magazine / jun10
 June 2010 issue
 Regardless of how strategically the planting spots have been pegged, the trees still have to get in the ground. Someone’s hands have to get dirty.
Photo: Eamon Mac Mahon
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Read success stories from Ontario communities racing to plant 50 million trees.
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Discover videos, interactive features and photos on the ideas, science and communities behind our biodiversity issue.
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What is Biodiversity?
The word invokes the splendour of our world. In 2010 we celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity, yet many living things are in imminent danger of going extinct. Read more »
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Clayoquot Sound
Biosphere Reserves such as Clayoquot Sound aim to prove that rich natural environments go hand-in-hand with vibrant economies. Read more »
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Citizen Science
From studying slugs to searching for swans and monitoring pine martens, citizen scientists keep watch over our changing world. Read more »
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50 Million Trees
Ontario has an ambitious plan to reforest the most populated part of Canada. But first it must grapple with landowners and fragmented landscapes. Read more »
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Goodbye Tallgrass Prairie
Once covering 6,000 square kilometres in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, the tallgrass prairie has all but vanished from the Canadian landscape.
Read more »
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Invasive Species
Are “invasive” species hitching rides to new habitats all that bad for our ecosystems? Read more »
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Freegan Living
Gerard Daechsel lives as a freegan, an anti-consumerist who forages necessities from what others throw away.
Read more »
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The Jordan Basin
Six years ago, an ecologically rich wedge of ocean in the northern Gulf of Maine became Canada’s first marine biodiversity showcase. Has it lived up to its promise? Read more »
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Multimedia
Discover videos, interactive features and photo essays mapping the ideas, science and communities behind our biodiversity issue.
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To get that long-term perspective, we hop into Taylor’s
truck and drive to a forest that he planted almost 30 years
ago, a quiet spot consisting of neat rows of evenly spaced
14-metre-tall white pines above a bed of reddish needles. “If
you just left these fields,” says Taylor, “they would take
three times longer to turn back into a traditional forest. We’re
simply speeding up the process.”
Conifer trees, such as spruce and pine, comprise the vast
majority of trees planted in southern Ontario, even though
the region’s forests are predominantly hardwood. Evergreen
trees are used as a “nurse crop” to restore the forest, since
they grow tall and straight and their lack of leaves means
hungry deer and rabbits won’t kill them off early. Taylor
points out the maple, cherry, beech and ash that seeded
naturally within the gaps. Hidden from hungry animals by
pines, they grow fast to reach past the canopy toward light
and sustenance. After planting only white pines initially,
then strategically removing rows of trees to allow sunlight
to enter the forest floor, Taylor is creating the conditions for
hardwoods to grow. Eventually, it will be 90 percent hardwoods,
he says, with a few of the original planted white
pines poking out above them — “just like it was when the
pioneers arrived.”
| “If you just came up from Toronto, you’d never know it was planted,” grins Dave Taylor. “We’re providing the clean air for Toronto.” |
The sun is dipping, and Taylor is eager to show me an even
older plantation that’s now a healthy and ecologically diverse
forest. We turn into a narrow dirt road that winds through an
area that was planted strictly with white pines in 1942 and
housed a minimum-security work camp until the 1970s,
with prisoners pruning trees and maintaining trails. It was
selectively logged a few times, providing lumber and log
homes for the region, but the area is now full of natural
hardwoods. The older, scattered white pines shoot high above
the canopy, where hawks nest and scope out
prey below. “If you just came up from Toronto,
you’d never know it was planted,” grins Taylor.
“We’re providing the clean air for Toronto.”
He gestures up the hilly landscape, past
tangled branches and colourful leaves just
hanging on, to a couple of rotten “deadhead”
trees. “When their branches break off or they
get old — that’s when you get the wildlife,”
he says. “That dead snag will be good for woodpeckers. And
now with all the hardwoods in here, the deer can come and
chew on them too. This is what we strive for.”
Fraser Los is the associate editor of Alternatives Journal in Waterloo,
Ont., and a contributing editor at www.thegreenpages.ca.
Photographer Tobin Grimshaw (www.tobingrimshaw.com) freelances
for publications such as The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s
and lives in Toronto, as does photographer Eamon Mac Mahon.
Related content and resources:
Photo Club
View a gallery of Eamon Mac Mahon’s photos of Canada’s forests and read a
one-on-one interview with the photographer.
50 Million Trees
Get involved in your community with Ontario’s 50 Million Tree Program. Donate or organize your own plant, because every tree counts.
Return to the Wild
Explore and learn more about the diversity of Canada’s wildlife in the Return to the Wild project.
| Comments on this article | View all comments (12) | Leave a comment | Citizen scientist can submit wildlife and plant sightings into community database at 'Wildlife & Plant Sightings' www.junponline.com
Sightings data are organized into basic reports and easily searchable.
Amateur to professional can contrinute their citizen science here.
This story requires the eyes of an ornithologist on the water counting birds. Birds as indicators tell us about the world below. Having just returned from the Jordan Basin region I can attest to the rich Biodiversity that I saw as I counted birds. Dovekie, N. Fulmar, Greater Shearwater..... This Bioregion is important to both the United States and Canada. It behooves all of us to work together diligently to understand this region of the Ocean. Remember also that it is our RIVER Ecosystems connected to the Gulf of Maine that ultimately determine the biodiversity of the GOM.
Pollution in the GOM is a death sentence. Dioxins and mercury must be removed from the Penobscot River and all streams and culverts must be reconnected to the SEA-RUN FISH.. These are the Keystone Species of the GOM and determine the Health of both the United States and Canadian people.
Good article, but most professional foresters will recongnize that most of the photos do not depict an old growth forests, but a variety of second growth or fire-origin sites.
With respect to the statistics Candace quotes from the Int'l Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Is it 12% of all birds or 12% of all species of birds. Quite a different number I would think.
The excellent article by Fraser Los entitled “50 million trees” is welcome. While the article focuses on Ontario Government plans to reforest Southern Ontario the author also mentions efforts being undertaken in Northern Ontario. To expand on these remarks…
The Forest Health and Silvicultural Section of the Ministry of Natural Resources advises “in 2008, approximately 92 million trees were planted in Ontario, with 49.8 million of these in the Northwest Region”. Survival rates for Pine Spruce are typically 80 to 85% in the Thunder Bay area and are affected by lack of rain, higher temperatures and frost. Tree plant numbers for 2009 will be available in March 2011.
As one flies or takes a survol by Google over the vast expanse of Northern Ontario, one can’t help but wonder about the sustainability of the Boreal Forest. For example, in some areas notably near the Ogoki reservoir, there are any number of 10,000 hectare clearcuts. Huge areas are unplanted and without sufficient seed trees left standing for natural regeneration. Considerable piles of over cut and uncollected wood lie north of Armstrong. As forest tenure is being renogiated, often with the same companies that have left this mess, Northerners can’t help but wonder if there will be any improvement?
Also, the deplorable conditions experienced by many tree planters, mosty Canadian students, needs examining. Migrant workers picking crops in Southern Ontario have much better accommodation, food and standards than experienced by northern tree planters who are often forced to work in cold rain and snow while sleeping in tents. Certainly miracle planters might attain 5,000 trees under ideal conditions, however most struggle to plant 1,000 or 2,000 trees to meet their camp costs, clothing, travel and to have meagre savings for education.
A article on the future of the Boreal Forest and sustainable forestry in Northern Ontario would be welcome.
Evolution happens with or without our consent or assistance. Yet it's hard to see the good in some of the growing numbers of invasive plant species. Good article, thanks.
Informative and well-written article. Nice to see attention being paid to this important, though sadly neglected, issue in Manitoba.
Here is a slideshow from this year's Guelph Rotary Forest tree planting at wich about 1,000 people helped plant trees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-23quD0hMA
We should cherish and protect the old-growth rain forests and what's left around us.
Stunning multimedia on the Freegan lifestyle. High quality work!
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