Deforestation and Habitat Destruction in the Boreal Forest of Canada
By Kevin Timoney
Map of Destruction
By Will Zaichkowski, WCWC Staff
Map name: Map Courtesy of A.W.A
Alberta Timber and Pulp & Paper Industry Expansion
This map shows the new and proposed Forest Management Agreements (FMAs) in the Province of Alberta in 1990. This map does not show the existing FMAs, nor does it show the privately held licenses or quotas. The areas not shown a huge add 30%-40% to what is shown on the map. The FMAs cover a huge part of Alberta's accessible wilderness spaces. For the multinationals sustainable development means clearcutting quite often not followed by reforestation. When the spruce and pine trees are removed by clear cutting, and the area is not reforested, most areas will revert to aspen and poplar-virtually eliminating the old growth that is so necessary for wildlife. For the Alberta Government reforestation means one sapling per 10 square meters of clearcutting. For the people of Alberta, those interested in enjoying the environment, this means disaster. Boreal forests, the predominant forest type of Northern Alberta, encircle the planet below the Arctic tundra. Like the equatorial rain forests, these forests help to fix carbon in the environment, regulate water systems and stave off global warming. These forests are home to a vast amount of wildlife and a large percentage of the Native people of Alberta.
Forest management in northern Alberta's Boreal forests is based on management techniques developed for more southerly forests that are not exposed to the same harsh climate. Little research has been done to determine the viability of these management techniques on Canada's Boreal forests.
Western Canada Wilderness Committee encourages research and alternative forestry techniques in the Boreal forests of Alberta and Canada.
Old growth boreal forests are highly evolved ecosystems supporting unique life-supporting species: soil microfloras, Woodland Caribou, Pine Marten, Pileated Woodpeckers, and pendent lichens.
They are home to ecological communities that evolved within the specialized microhabitats and structural characteristics of old growth, such as snags and tree cavities. Mature mixed wood forests in northeastern Alberta have been shown to support a greater density (36 species per hectare) of breeding birds than do any other forests or wetland habitats.
Old growth boreal forests are becoming increasingly rare as a result of forestry activities. "Cut the old growth first" is a forestry axiom. These forests are not simply random aggregations of "decadent" trees. They are vital, self-reproducing, climatically-adapted, storehouses of both genetic diversity and atmospheric carbon, and home to old growth dependent species.
Yet it would be ecologically misleading to focus simply on the species of boreal forests, as they are merely components within a greater whole. Ecosystems are composed of organisms linked by systems of air, soil, rock, water, and sunlight. The ecosystem envelopes the organism. It is a supra-organism that supports, and is, life.
Boreal plant species have suffered not from destruction of individual plants, but from destruction of the very ecological fabric into which they are knit. When a forest is logged, its soil microflora changes. Most plant species return with time, but sensitive species may be lost, such as the delicate Adder's Mouth Orchid, the striking Ostrich Fern, the lichen Ramalina thrausta.
Research has shown that, after logging, the soil microflora may not return to its original state. The ratio of bacterial to fungal colonies is ten times greater in clearcuts, and mycorrhiza formation on tree seedlings is reduced. Actinomycete bacteria are abundant in clearcuts and these bacteria are known to inhibit both plant growth and other soil microbes.
Clear Cutting- Rocky Mountain House Forest Photo: Mark Arneson
In some clearcuts it appears that the soil-plant link has been broken. Failure to regenerate after clearcutting has been observed in Oregon, northern California, British Columbia, and in Alberta. In some places three and four attempts at seedling establishment have proven futile. Yet unlogged forests in the same area regenerate well after fire.
It is the interactions within diverse ecosystems, unseen links between soil, microbes and plants, that determine in large part both productivity and ability to recover after disturbance. The coexistence of many species in ecosystems depends on their interaction-remove one plant, insect pollinator, or mycorrhizal fungus, and others follow.
Recent forest industry-provincial government schemes- aim to convert the forests of the Boreal mixed wood region into pulp and paper. In Alberta alone, at last count, some 155,000 square km of boreal forest have been leased to the forest companies.
Mr. Leroy Fjordbotten, the Alberta Minister of Forestry, Lands and Wildlife, was asked recently why he remains steadfastly opposed to the U.N. Endangered Spaces Program goal of protecting 12% of the province. He replied "...because I am afraid of a land grab by the environmentalists." The Minister is admittedly an authority on land grabs.
Within the boreal region of Alberta live a total of 3850 species of plants and fungi. For all but the flowering plants we lack the ecological baseline data to assess distribution and rarity. Some 360 species (21%) of the vascular flora of Alberta is rare, of which about 85 rare species are found in the boreal forest region of Alberta.
These myriad species are organized into a variety of conifer, mixed wood, and deciduous forests, treed and open bogs and fens, marshes, meadows, grasslands, dunes, seeps, lakes, ponds, and other habitats. The ecosystems in which they live are connected by air, the network of lakes and rivers, groundwater flow, wildlife corridors, and flyways into a higher-order ecosystem, and integrated whole.
The habitats of greatest concern due to logging pressures are old growth and mature mixed wood forests. These forests are often found on sites protected from fire, in highland outliers of the Cordillera, and in valleys and along lakeshores. Some old growth forests have survived repeated fires.
In Alberta, old growth boreal forests include White Spruce-Balsam Fir on well-drained uplands, White Spruce/Feather Moss forests on valley bottoms and flats, White Spruce-Balsam Poplar forests on recent river sediments, Lodgepole Pine- White Spruce in Cordilleran outliers, Black Spruce forests with Larch in poorly-drained depressions and flats, and Jack Pine forests on sand.
While the dawning of a New World view may bring an end to liquidation of our natural heritage, this will take time. In the interim, we must act to get the word out, raise local and global awareness, reduce consumption, use recycled paper, and recycle every shred of paper we use. In short, practice sanity.
The challenges before us are unprecedented. Sustainable forestry is an attainable goal. It cannot be achieved in an international trade setting with foreign or multinational corporations calling the shots to maximize profits. International trade in pulp, paper, power, gas, oil, is death to out environment. If our forests are to survive, we need to reconstitute logged areas to a likeness of their pre-logged condition. Old growth forests and other significant habitats must be identified and protected before they are reduced to pulp. Local control of the ecosystems we call home is basic to a sustainable future.
Kevin Timoney is an environmental consultant and ecologist.
