In July 2008, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a world-leading commitment to conservation-focused land-use planning for Ontario's Great Boreal Forest, including protection for more than 50% of the area. To make this bold commitment a reality, we need a strong Boreal legislation that:

1. Creates a well-resourced joint Planning Board to allow First Nations and the Province to work together and share implementation of planning.

2. Details how Ontario will work in partnership with First Nations to determine the location, use and management of the 50% or more of the region that the Premier has committed to protect as conservation lands.

3. Sets out how community plans will be developed and integrated with regional objectives.

4. Describes how communities will realize long-term benefits from development and their role in management.

5. Provides a clear role for a Science Advisory Committee, including objectives for how it will inform land-use planning.

6. Sets clear rules for the development of roads, corridors and industrial activity outside of protected areas.

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Boreal is for the birds

The boreal forest is where the birds are.

It is estimated that close to half of the birds that are regularly seen in North America rely on the boreal for their survival.  During spring migration, 3 billion birds will fly north to Canada’s boreal forests. About a quarter billion of these will stay in Ontario’s boreal region. The following fall, after a spring and summer of breeding and brood raising, 5 billion birds will return south from across Canada.  Of Ontario’s roughly 300 species of breeding birds, 200 rely on the boreal forest.

Yellow rumped warbler. Millions of songbirds nest in the boreal.

So why do birds fly from as far south as Brazil to raise their families in Ontario’s boreal forests?  Space, food and protection from predators.  The vast boreal forest provides the kind of room you need to accommodate millions of individual territories.   These forests are also rich in food sources like insects and seeds and provide good shelter from the elements.   This is why the boreal forest is considered Ontario’s songbird nursery.

The Boreal region’s abundant wetlands are particularly important for water birds. In places like the James Bay lowlands, thousands of shorebirds, wading birds and waterfowl congregate for a short, intense summer in a rich environment.  Wetlands are one of the most imperilled ecosystem types on the planet and this northern resource has never been more important.  Forty percent of North America's waterfowl (twenty six million), and 30% of its shorebirds (seven million) nest in the wetlands of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

The role of the Boreal in sustaining Canada’s bird populations is startling:

• 80% of the waterfowl species of North America, 63% of the finch species, and 53% of warbler species breed in the Boreal.
• For nearly 100 species, 50% or more of their entire breeding populations occur in the Boreal.
• Over 80% of the North American populations of 35 species occur in the Boreal.

Snow geese gather by the thousands in the James Bay lowlands each summer

Sustaining boreal birds is about much more than simply assuring that we will have colourful visitors to our backyard feeders. Birds provide us with a variety of invaluable but free services, including pollination and insect control. A further decline in bird populations could lead to larger outbreaks of spruce budworm, mountain pine beetle and other pests.

Many migratory bird species are already struggling to deal with habitat loss in their southern winter ranges and changes to the landscape they must fly through each year.  Now climate change is adding to the disruption of habitats and migration patterns.  The decision to protect intact forests and wetlands that the birds rely on as breeding grounds couldn’t have come at a better time for birds.
               
To learn more about boreal birds, visit www.borealbirds.org