Photo by Tim Griffith

Conservation Matters                                             August 1, 2008                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Home

One of the biggest conservation stories ever emerged last week, but received relatively little press here in the States. The premier of Ontario has pledged to set aside half of the province -- about 55 million acres, an area the size of the entire UK -- for permanent conservation, with requirements that industry work with First Nations and the government to craft sustainable development plans for the rest.

Given that the boreal forest is the great bird factory of North America , producing billions of migratory songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors, this is arguably the single biggest win in history for bird conservation.

Anyone who enjoys the seasonal flow of warblers, thrushes, sparrows and other Neotropical songbirds passing through Pennsylvania - and I'm guessing that's all of us -- owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for his visionary move, part of the larger Boreal Forest Conservation Initiative, a collaboration of conservation groups, First Nations and industry which aims to protect at least half of the 1.4 billion-acre Canadian boreal forest.

Here's how my good friend Jeff Wells of the Boreal Songbird Initiative put it on his blog http://www.borealbirds.org/blog/ this week, sending his own thanks to McGuinty:

"I don't know if you have ever heard the soft flutey song of a Swainson's Thrush, but try to imagine three million of them singing at once. That's the sound emanating into the sky on a June morning from the number of Swainson's Thrushes that would be found in the 55 million acres of northern Ontario 's Boreal that you have just announced will now be protected. Even better yet, imagine 4.5 million renditions of the "Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada-Canada" song of the White-throated Sparrow echoing across the Boreal."

As Jeff went on to point out, the land that Ontario will permanently protect from timbering and mining is home to 5 million juncos, 4 million magnolia warblers, 3 million palm warblers and 2 million Tennessee warblers, just to name a few species.

You can find a story from the Toronto Star about the land deal at http://www.thestar.com/article/460305. You can also read a piece I wrote in 2007 for The Nature Conservancy on the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework at http://www.nature.org/magazine/summer2007/features/?src=m1.
And finally, you can send a note of thank you to Premier McGuinty via BSI's website, http://www.borealbirds.org/ -- something every American birder who reaps the benefits of the boreal forest should take a moment to do.