James Schaefer
August 28, 2009

In the span of just one week, the economic indicators seem headed in opposite directions. Canadians are increasingly confident, but stock markets took a nosedive. Some industrial countries pulled out of recession, while U. S. retail reports were disappointing. The complexities of the modern economy are clear.

Beyond the headlines, our lives are unfolding in an even more intricate theatre. In nature, it is said, everything is connected to everything else. And it's a formidable task to see though this tangle, to reveal the hidden connections that will govern our future. Nature discloses her secrets with great reluctance.

Some actors are invisible. Carbon dioxide is colourless and odourless, just 0.03 per cent of the atmosphere, but a greenhouse gas. Atmospheric scientists say if its concentrations continue to increase, carbon dioxide has the potential to dramatically alter the 21st-century environment.

But other, more hopeful players live in our backyards;we encounter their images every day.

Consider the caribou, the northern icon etched into the Canadian imagination. More than a symbol on the 25-cent piece, caribou sustained the emergence of humans 35,000 years ago. People relied on this animal for survival well into the 20th century.

Now, once again, our fortunes and those of caribou are merging.

The woodland caribou, the shy and reclusive creature of the boreal forest, has a special link to the future. Canada's boreal forest includes some of the most intact forests on the planet-- woodlands and peatlands that stretch from Labrador to Yukon. This forest holds more carbon than temperate and tropical forests, including the Amazon, combined--about 27 years' worth of global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Woodland caribou are seen as an indicator of the forest's healthy functioning. There is remarkable overlap between carbon and caribou. The most carbon-rich stores in the boreal forest are found in the habitat most important to this animal.

But while science has learned much about caribou, we have overlooked an important matter--what we might learn from caribou. Perhaps, at this crucial juncture, this animal can point the way to prosperity.

Scale is the new tie that binds us. Here is an animal that needs immense tracts of forest at least a half-century old. These habitat needs are a challenge, but they are also a call for us to think on a scale that rivals the vast Canadian landscape.

From this vantage point, a new landscape is revealed. We see that half of the woodland caribou range has vanished, swept away by our expanding population and widening ecological footprint.

But somewhere along the way, our collective memory has also been lost. Although caribou in these forests were as recent as our great-grandparents' day, they now seem as remote to us as the last Ice Age.

As we continue to scrutinize the boreal forest for its resource potential, pressures on woodland caribou will increase. Striking the right balance will test science, our skills at compromise, and our way of thinking.

Familiar arguments may resurface, that conservation will hurt the economy. But our new perspective exposes the old, economy-versus-ecology debate as a false construct and points to the true alternatives: short-term benefits and long-term prosperity. Sustainability means a focus on enduring wealth, especially for future citizens.

Rather than an impediment, woodland caribou could be a reassuring sign, a signal of security for us in the long haul.

And here, the news is encouraging. Businesses, from booksellers to paper companies, are adopting policies and practices to help conserve the boreal forest. Governments are responding to the need to protect habitat. Just last week, the Alberta government gave the Lower Athabasca Regional Advisory Council a mandate to identify at least 20 per cent of the region for conservation.

Now, as in the past, caribou have a way of bringing people together.

Caribou -- lost or conserved? The answer is not strictly a matter of biology. The fate of this species is a record of our values, carved into the landscape and laid bare for succeeding generations.

Caribou represent a deep connection to our past and, if we choose, a guidepost for the future. We simply need to adopt a caribou's eye view.

James Schaefer is professor of biology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. and is a member of the science panel of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign