid.
216
Senate Subcommittee on the Boreal Forest. 2000. Competing Realities: The Boreal Forest At Risk. Ottawa.
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Smith, Wynet, and Peter Lee, eds. Canada’s Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment in the Year 2000. World
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Toma & Bouma Management Consultants. 1997. “The Pursuit of Quality!” A sustainable growth strategy
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224
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Newbury, R.W., G.K. McCullough, and R.E. Hecky. 1984. The Southern Indian Lake Impoundment and
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Northern River Basins Study (NRBS), no date. Key Findings and Recommendations. NRBS, Edmonton,
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Dr. D. Schindler. 2001. pers. comm.
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Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 1992. Federal Ecological Monitoring Program
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Greenwell, Brock. 2000. General Review. Canadian Minerals Yearbook, 1999 Review and Outlook, Natural
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Available at: http://www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/tourism.pdf (February 2004).
250
Alberta Community Development. 2001. 2000 Alberta Recreation Survey: Summary of Results. Edmonton:
Government of Alberta.
251
Dobson, Stephen and John Thompson. 1996. “Parks and Protected Areas: Their Contribution to the
Alberta Economy: A Discussion Paper.” Edmonton: Strategic and Regional Services Division: Alberta
Environmental Protection.
252
Ontario Wildlands League. Fact Sheet #8 Nurturing Diversity Through Ecotourism. Toronto. Available at:
http://www.wildlandsleague.org/ (February 2004).
253
Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Rec. 1994. Ontario’s Tourism Industry. AND
Wanlin, et al. 1994. Forest Based Eco-tourism. Ministry of Natural Resources.
254 Ontario Wildlands League. Fact Sheet #2 Setting Your Sights on Ecotourism. Toronto. Available at:
http://www.wildlandsleague.org/ (February 2004). AND
Federation of Ontario Naturalists. “End of the Road.” Seasons. Fall 1997.
76
Global Forest Watch Canada
255
Boreal Canada: State of the Ecosystem, State of Industry, Emerging Issues, and Projections
Schutt, A. 1996. The Bruce Trail: User and economic impact study.
256
Ontario Wildlands League. Fact Sheet #1: Profiting from Parks. Toronto. Available at:
http://www.wildlandsleague.org/ (February 2004).
257
Ibid.
258
Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network. 2003. Forest Conservation in Canada: A Summary of
Issues and Opportunities. Draft. Toronto. 12 pp.
259
“Value added by industry measures the additional value created by a production process. This additional
value, created by factors of production such as labour and capital, may be calculated either before or after
deducting the consumption of fixed capital used in production. Thus, gross value added by industry is the value
of its output of goods and services less the value of its intermediate consumption of goods and services and net
value added as the value of output less the values of both intermediate consumption and consumption of fixed
capital.” Lal, Kishori. 1999. Value Added by Industry - A Problem of International Comparison. Statistics
Canada. Available at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/IPS/Data/13F0031MIE2000002.htm#abstract (March 2004).
260
Wilson, B, T Takahasti, I Vertinsky. 2001. The Canadian commercial forestry perspective on certification:
National survey results. The Forestry Chronicle No.2 (77): 309-313.
261
Ibid.
262
Canadian Boreal Initiative. 2003. Boreal Framework Agreement. Available at:
http://www.borealcanada.ca/news_archive/news_archive8_e.cfm (March 2004).
263
Senate Subcommittee on the Boreal Forest. 1999. Competing Realities: The Boreal Forest at Risk. Report of
the Sub-Committee on Boreal Forest of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. Available
at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/bore-e/rep-e/rep09jun99-e.htm (February
2004).
264
Canada Boreal Initiative. 2003. The Boreal Forest at Risk: A Progress Report. Ottawa. Available at:
http://www.borealcanada.ca/reports/boreal_at_risk/index_e.cfm (February 2004).
265
Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. 1998 Report of the Commissioner of the
Environment and Sustainable Development (Ottawa: Office of the Auditor General, 1999), Section 2.33.
Online at:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/ c802ce.html (February 2004).
266
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. 2004. Forest Stewardship report – section 5. Available at:
http://www.alpac.ca/ (March 2004).
267
Schneider R., J.B. Stelfox, S. Boutin, and S. Wasel. 2003. Managing the cumulative impacts of land uses in
the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin: a modelling approach. Conservation Ecology
7(1):8-19. Available at: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/art8 (March 2004).
268
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. 2004. Forest Stewardship report – section 5. Available at:
http://www.alpac.ca/ (March 2004).
269
Alberta Economic Development. 2001. Tourism in Alberta North: A Summary of Visitor numbers,
Revenue, and Characteristics - 2001. 5 pp. Available at: http://www.albertacanada.com/statpub/pdf/AB_North01.pdf (March 2004).
270
Abitibi-Consolidated. 2004. Ontario east Woodlands – Sustainable Forest Management. Available at:
http://www.abitibiconsolidated.com/aciwebsitev3.nsf/site/en/forest/certification/iroquois_falls.html (March
2004).
271
Abitibi-Consolidated. 2004. Iroquois Falls. Available at:
http://www.abitibiconsolidated.com/aciwebsitev3.nsf/site/en/papers/newsprint/iroquois_falls.html (March
2004).
272
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management. 2004. Fort Nelson Land and Resource Management Plan.
Available at: http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/rmd/lrmp/frtnelsn/sec3.htm#3.2.1 (March 2004).
77