Preserving the Boreal Forest Regions
The Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) and the Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI) released a report (http://www.borealbirds.org/resources/carbon/report-full.pdf) last Thursday entitled “The Carbon the World Forgot,” which discusses the carbon capture and sequestration capacity of the Boreal Forest. The report indicates that the Boreal Forest regions, many of which are located in Canada, “store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem, almost twice as much per acre as tropical forests.” The report found that human activities such as tar sands extraction in northeastern Alberta (and logging) will disrupt the Boreal ecosystem, emitting more carbon into the atmosphere, and thereby accelerating climate change.
The study also found that these activities threaten the one billion to three billion birds from at least 300 species which regularly breed in these regions. It found that the increases in temperature, which are already occurring in these regions, have a number of adverse effects on bird populations. Warm autumns, for instance, are inhibiting the ability of the Gray Jay species to hoard frozen food over the winter, which it needs to survive. Long-distance migratory birds are also threatened. They base their flight patterns on sunlight rather than temperature, and arrive from tropical regions in the spring to find their insect food supply depleted after a shorter winter caused an early hatching of larvae, which were consumed by bird populations close-by. To counter this threat, the study called for mandatory accounting of carbon emissions from forest management and requiring that “biotic carbon projects have a positive or neutral effect on biodiversity and ecosystem services” in the Boreal regions.
These goals cannot be realized so long as tar sands extraction still goes on in Alberta. The study found that as of this year, tar sands surface mines have disturbed 686 sq. kilometers of carbon-rich land, emitting 21 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. If full development goes ahead with surface and in-situ mining (extraction of bitumen from underground sources using heat or solvents), an estimated 238 million tons of biotic carbon will be released. Such high emissions will accelerate climate change.
But its effects on the Boreal bird populations go beyond those brought by climate change. The mines destroy massive tracts of breeding and nesting areas. Continued expansion could lead to a loss of bird production well into the millions over the next 40 years. Tailing ponds around the tar sands plants that store oily water are virtual death traps for unsuspecting waterfowl. And more and more bird species will lose their habitat as in-situ drilling facilities expand into the Boreal forest regions. Tar sands expansion can bring nothing but devastation to the Boreal bird populations as it expands into their habitat.
The study also found that these activities threaten the one billion to three billion birds from at least 300 species which regularly breed in these regions. It found that the increases in temperature, which are already occurring in these regions, have a number of adverse effects on bird populations. Warm autumns, for instance, are inhibiting the ability of the Gray Jay species to hoard frozen food over the winter, which it needs to survive. Long-distance migratory birds are also threatened. They base their flight patterns on sunlight rather than temperature, and arrive from tropical regions in the spring to find their insect food supply depleted after a shorter winter caused an early hatching of larvae, which were consumed by bird populations close-by. To counter this threat, the study called for mandatory accounting of carbon emissions from forest management and requiring that “biotic carbon projects have a positive or neutral effect on biodiversity and ecosystem services” in the Boreal regions.
These goals cannot be realized so long as tar sands extraction still goes on in Alberta. The study found that as of this year, tar sands surface mines have disturbed 686 sq. kilometers of carbon-rich land, emitting 21 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. If full development goes ahead with surface and in-situ mining (extraction of bitumen from underground sources using heat or solvents), an estimated 238 million tons of biotic carbon will be released. Such high emissions will accelerate climate change.
But its effects on the Boreal bird populations go beyond those brought by climate change. The mines destroy massive tracts of breeding and nesting areas. Continued expansion could lead to a loss of bird production well into the millions over the next 40 years. Tailing ponds around the tar sands plants that store oily water are virtual death traps for unsuspecting waterfowl. And more and more bird species will lose their habitat as in-situ drilling facilities expand into the Boreal forest regions. Tar sands expansion can bring nothing but devastation to the Boreal bird populations as it expands into their habitat.
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