SOME OF CANADA'S BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS
Clayoquot Ancient Temperate Rainforest Photo credit: GERRIT SOMMER
West Coast
West Coast Oldgrowth Forests - The ecology of the oldgrowth temperate rainforest is extremely complex, containing magnificent trees up to 1,800 years old, 90 metres tall and 19 metres around, and an incredible diversity of plant, bird, mammal and invertebrate life. B.C. has about 87 percent of Canada’s cavity-nesting bird species and 85 percent of Canada’s larger mammal species. Seventy-nine vertebrate species, including the endangered Spotted Owl and threatened Marbled Murrelet, depend on oldgrowth forests for their survival. Clearcut logging has eliminated about half of B.C.’s commercially valuable oldgrowth forests, including most valley bottoms and over 90 percent of southwest B.C.’s dry Douglas Fir-Gary Oak ecosystem. The last few large pristine watersheds and areas of oldgrowth Douglas Fir (like Victoria’s Sooke Hills) must be preserved.
Spawning Sockeye Salmon. Photo credit: RICK BLACKLAWS
Clayoquot Sound - Clearcutting is still going on in Clayoquot Sound, the largest remaining tract of oldgrowth temperate rainforest in North America. Just before being elected Prime Minister, Jean Chretien promised Canadians that his government would negotiate with the B.C. government and First Nations to protect the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound. His promise followed the B.C. government's 1993 decision to allow clearcut logging in two-thirds of this 262,000 hectare westcoast wilderness. A solution to the Clayoquot controversy lies in ending clearcutting, protecting more of wilderness in Tribal Parks, and developing community-based sustainable fisheries and eco-tourism.
Boundary Bay Birds - Boundary Bay on B.C.'s Fraser River delta, is one of the last unprotected major stopovers on the Pacific Flyway. It also has the highest density and diversity of wintering waterfowl and birds of prey in Canada. Fifty years ago triple the number of birds used the Bay. A UN Biosphere Reserve is needed to protect the birds' habitat from proposed housing, golf course and roadway developments.
Salmon - There are about 3,000 ecologically and genetically distinctive races of salmon in B.C. But already about 30 percent of the total Georgia Strait salmon stocks have been lost, mostly due to overfishing and habitat loss, including degradation of salmon spawning streams by clearcut logging. Coho salmon come from one-fifth as many streams now as in the 1950s. Non-selective fishing methods (e.g. seine nets) have already reduced small runs of salmon and driven some salmon races into extinction. Over-fishing in 1994 almost lead to the complete elimination of the Fraser's largest salmon run. Salmon are also facing an increasingly polluted marine environment and reductions in herring, a main source of food. To prevent salmon from going the way of the cod, fisheries management must focus on conservation and spawning habitats must be preserved.
Northern Rockies Wilderness Photo credit: DARYL BENSON
Interior B.C. & Rockies
Northern Rockies - The Northern Rockies area vast wilderness of about 9 million hectares in northeast B.C. —the largest undeveloped area in Canada south of the 60th parallel. There are dozens of huge unroaded watersheds, and B.C.'s largest populations of caribou, moose and elk. The area is threatened by gas exploration and development and logging and pulp mill plans that aim to clearcut the area's boreal forests. In the summer of 1994, the B.C. government declared much of the area off-limits to motorized vehicles. Permanent protection for the entire area is needed now.
Banff National Park - In 1867, Banff was declared Canada's first national park. It now adjoins 3 other big National Parks in Canada's Rocky Mountains. Still, these four big parks are too small to sustain viable populations of large carnivores like Grizzly Bears. Development within parks makes biodiversity conservation tough. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Banff where resort developments have all but eliminated wintering ungulate habitat.
Okanagan Valley - The arid Osoyoos region—the "little Sahara"—in the South Okanagan has a high concentration of rare, threatened and endangered species. Here, the White-tailed Jackrabbit, Short-horned Lizard, Yellow Badger and Burrowing Owl hover on the brink of extirpation. Strong measures to halt development in the small amount of critical natural habitat left is required to save these ecosystems from extinction.
Saskatchewan Boreal Forest Photo credit: ERIC GEORGE
Boreal Forests
Mega-Forestry Projects - Wild boreal forests, one of the most important terrestrial carbon sinks, cover 34 percent of Canada. As the planet warms, they grow faster, absorbing carbon dioxide by extending northwards and adding biomass. The country's largest ecosystem, they are facing an unprecedented onslaught of oil and gas development and oldgrowth forest logging by some of the world's largest companies. Sixty-five percent of Canada's boreal forests are slated to be clearcut, including all of the most biologically productive forests that currently sustain a wide variety of boreal-dependent birds and mammals and over 100 known boreal-dependent plant species. Provincial governments are encouraging boreal mega-forestry projects. Near Swan River, Manitoba, almost 6,000 square kilometres of boreal forest, including a provincial park, are scheduled for logging by Louisiana Pacific for its giant oriented strand board mill. Daishowa and Alberta-Pacific (Al-Pac) have already been given the rights to clearcut 150,000 square kilometres of boreal forest in Alberta. This forest now supports herds of vulnerable woodland caribou, rare orchids and native communities.
Alberta's Caribou Mountains - Alberta's Caribou Mountains is a 9,200 square kilometres escarpment and plateau region of boreal forest adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park. The largest roadless wilderness area left in Alberta, it is home to woodland caribou (a vulnerable species) and is the only known breeding habitat for the Red-throated Loon and the rare Grey-cheeked Thrush. The area has over 100 species of coloured lichen and 14 species of sphagnum moss— perhaps the greatest sphagnum diversity in the world. The area is under threat by a huge proposed gas development project by Home Oil, with plans for up to 120 gas wells, a pipeline and roads.
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Southen Prairies
Prairie Grasslands - About 87 percent of the wild prairie grasslands are now farmlands. Tall-grass prairie and fescue prairie are almost eliminated. There are no longer free-ranging buffalo, although 50 to 60 million once roamed North America. The Plains Grizzly bear subspecies is now extinct. A number of species, like the Swift Fox and Black-footed Ferret, are extirpated. The agricultural use of pesticides like carbofuran and fenitrothion has lead to declines in species, such as the Tyrrell Willow, and endangered species, such as the Kangaroo Rat and Piping Plover, are associated with the fragile Saskatchewan and Lake Athabasca sand dune ecosystems, which, due to impacts of grazing, are poised on the verge of becoming full blown desert. Relative to its size and population, the prairie ecozone has more threatened and endangered species of Canadian wildlife than any other region in Canada.
Prairie Wetlands - Over 71 % of original prairie wetlands have been lost. Wetlands have been drained and ploughed and riparian vegetation has been harvested for wood, resulting in a drastic reduction in breeding and nesting spaces. Prairie wetlands provide critical habitat for more than 50 percent of North America's migratory waterfowl. Their loss has endangered species like the Whooping Crane.
Woodland Caribou Photo credit: KARVONEN FILMS
Burrowing Owls Photo credit: EARTH IMAGES FOUNDATION
The North
Pollution of the North - The transfer of pollution from industrial areas in the south and persistence of pollutants in the cold climate of the north are significant threats to the biodiversity of the Arctic. Contaminants such as chlorinated organic compounds (PCBs, dioxins and furans), acid rain, pesticides, heavy metals and radionuclides are being carried into the Arctic by atmospheric circulation, rivers and ocean currents. In addition, from 1972 to 1985 there were 175 oil spills related to oil and gas projects in the Beaufort Sea/Mackenzie delta region of the Northwest Territories. Many of these contaminants end up in the fatty tissues of animals of the top of the Artic food chain—the seals, whales and polar bears, leading to reproductive failure and cancer.
Climate Change - Scientists predict that the greatest changes in global climate will occur in high latitudes, especially the Arctic winters, perhaps as much as 8 to 10 degrees celsius. This would result in a loss of the characteristics that make the Arctic unique: a loss of permafrost, reduction in sea ice, melting of glacial ice, warming of lakes and ocean, and a shifting of the tree line north. It would restrict arctic tundra wildlife mainly to the arctic islands. This would significantly affect barren-ground caribou herds, muskox, fish species such as arctic charr, shorebirds and migratory waterfowl.
Piping Plover Photo credit: GILLES DAIGLE
East Coast
Grand Banks Ecosystem Collapse - From 1963 to 1992 the amount of Northern Cod in the Atlantic offshore dropped from 1.6 million metric tonnes to 27,000 metric tonnes. Despite a ban on cod fishing declared by the Federal Government in July of 1992, cod stocks dropped to 2,500 metric tonnes in 1994--potential extinction levels and a sure sign of ecosystem collapse. Before the ban, trawlers' nets scooped up tons of bycatch (non-targeted species which die and are thrown overboard), and their ton-and-a-half steel doors dragged through the spawning beds, gouging tracks, shearing off seaweeds and destroying the bottom habitat. Catches of every commercial species declined dramatically: salmon, lobster, capelin, lumpfish, flounder, halibut, Atlantic plaice and turbot. Now, 51,000 Atlantic fishers are applying for federal aid, estimated to cost $1.9 billion over five years.
Pippy Park - the brown trout populations of the streams flowing through St. John's, Newfoundland are threatened by construction of a highway which would destroy Pippy Park's wetlands and the connected trout habitat. Planned to serve population and industrial growth that is not occurring, the highway is now simply a federally-funded makework project that will destroy another of the province's renowned fish stocks.
Christmas Mountains - The Christmas Mountains area, located in north-central New Brunswick, contains the largest tract of oldgrowth forest left in the province. Named after Santa Claus's reindeer, they are a biological refugium. Limited cutting has already occurred on Mounts Prancer, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, Comet and Vixen. A logging moratorium is needed so the area's importance for the conservation of biodiversity can be evaluated.
Piping Plovers - The Piping Plover is a shorebird officially listed as endangered in Canada. Although some of its habitat has been protected in Prince Edward Island National Park, even there its habitat is threatened by people tramping through the well-camouflaged nests on the pebble beaches.
Tobeatic Wilderness, Nova Scotia - The Tobeatic Wilderness Area is one of the last wilderness areas in Nova Scotia, containing rare stands of oldgrowth and the last significant gene pool of moose. The area has been threatened by logging and mining and is currently a candidate for protected area status.
Carolinian Forest Photo credit: B.T. ANISKOWICZ
St. Lawrence Beluga Whale Photo credit: WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
Southern Ontario & Quebec
Algonquin Park - Algonquin Park is a remnant of the vast wild forests of southern Ontario--the only refuge left here for timber wolves, moose and other forest, lake and river-dependent wildlife. But Algonquin's biodiversity is threatened by activities which have no place inside a park: logging, large-scale commercial developments, major CN and CP rail lines and bear, moose and deer hunting.
Algoma Highlands - The Algoma Highlands is a rugged 1,200 square kilometre area in north-central Ontario harbouring fish-rich rivers, Ontario's largest remaining stands of majestic old-growth maple, birch, and pine forests, wolves, lynx, black bear, moose, and bald eagles. There are even reported citings of the endangered Eastern Cougar. Unsustainable clearcut logging is destroying Algoma's lodgrowth forests and wetlands.
Carolinian Canada - Southwestern Ontario - Carolinian Canada - supports a greater variety of wildlife than any other ecosystem in Canada, including 40 percent of the breeding birds in Canada, southern deciduous (Carolinian) forests, and a wealth of aquatic life. But centuries of forestry, agriculture and urbanization have taken their toll: more than 90 percent of Carolinian Canada has been destroyed and now 40 percent of Canada's species at risk— including endangered trees, orchids, snakes, fish, and butterflies—are found here.
Leitrim Wetlands - Leitrim Wetlands near Ottawa has more than 200 species of significant plants including oldgrowth cedars and larch and the rare Marsh Valerian and Limestone Oak Fern, and over 90 species of birds, including the rare Red-Shouldered Hawk and the endangered Loggerhead Shrike. Urban development has destroyed much of the original wetland. Now a housing development threatens the 400 hectares that are left.
St. Lawrence Beluga Whales - Over 5,000 St. Lawrence white whales (a separate subspecies of belugas) used to live year-round in the St. Lawrence. About 500 are left. Hunted until 1979, industrial pollution is killing the rest. Beluga carcasses are so laced with toxic chemicals and heavy metals that their bodies are treated as hazardous waste. Strict pollution controls are needed to save the endangered belugas.
Great Lakes - The Great Lakes, source of one-fifth of the world's freshwater, are severely threatened by the industrial plants, farms and 35 million people that cluster around the lakes. Wetlands have been drained, exotic species introduced, forests clearcut and the ecosystems contaminated with toxic chemicals, threatening wildlife.
