So a global pandemic has ruined your hiking plans. Clearly, there are more important things to worry about right now, but getting out in nature is how many of us relax and reset. How can we enjoy the outdoors and help ourselves manage the stress of our situation without putting public health at risk? How can we connect to nature when we are stuck inside? On the other hand, what about our jobs? What about the mills we depend on for sustainable materials. The material we use to build our homes and make medical-grade masks. How are our sustainable business coping with the pandemic?

The majority of northern Alberta is covered in thick forest, but it may have looked very different only 100 years ago. What is now dense mixedwood forest once contained a vast network of grasslands, supporting the iconic bison and a multitude of First Nations people. This landscape has been changed, not because people took it over, but because they were kicked out. First Nations people used to burn this landscape at regular intervals in order to maintain grassland ecosystems that supported their way of life, as well as the many species that depended on it, like the bison. In the 1920’s, First Nations people were prohibited from practicing their cultural traditions, and wildfire suppression became the policy of the day. As a result, the forest took over and we lost a very unique landscape. Dr. Patricia McCormack tells us about how we know this happened and what we can learn from it.

Imagine traveling across the grasslands of North America and needing to take a three-day rest stop between destinations because there is a heard of 100,000 Bison slowly grazing their way across the landscape. That would have been the norm less than 200 years ago. Before the commercial hunt of the late 1800s, tens of millions of these bovine behemoths covered the land. They were the most prominent large mammal on the continent for thousands of years, shaping landscapes, creating habitat and defining the wild. From a low of roughly 1000 individual Bison in the 1880s, today we have managed to bring back this species from the brink of extinction through 100 years of hard-fought conservation efforts. Bison were crucial to the original inhabitants of Canada roughly 13,000 years ago and they are responsible for building the thriving economy we enjoy today in North America. We owe Bison a great deal.

How can we find proof of what happened in the past? Written accounts by the people of the day are helpful, but how can we prove what they are saying is factual and not just one person’s biased assessment? Luckily, when it comes to our natural world we have the most reliable eye witness…trees. Tree rings hold within them the story of the past, they can tell us all kinds of things about climatic conditions, fires, floods, droughts, forest pest outbreaks, and more. Archeology holds tree ring data as one of the most dependable timestamps, they even use it to truth carbon dating. The study of tree rings, Dendrochronology, is a fascinating world of discovery that has delivered much to our understanding of the past, and therefore our future.

Where does your drinking water come from? What protects your home from floods? Where is 60 percent of all the carbon stored in Canadian soils? What provides habitat for countless species of ducks, songbirds, insects, and rodents? … Wetlands.

The National Boreal Program of Ducks Unlimited Canada watches over the roughly 1 million square Kilometers of wetlands in Canada’s Boreal Forest. If you want an answer about wetlands, you talk to them. So that’s what I did. The National Manager for the Boreal Program Kevin Smith and a Remote Sensing Specialist Michael Merchant came on the podcast to discuss their work and the importance of wetlands to society and the integrity of our natural world.

Photo credit to ©DUC

An ice age relic living among us, Caribou are perhaps a remnant of an age long gone. Woodland Caribou are a beautiful, important, and yet many claim, a very poorly adapted species. In the cold northern wetlands of the Boreal forest, they have survived by living out of reach of predators. Woodland Caribou occupy a delicate niche that is highly susceptible to change. As such, they are at increased risk of extirpation. In Canada, there is a growing effort to help restore Woodland Caribou habitat to a state that allows for sustainable populations to exist. One major hurdle facing restoration is the vast network of seismic lines that riddle the Boreal forest from oil and gas exploration. Millions of kilometers of straight lines through the forest canopy open up travel for predators. Couple that with climatic changes and low birth rates, and this delicate species is facing a challenging future. Luckily, there is hope. Many companies have dedicated funding to research and restoration efforts to find answers to the caribou problem. Scott Nielsen’s Applied Conservation and Ecology Lab has found some answers.

Many people spend much of their time in the outdoors hoping to achieve something. Whether it’s hiking to the peak of a mountain, catching the biggest fish, harvesting an animal, or running the furthest distance, we often forget to enjoy the little things. Bruce is a lifelong outdoor writer, and he prides himself on being able to capture the emotion of a moment, allowing his readers to feel that moment again. His attention to the little details allows readers to journey to memories they forgot they had. Bruce is not trying to sell an idea or opinion, just providing a connection to our own memories of the outdoors. His book “One Last Cast- reflections of an outdoor life” is an incredible journey for all readers to find their own wilderness ideas within themselves.

Outro song “The Creek” was written by Edmonton musician Sarah Masterman and performed by herself and Nadine Veroba.

Living harmoniously with wildlife is not something western society has been able to do very well in the past. That being said, in the last few decades we have witnessed a societal push for more sustainable management of our wildlife species and wild places. With these values in mind we find ourselves asking what can we do better? How can we alter our own behaviour in a way that makes living with bears easier. Courtney Hughes has been researching the social dimensions of bears, and other wildlife, for years now and has some thoughts on how we can create successful interactions between bears and all land users.

Climate change has already begun to cause problems for forest management in Canada. These challenges can be difficult to recognize, and even more daunting to solve. However, with some change in perspective, we can begin to find simple solutions to large problems. Sheri and Mark have dedicated their professional lives to finding ways to help industry, and other stakeholders, tackle this seemingly overwhelming challenge of adapting to climate change. This problem does not require a new management system, just a new perspective and real engagement.

Indigenous people have lived in the Boreal forest since time immemorial, depending on the land for the health of their culture and community. Since colonization, it has become increasingly more difficult for them to acquire what they need as more and more people utilize the resources for their own purposes. As environmental professionals we have a professional and moral obligation to, first and foremost, protect the public resource. Those resources include indigenous rights and traditional use. More needs to be done to create an environment of cooperation and trust so that we can move into the future together to create a better tomorrow for everyone. During this conversation, we do an overview of a conference put on by the Canadian Institute of Forestry regarding indigenous consultation. Lots of emotion, frustration and great conversation.