We speak to a lot of researchers and environmental professionals on this podcast. I thought maybe it was time to get a different perspective. Someone who is familiar with the goings-on but does not have a direct stake in the game, perhaps allowing for a more objective view. Tony is a journalist and has been writing about forestry, renewable energy, and sustainability for 30 years. He has some interesting thoughts and ideas that provide some great food for thought. We discussed the true sustainability of the forest industry, the deal with the softwood lumber agreement, private vs public land forestry, tree farming to fight climate change and strengthen the economy, consumerism as a tool to fight climate change, and building solar farms on abandoned oil and gas wells.

We all understand that climate change is bad and that we should do something to stop it, but why then do we all struggle to put our money where our mouth is. People want to invest in companies that are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but they fear being made to look like a fool. Carbon markets used to be seen as a scam, a way for people to profit from climate change. But with new technology comes the ability for buyers to actually see what they are buying. Pachama is one company trying to make the carbon market more transparent and trustworthy. By using remote sensing and deep learning technology, Pachama is able to map forest carbon capture overtime, allowing buyers to actually see what they are paying for. The carbon market is one way we can put our money where our mouth is and invest in the fight against climate change.

Sustainability is a buzz word in our society today. Everyone hears the word, but do we really understand the idea? Sustainability encompasses all aspects of human life, it helps us to define our success on this planet from economic prosperity, social justice, healthcare, happiness, and of course environmental integrity. Sustainability is the way forward. In his book, Sustainability-A history, Jeremy L. Caradonna describes not only the history of the sustainability movement but the benefits of, and arguments for, why it is our best hope to continue to thrive as a society deep into the future. Sustainability is in everyone’s best interest.

Getting outdoors during this pandemic has been stressful. Which it is not supposed to be. Where are the lines we don’t want to cross? The lines between keeping yourself and the public safe and enjoying your outdoor activities. Should you see friends outside? What about traveling to your favorite lake or hiking trail? The Alberta Conservation Association weighs in on how we can all be safe and still enjoy the outdoors. Then we speak to Ellen Macdonald from the University of Alberta about how post-secondary has been affected? How do you keep students engaged? Test them? Do research? Most importantly, keep their education coming and not hold back the careers of our future environmental leaders.

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.