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ABOUT THE BOREAL FOREST
Canada's Global Opportunity
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Smoothstone Lake - Photo by Branimir Gjetvaj |
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Canada's boreal (northern) forest is a cornerstone in the largest wild forest remaining on our
planet. The global importance of the deep green boreal forest that sweeps across Canada from coast to coast, and that is part of a band of wild forest circling the northern hemisphere, is underlined by one simple fact: our boreal forest region is more wild and intact than almost any other forest area on the face of the Earth.
And that means that protecting this forest is key to protecting our national and global environments. With its thousands of lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands, old growth forests and huge number of habitat niches, Canada's forest is home to billions of songbirds, millions of ducks and other water birds, and numerous species of mammals - including sensitive and rarely seen woodland caribou, magnificent grizzlies, black bears and wolves, and tiny shrews that weigh little more than a piece of paper. It is also a massive storehouse and filter for water and climate changing gasses, particularly carbon dioxide.
In Canada, we are extremely lucky to still have large expanses of boreal forest that have not been profoundly changed by clearclutting, oil and gas drilling, roads or mining. Unfortunately along the southern edge of the boreal region we have already lost millions of hectares of intact forest, along with species like woodland caribou that cannot coexist with the industrial activities that have transformed these areas.
CPAWS is leading efforts to protect our remaining intact boreal forests and to restore industrialized areas by changing approaches to resource harvesting , establishing large interconnected protected area networks, and working with local communities including First Nations, to establish new land use plans that better balance the needs of our forests and their creatures with the needs of industry and people.
Click here for some quick facts about the boreal forest.
LEARN MORE:
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| State of the World's Boreal Forests |
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| What's happening to forests across the world, in Canada and in Saskatchewan. |
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| Forest Threats & Solutions |
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| The impacts of human developments in the forest. |
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| Forest Ecology |
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| Saskatchewan's forests and the wildlife in them. |
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| Birds in the Boreal Forest |
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| Species of songbirds are declining in our boreal forest. |
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| Links |
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| Visit our boreal forest links. |
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