Just saw this AP story about a recently released IUCN report that again highlights the contrast between working to protect and maintain intact ecosystems and healthy populations of birds, mammals, and other wildlife as can still be done in the Boreal as compared to the crucial last minute crisis efforts that must be enacted in most of the world to halt biodiversity decline.

Jeff

Here’s the beginning of the AP story: 

“Group: World failing to halt biodiversity decline

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER –GENEVA (AP) — Governments are failing to stem a rapid decline in biodiversity that is now threatening extinction for almost half the world’s coral reef species, a third of amphibians and a quarter of mammals, a leading environmental group warned Thursday.

“Life on Earth is under serious threat,” the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a 155-page report that describes the past five years of a losing battle to protect species, natural habitats and geographical regions from the devastating effects of man.

IUCN, the producer of the world’s Red List of endangered animals, analyzed over 44,000 species to test government pledges earlier this decade to halt a global loss in biodiversity by 2010.”

Click here to read the whole AP story

To download the IUCN report and delve into the tons of background info go to this site: http://www.iucn.org/?3460/Wildlife-crisis-worse-than-economic-crisis—IUCN

Water seems to have been a predominant theme here the last week or two and in keeping with that theme I thought I would share with you a cool website called Freshwater Ecoregions of the World that I just came across. It has a global map from which you can select freshwater ecoregions and read about the specifics that make each one important from a conservation perspective. Check out the Boreal ecoregions!

http://www.feow.org/index.php

Jeff

Ed Reeves from Deline recently sent me this link to a very cool CBC North radio project that was done by the kids of Deline, Northwest Territories. The kids interviewed the Elders of Deline to learn more about their spiritual and cultural history and connections with the the land and the water and especially the lake—Great Bear Lake.

Click here to see the website and listen to the audio segments: http://www.cbc.ca/north/features/waterheart/index.html#photo

An excerpt from the website explanation of the project which is called Waterheart: The Deline Project.

“The Watereheart is a Dene legend. It’s about a medicine man who found a giant heart beating at the bottom of Great Bear Lake.The lake is among the largest freshwater lakes in the world. After a trout steals the medicine man’s hook he takes on the spirit of a loche, the largest fish of the lake, and dives deep into the lake’s abyss to retrieve his hook. In his journey he finds much more. He finds a living, breathing heart, called the Tudze in the Slavey language. This medicine man finds that the fragile Tudze is what gives life to the everyday physical world of trees, fish, water and human beings. The heart was also surrounded by every species of fish found in Great Bear Lake, guardians of the powerful Tudze.

The Waterheart documentary explores the metaphors of this legend. The heart is the culture of the Sahtu Dene people. They live in Délįne, a small cluster of houses on the tip of the eastern arm of the lake. The waterheart and the culture represent everything the Sahtu Dene live for, but, the heart and the culture are weak.

The weakest link between the culture of the past and present is the essence of culture itself; language. The youth speak mostly English today and their elders only speak Slavey. The Waterheart documents the emotional journey of ten teenagers from the public school in Délįne as they grapple with the cultural gap. The students were introduced to the basic tools of radio feature making and storytelling during an intensive 10-day production workshop in April, 2008. They set out to interview the town’s elders, their grandparents and great grandparents…in Slavey. These men and women recalled their working life from 1932 to 1960 at Port Radium – a uranium mine across the lake from Délįne.”

Click here to see the website and listen to the audio segments: http://www.cbc.ca/north/features/waterheart/index.html#photo

Just got this comment on Friday, June 26, about spring conditions from NWT biologist Richard Popko who is stationed in Norman Wells:

“Local situations varied  during spring migrations. Few whimbrels were seen.  It seems like most flew by. Waterfowl concentrated very thick in open areas at Brackett Lake and downriver from Fort Good Hope in the Mackenzie River. It seems like winter was late then green up was very fast in the Mackenzie Valley”

“The Coppermine River area is also frozen still and people are ice fishing on Great Bear Lake. Yes that does seem like late melting.”

Bird biologists Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron from Ontario recently compiled this excellent summary of reports about conditions in the Far North for birds that gives a more hopeful scenario for nesting success of many birds in the region. They graciously allowed me to reprint it below. Thanks Ron and Jean!

Jeff  

 ”Several people asked us to comment about recent reports of a “Disastrous breeding season in the Arctic”. The Arctic is huge; it is 3500 km from southern James Bay (subarctic) to northern Ellesmere Island. Most shorebirds have large breeding ranges and even in late years many birds breed successfully and rarely does the entire Arctic experience the same climatic conditions. We checked with northern researchers and summarized their comments below. Shorebird nesting in> 2009 is poor in some regions but normal to good elsewhere.

Ontario: Ken Abraham reports that conditions in the Hudson Bay Lowlands were about 10 days late from Attawapiskat south on James Bay, including Akimiski Island, with Canada Geese and Snow Geese hatching in mid June, more like the 1990s average than the 2000s average and within the overall norms. Other species on Akimiski Island were correspondingly late. His guess is that for those species that require shorter time there will be some reduction but not huge. Perhaps the predation effect will be somewhat greater if alternate species are less available. Because coastal snow, ice and water inundation conditions were similar from Cape Henrietta Maria to the Manitoba border, Ken expects that for Canada Geese nesting within 40-60 km from the coast, a much reduced effort and productivity will be the norm. Snow Geese at Cape Henrietta Maria were greatly down and the suggestion of a 90% reduction seems to fit what they saw on their survey. However, beyond 40-60 km inland, he thinks conditions will be different. Mark Peck said that species nesting away from the Hudson Bay Coast in boreal bogs and fens such as yellowlegs should not be severely impacted because much of the freeze took place near the coast.

Manitoba: The situation is worse in northern Manitoba at Churchill where temperatures were well below normal until recently and the snow cover melted late. However, Erica Nol reports that birds have started to nest, just very late, and it won’t be a complete bust for shorebirds if there are enough bare spots. Whimbrels and Hudsonian Godwits are nesting, but overall nesting success should be below average for most shorebirds in northern Manitoba.

Nunavut: Snow melt was up to three weeks late in mainland Nunavut north of Manitoba. Recent temperatures have been close to normal.  Much of Baffin Island is now snow free and conditions there and on Bylot Island are about normal. High Arctic breeders should have a good breeding year.

Northwest Territories: Vicky Johnston suspects it will be a poor breeding year in parts of the Western Arctic. Spring was roughly three weeks late in Yellowknife on Great Slave Lake based on leaf-out. The Mackenzie Valley and Delta warmed early but then cooled off again. The Delta flooded slowly and the water receded slowly, so some prime shorebird breeding areas were subject to heavy predation.

Yukon: Cameron Eckert reports a late spring, but once the heat came, everything shifted into high gear.

Alaska: Declan Troy reports from the North Slope that the snow on the tundra is long gone. It was much warmer earlier in the month and his guess is that the breeding season has been early there. 

Acknowledgements: We thank Ken Abraham, Bruce Di Labio, Cameron Eckert, Michel Gosselin, Vicky Johnston, Erica Nol, Mark Peck, Ken Ross, Don Sutherland, and Declan Troy. ”

Credit: Jeff Wells 

I had to be in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories during the second week of June for meetings related to the incredible work that is going on there to put a plan in place to protect the aquatic resources of that region of big water.  But since it is light most of the time then, I took the opportunity to get out east of town on the Ingraham Trail and do some sound recording and birding in the early mornings and evenings. The mix of breeding birds there is unusual for those of us from further south with ducks galore, Red-necked Grebes on nests and vocalizing, Arctic and Common Terns, Bonaparte’s Gulls, Wilson’s Snipe, Lincoln’s Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, Olive-sided Flycatchers, Gray Jays, Black-billed Magpies, Mew Gulls and the list goes on. Here are a few sound clips of some of these species here:

Recording Near Prosperous Lake (.mp3)
Recording Near Vee Lake Road (.mp3)
Orange-crowned Warbler (.mp3)

What I really love there is the acoustic environments. Of course it is generally much quieter because you are on the edge of one of the world’s last great wilderness regions. Also the rocky hills and ledges make the sounds echo off and around the lakes and ponds in beautiful ways.

Probably the most thrilling experience I had was when I was getting a sound recording of a singing White-throated Sparrow and a wolf pack erupted in howls in the background followed by a trumpeting Sandhill Crane. The wolves are a bit faint, so listen carefully. Take a listen to a clip of it here:

Birds with Wolves in Background (.mp3)

One evening I spent right in the city of Yellowknife down on the shore of Great Slave Lake at a place called Willow Flats. Right here you can find nesting Red-necked Grebes, Arctic and Common Terns, lots of waterfowl and gulls, and songbirds in the willow thickets. This is a video I took there on June 9th:

Here’s an Arctic Tern that was particularly fun to watch:

And finally, here are a couple more pictures I took of the area:

Credit: Jeff Wells

Credit: Jeff Wells

Credit: Jeff Wells

Credit: Jeff Wells

Credit: Jeff Wells

Credit: Jeff Wells

After posting the article and images about how the incredibly still-icy spring in Canada will likely affect breeding, we obtained a few more images from good friends who live up in the north. Below is a NASA image of Great Bear Lake hundreds of miles north of Great Slave Lake in NWT on Monday, the 22nd. Below that are some shots from the same day by from Ed Reeves, who lives in Deline, NWT, which is the only village on Great Bear Lake. Below those images are some photos from our friend Larry Innes of the Canadian Boreal Initiative, who in eastern Canada in Labrador.

The NASA shot from space – June 22, 2009. Notice how almost all of the lake still has an ice cover:

Credit: NASA

Here are some (in my opinion, stunning) images from Ed of Great Bear Lake and the town of Deline, which is on the shoreline. These were taken on the same day as the NASA shot – the lake is so huge that even though most of the lake is still covered in ice, you can look from the shore and the ice is still far in the distance out into the lake. An enormous rainbow appeared as Ed was taking pictures – have a look:

Credit: Ed Reeves

Credit: Ed Reeves

Credit: Ed Reeves

Here’s the other side of the rainbow, with the town of Deline on the left:

Credit: Ed Reeves

There are still patches of ice along the shore, however:

Credit: Ed Reeves

Zoomed in on Deline:

Credit: Ed Reeves

Lastly, here are some photos taken by Larry Innes, who was flying over Labrador and northern Quebec. They were taken on May 19th of this year, and he says that this is an abnormal amount of snow given the time of year and location:

Credit: Larry Innes

Credit: Larry Innes

Credit: Larry Innes

Credit: Larry Innes

Let’s hope that many of the birds that breed in more northern parts of Canada aren’t set too far back by this slow spring…

 
Great Slave Lake in June
Credit: Jeff Wells

I was in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories about a week ago and although the snow was gone from the ground and the smaller lakes, it was amazing how most of Great Slave Lake was still iced over.  I include here and below some of my photos of the ice on Great Slave Lake from June 10.

Credit: Jeff Wells

Someone just forwarded to me a recent article from the Winnipeg Free Press that describes how much of the North was locked in with snow and ice very late this year. This is, of course, not good news for the birds that have to arrive and raise their young in the short Northern summer.

Here’s an excerpt:

Big chill in Churchill

Winter grips 90 per cent of north, migratory birds can’t breed

Robert Alison

13/06/2009 1:00 AM

It is the winter that refuses to go away in northern Manitoba and most of the eastern Arctic.

Prolonged cold snowy conditions in the Hudson Bay area are expected to obliterate the breeding season for migratory birds and most other species of wildlife this year.

According to Environment Canada, the spring of 2009 is record-late in the eastern Arctic with virtually 100 per cent snow cover from James Bay north as of June 11…

You can rest of the full article at:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/big-chill-in-churchill-47992231.html

I’ve posted below a short YouTube video of a flyover of the area, as well as some more images of the heavy icing the North still faces:

Credit: Jeff Wells

And more photos (Credit: Jeff Wells):

     

     

    

 

The world’s last great animal migrations have recently gotten some attention in several scientific papers and resulting media. Of course the Boreal is one of these last places on earth where there is still:

-unimpeded mass migrations of mammals from the tundra into the northern Boreal (specifically caribou and sometimes apparently timber wolves that follow the herds);

-migrations of anadromous fish like Atlantic Salmon and sea run trout from the rivers to the sea and back and possibly from the large lakes into shoaling areas and rivers;

-the vast migration of billions of birds that breed in the Boreal and spill south to winter throughout the hemisphere (click here to see the recent tv piece I did on this).

 
Herd of migratory caribou in Labrador
Credit: Innu Nation

The two papers below are worth reading and are open-access, so they are freely downloadable at the links below:

Global decline in aggregated migrations of large terrestrial mammals:
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2009/7/n007p055.pdf

Quote from above paper:

“The principal conclusion drawn from this global audit is that mass migrations of mammals are under major threat throughout the world.”

Going, Going, Gone: Is Animal Migration Disappearing by David Wilcove and Martin Wikelski:
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060188

Here’s an interesting quote from the above paper:

“Each spring, more than 30,000 tons of migratory songbirds migrate from their wintering grounds in Latin America and the Caribbean to their breeding grouns in the United States and Canada.”

And here are some media stories and blog entries:

MSNBC: Large Mammal Migrations are Disappearing
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31170724/

National Public Radio: As Fences Cut Off Migration, Hoofed Species Decline
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105165068

Our own International Boreal Conservation Science Panelist Stuart Pimm’s Nat Geo Blog
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/05/animal-migrations-threatened.html

A 2004 NY Times article: For Wildlife, Migration is Endangered
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/science/for-wildlife-migration-is-endangered-too.html?pagewanted=1

Some good books on the subject include:

Caribou and the North: A Shared Future by Monte Hummel and Justina Ray

No Way Home by David Wilcove

Here’s a map of the three major flyways that birds use to find their wintering grounds south of the Boreal:

A recent article by Time Magazine highlights the home habits of Americans that are destroying millions of acres of bird habitat. Here is an excerpt:   

“Toilet paper containing 100% recycled fiber makes up less than 2% of the U.S. market, while sales of three-ply luxury brands like Cottonelle Ultra and Charmin Ultra Soft shot up 40% in 2008. Compare the U.S. desire for an ever plusher flush with the more austere bathroom habits of Europe and Latin America, where recycled TP makes up about 20% of the at-home market.”

Click here to read the Time article:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1903778,00.html

To find out how to buy tissue paper that is better for birds check out this shopper’s guide:

http://www.borealbirds.org/birdshopguide/BirdFriendlyShoppersGuide.pdf