The Boreal Forest: Earth's Green Crown
Canada's vast boreal forest is among the largest intact forest ecosystems left on earth, and must be preserved.
Photo: Northern Images by Wayne Sawchuck
Dense stands of spruce and fir trees are one defining image of the boreal forest; this region's waters are another. Some 20 percent of the boreal's surface area is wet, ranging from great rivers to expansive lakes to innumerable streams, wetlands, fens and marshes. It's estimated that Canada's boreal forest contains 1.5 million lakes.
Millions of visitors come to the cold, clear waters of the boreal each summer for a canoe expedition, fishing trip, or sojourn at the family lakeside cabin. A stillness like no other can be found in these places, broken occasionally by wildlife -- the cries of bald eagles and loons; a lake trout's splash or the much louder one of a moose browsing in the shallows -- and by the wind stirring the trees.
last revised 7/20/2004
Sign up for NRDC's online newsletter
NRDC Gets Top Ratings from the Charity Watchdogs
- Charity Navigator awards NRDC its 4-star top rating.
- Worth magazine named NRDC one of America's 100 best charities.
- NRDC meets the highest standards of the Wise Giving Alliance of the Better Business Bureau.
- Q&A: Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns on National Parks
- Ken Burn spoke to OnEarth about his motivation for his new documentary series on America's national parks.
- In the Canadian Boreal Forest, a Conservation Ethic at Work
- After fighting successfully for years to keep destructive logging, hydropower and mining projects out of their traditional territory, the people of Poplar River are now working to secure permanent protection for their boreal forest homeland.