Last Thursday world-renowned conservationist J. Michael Fay came to Seattle at our invitation to talk about some of the emerging mining threats to the remote northwestern corner of British Columbia. The area was mostly untouched by human development until the past several years until an enormous number of large-scale mining projects, driven by rising gold [...]

Aerial view of rivers converging in NW British Columbia.
Credit: Michael Fay
We here at the Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI) are proud to host internationally renowned conservationist J. Michael Fay on a speaking tour about a new ‘gold rush’ of mining development in the otherwise-remote northwestern corner of B.C. and the impacts it could have on [...]

Just over two years ago the unthinkable happened. After decades of disputes and fighting over logging in pristine parts of Canada’s boreal forest, environmentalists and forest companies finally decided to talk to each other directly about their concerns rather than by exchanging sound bites through the media.

Log pile in Canada’s boreal forest
Credit: Garth Lenz
Although [...]

Boreal forest
Credit: Valerie Courtois, Canadian Boreal Initiative
If you’re a regular returner to this blog you are likely aware that while we support bird conservation in almost every instance, our particular focus and passion is the preservation of Canada’s boreal forest. This (we think) is for good reason: the boreal is one of the world’s [...]

While the majority of North American media has been focused on a few high-profile stories over the past few weeks, an amazing and uplifting story has quietly emerged behind the scenes in Manitoba and Ontario.

A warm welcome from some of the children of Bloodvein First Nation.
Credit: Jeff Wells
It began with the joint announcement between [...]

A few weeks ago I had the honor of being part of a tour of the proposed Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site. There is no doubt that the region and the people there are incredible and I will write more about the trip in an upcoming blog entry. In the meantime I wanted to share [...]

Quebec Premier Jean Charest and the boreal forest.
Credits: Charest: © Hans Westerling (via Flickr); Boreal: © Garth Lenz
The Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, gave his long-anticipated Inaugural Address on Wednesday. For the majority of us living outside of Quebec most parts of the speech wouldn’t have been too relevant to our daily lives (things like education [...]

We are delighted to post this guest blog by our Canadian colleague Suzy Fraser of the Canadian Boreal Initiative about their annual Boreal Awards ceremony in Ottawa. There were some great nominees and winners, as well as a great overall mood about the Boreal! – Jeff

‘Bou’ the Woodland Caribou drops by the CBI Awards
Credit: [...]

I thought I would do a quick follow-up on my previous post about the great progress being made in Manitoba toward the creation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The Premier, who just allocated $10 million toward the project before taking on his new job as ambassador to [...]

A river within the potential new UNESCO site
Credit: Garth Lenz
Yesterday the outgoing Premier of Manitoba (equivalent of governor), Gary Doer, announced he will be putting $10 million into a trust fund designated for large-scale conservation planning in eastern Manitoba. Selected as the new ambassador to the United States and thus leaving his post as premier, [...]