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U.S. environmental group says Canada's boreal forest the Earth's 'water keeper'

A U.S.-based conservation group has concluded that the great ribbon of green that stretches across northern Canada is one of the world's great storehouses of fresh water and influences the environment of the entire planet.

Pew Environment Group researchers, whose study is one of the first attempts to bring together all data on the boreal forest, say even they were amazed at what they found.

"Until we started putting all these pieces of the puzzle together, we didn't even see the whole picture ourselves as far as water goes," said spokesman Steve Kallick. "This analysis has been revelatory to us."

The report concludes more must be done to control resource development, protect wetlands and implement conservation agreements already in place.

"There hasn't been a policy focus on Canada's waters, which is kind of a shame," said Kallick.

The report titled Forest of Blue brings together findings from dozens of published scientific surveys and concludes the boreal forest is "the world's water keeper." The Pew analysis calls it the most water-rich region on Earth at a time when countries have ever-growing demands for fresh water.

It has 800,000 square kilometres of surface water and half of the world's lakes larger than a square kilometre. It holds five of the world's 50 largest rivers and boasts, in Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, what's believed to be the world's largest remaining unpolluted lake. Fully one-quarter of the globe's wetlands are in the boreal forest.

All that water has consequences for the entire planet.

The forest's wetlands and peatlands store carbon equivalent to 25 years worth of global emissions. The fresh water it dumps into the oceans is crucial to life in northern seas and the formation of Arctic ice, which influences rainfall patterns for the rest of the continent.

Half of the world's North American Atlantic salmon depend on its rivers. Half of North American songbirds and waterbirds depend on it at some point in their lives.

The report says that the Canadian boreal forest is one of only five large-scale ecosystems left on Earth that remain largely untouched.

Yet it remains underappreciated in southern Canada despite the volume of recent research, Kallick said.

"We've always felt there's a disconnect between what the scientists discover and what the public and policy-makers know," he said. "We try to fill that gap."

He said Canada has already made several good moves.

The governments of Ontario and Quebec have moved to protect half their northern forests. Forestry companies have agreed to stop new logging on 29 million hectares of forest. Large new parks and protected areas have been created in the Northwest Territories. Alberta is considering protecting 20 per cent of its northern oilsands region.

But opposition to those moves remains.

Business and aboriginal interests in Ontario objected to that province's Far North Act. Alberta's resource minister has questioned the amount of conservation proposed for the province's northeast. Last fall, the federal government quietly removed protection against mining claims for a large conservation area in the N.W.T.

The Pew report says Canada should reform mining legislation that currently allows resource companies to establish claims before land-use planning is completed.

It suggests no new dams should be allowed unless they can be built with minimal environmental effects, and fish ladders should be installed where there are dams to allow species to migrate naturally.

A national peatlands strategy should implement a no-net-loss policy across the boreal forest. Conservation agreements already reached should be fully implemented, especially in the N.W.T.

Kallick said that despite Canada's freshwater wealth, its governments and citizens can't afford to become complacent. Pressure from hydro development, energy exploration and mining is already building in the North, he pointed out.

"In a resource-starved world where there's ever-increasing population, you can't take anything for granted. The development pressure for the next few years in North America will only go up."

By: Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

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