Boreal Owl Edgar T. Jones
The Unknown Boreal Forest
By Dr. Jim Butler
There is a mystique about the boreal forest. It is the most extensive forest type in Canada and one of the least understood. To a society of North Americans who seek to balance the technology and stress of their urban lifestyles, it is the last great roadless and wild area.
The great boreal forest is one of Canada's best kept secrets-it is under-rated and under-marketed, a potential giant for our tourism industry.
" The earth, like trees, dies from the top down. The things that are killing the North will kill, if left unchecked, everything else."
Margaret Atwood
Wood warblers are among the most sought-after birds by those informed about wildlife. Their bright coloration makes them the champagne of the bird world, and they are the most common bird in the boreal forest. Twenty species of warblers occur in Alberta's boreal forest. The magnificent Blackburnian warblers live in the highest tips of the spruce trees. Their orange-yellow faces shine like flames when touched by sunlight. Cape May warblers have on orange tinge to their faces and a distinctive yellow collar. In the mid-levels of these spruce forests nest the rose-colored, bay-breasted warblers, which have a black mask like the lone ranger. All three of these warblers are at risk in Alberta. Many warblers are threatened by habitat destruction in their wintering grounds, as far away as South America and the Caribbean. And because they require old growth conifer for nesting, logging threatens them in their Canadian breeding grounds.
More than 200 other species of birds are found in the western Canadian boreal, including 6 of the 10 'most wanted' birds listed by the American Birding Association. These are the boreal owl, gyr-falcon, great gray owl (at risk in Alberta), Connecticut warbler, northern hawk owl, and the yellow rail. Boreal birds are also well represented in the 'most favorite' category listed by the ABA. Our pileated woodpecker is the fifth most favorite bird in North America!
Porcupine Jim Butler
Bird watching is the second fastest rising recreational activity in North America. Birdwatchers spent more than 40 billion dollars in North America in 1993. Every May the small town of Leamington, Ontario, near the bird-watching destination of Point Pelee National Park gets an economic infusion in excess of $4 million from birders.
Perhaps the four most charismatic mammal species of the boreal forest are the wolf, lynx, river otter, and woodland caribou. Extremely high satisfaction is also derived from sightings of moose, porcupine and beaver. Ecotourism and birding could provide economic diversification for northern communities and take some pressure off the mountain parks. One can only hope that Alberta's traditional favoritism toward resource industries like forestry and oil and gas will not destroy the northern wilderness that is our heritage and our future.
The distinctive "who cooks for you who cooks for you" call of the barred owl across northern lakes is a charismatic wildlife encounter, perhaps only third in importance behind the howl of a wolf and the wail of a northern loon.
The magic of the Boreal
I recall one hectic Friday in June when I had driven up from Edmonton to a campground in the Lakeland area of Alberta's boreal forest. I arrived at dusk, still dictating office correspondence. Within ten minutes of my arrival, I launched my canoe. The lake was as still as I've ever seen it. With each paddle stroke I left behind not only the shoreline, but also my obligations at work.
Swainson's thrush songs mingled with those of hermit thrushes, along with the occasional son of the Lincoln's sparrow. Four silver-haired bats flapped across the water's surface, once even at eye level between myself and the bow of the canoe. Cupping my hands to my ears I could hear the repetitious notes of the saw-whet owl. Then a lone barred owl boomed its eight distinctive notes and did so again three or four more times. A single hoary bat, a classic boreal forest species, joined in with the foraging silver hairs, like an F-16 jet passing through a group of crop dusting biplanes. I called to the barred owl who had been silent for a while, and he answered me. As I returned to the shore, fireflies twinkled like fairies and from the darkness a white-throated sparrow sang "Oh dear, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada." The boreal forest--a secret worth telling, a landscape worth preserving.
By Dr. Jim Butler is Professor of Parks, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton
