THE LAND
WILDLIFE
NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL & TERRITORIAL PARKS
THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
We’ve got polar bear, grizzly bear, big-ass whales and moose – what more do you want? Diamonds, oil, gold and timber? Sheesh, now you’re being greedy – but Canada can deliver those, too.
From the get-go, when the first explorers came looking for gold but instead found waters thick with cod and forests dense with beaver, the country’s environment has yielded bountifully. The fur trade became the backbone of the country’s early economy; the question of who would control it was at the heart of the conflict between the French and the British. Later generations, moving westward, found fertile soil in the prairies and gold in the Klondike. Today, it’s oil in Alberta, natural gas in the Arctic and diamonds in the Northwest Territories that help fatten the gross national product.
Centuries of exploitation have left some scars, but there’s no question that Canada is still one darn purty country. Its many different landscapes – rainforest to alpine glaciers, prairies to the Arctic, and even a tiny pocket of desert – support a wild array of plants and animals. And vast stretches of pristine wilderness mean it’s possible to experience areas not much different from when the first humans shuffled across the Bering Strait thousands of years ago.
All in all, Nature did a bang-up job with this place.
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A quick glance at a map of the world is all you need in order to know that Canada is one behemoth of a country. In fact, at nearly 10 million sq km, it’s the second-largest country after Russia. But unlike its massive neighbor across the North Pole, Canada’s shape has the delicacy of an intricately fashioned piece of lacework due, largely, to water. It’s surrounded by oceans on three sides; its coastline, if stretched out, would reach halfway to the moon.
In fact, Canada’s coastline is the world’s longest, at over 202,000km. Islands larger than many European countries – Baffin, Vancouver and Newfoundland among them – hem in the vast mainland, and the world’s largest freshwater lake island, Manitouline Island in Lake Huron, is also here. And thanks to a couple of million rivers and lakes, Canada is the repository of 20% of the world’s fresh water.
Much of this water fills the dips and dents of the massive Canadian Shield, a vast horseshoe-shaped region of Precambrian rock chiseled and gouged by glaciers and erosion over hundreds of millions of years. This vast mosaic of forests, lakes, bogs and tundra occupies nearly half the country’s landmass south of the tree line, stretching all the way from Labrador to Ontario, then to Saskatchewan and the Arctic Ocean. It’s a rugged, cool and remote land that’s more popular with birds and beaver than with people. In addition to Aboriginals, many of those living here are miners and loggers who exploit the enormous wealth of natural treasures, including nickel, copper, silver, gold and diamonds.
About 90% of Canada’s population is squished into a more hospitable 300km-wide ribbon running parallel to the 6500km-long border with the USA. In the Pacific region, coastal British Columbia has the most temperate climate, but is often drenched by rains. The Yukon, to the north, has 20 of the country’s highest mountains, including the highest, Mt Logan (5959m). Along with Alberta, the Yukon is part of the Cordillera region, which is also defined by other mountain ranges, most famously the Canadian Rockies. Going east, the land soon flattens into the prairies, which take you into skies as wide as Jim Carrey’s smile. The great plains of southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and parts of lower Alberta are among the world’s great breadbaskets.
The Canadian Shield puts an abrupt end to the fertile ranges of the prairies. Across the shield, in southern Ontario and Québec, is an area defined as the Great Lakes–St Lawrence Lowlands. It is home to about half the country’s population, most living in Toronto, Montréal and Ottawa.
Eastern Canada culminates in the Appalachian region, which embraces hilly and wooded New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, all with deeply indented coastlines that provide for some fine fishing.
Finally, capping it all off like froth on a cappuccino, is the Arctic region, the country’s final frontier of perpetually frozen, primordial beauty.
Visitors are guaranteed to see some mighty creatures when they head out from the cities. Whales, polar bear and the goofy, twig-eating moose are wildlife-watching favorites.
No other animal has shaped the history of Canada more than the beaver, whose coveted pelt brought the first permanent European settlers to these shores. North America’s largest rodent has a beefy body, webbed hind feet and a long, muscular tail that serves as a rudder when swimming. The axiom ‘busy as a beaver’ is well justified: skilled loggers and engineers, they each cut down up to 200 trees per year and build elaborate ‘lodges,’ dams and canals. They live in forests throughout the country and are most active between dusk and dawn. If you’re lucky, you might spot one paddling across a stream or lake with its head just above the water.
The porcupine is Canada’s second-largest rodent. This curious, slow-moving animal is covered in up to 30,000 quills, which form a formidable defense mechanism. When under threat, the porcupine vigorously lashes its tail, thereby dislodging loose quills as if throwing them. It feeds mainly on bark and tree buds, and used to be a staple of the Aboriginal diet. The quills are sometimes used in aboriginal decorative work.
The white-tailed deer can be found anywhere from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia to the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Its bigger relative, the caribou, is unusual in that both males and females sport enormous antlers. Barren-ground caribou, which feed on lichen and spend most of the year on the tundra from Baffin Island to Alaska, are the most common. Some Inuit hunt caribou for hides and food, and it occasionally shows up on menus as far south as Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver.
One of the biggest deer species is the elk (wapiti), a formidable creature whose ‘bugling’ roars can scare the bejeezus out of you. Their relatively small herds roam around western Canada, especially the Kootenays and Vancouver Island in BC, although quite a few also hang out in the national parks of Banff and Jasper, and Waterton Lakes, Riding Mountain and Prince Albert.
Still more humungous is the moose, whose skinny, ballerina-like legs support a hulking body with a distinctive shovel-like snout. Males grow a spectacular rack of antlers every summer, only to discard it in November. You’ll spot moose foraging near lakes, muskegs and streams as well as in the forests of the western mountain ranges in the Rockies and the Yukon. Newfoundland has grown a huge moose population since they were first introduced there in the early 1900s (Click here).
Neither moose nor elk are generally aggressive, and they will often generously pose for photographs. They can be unpredictable, though, so don’t startle them. During mating season (September), the males can become belligerent, so stay in your car.
The huge, heavy-shouldered, shaggy bison (buffalo) that once roamed the prairies in vast herds now exists only in parks. It is said that there were once as many as 70 million bison in North America. Their herds would often take days to pass by a single point. Their 19th-century slaughter – often by chartered trainloads of ‘sportsmen’ who left the carcasses to rot – is one of the great tragedies of the North American west, affecting the very survival of Aboriginal peoples. To check out the largest herd of bison, take a trip to Wood Buffalo National Park, close to the Alberta–Northwest Territories border. Smaller herds roam the national parks of Waterton Lakes and Elk Island in Alberta, Prince Albert in Saskatchewan and Riding Mountain in Manitoba.
If you’re lucky enough to spot a bear in the wild, it’ll most likely be a black bear. (Keep your distance, though; for more, see the boxed text below.) About half a million of these furry critters patrol the forests and bushland just about everywhere except Prince Edward Island, southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.
Ursus arctos horribilis, better known as the grizzly bear, makes its home on the higher slopes of the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon. It stands up to a fearsome 3m tall and has a distinctive hump between its shoulders. Grizzlies are solitary animals with no natural enemies except humans. Although they enjoy an occasional snack of elk, moose or caribou, they usually fill their bellies with berries and other vegetation.
The fiercest member of the bear family, the polar bear, weighs less than 1kg at birth but grows to be as heavy as a Volkswagen (up to 800kg). Pretty much the only place to observe them is from late September to early November in Churchill, Manitoba, one of their major maternity denning grounds. For more information about these fascinating creatures, Click here.
Another formidable predator is the wolf, which can be every bit as fierce and cunning as is portrayed in fairy tales, although it rarely attack humans. Wolves hunt in packs and aren’t afraid to take on animals much larger than themselves, including moose and bison. They’re still fairly common in sparsely populated areas between Labrador and the Yukon. If you’re out in the bush, you may hear them howling at the moon (Click here for information about organized wolf howling sessions in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario).
There is only one creature in the water that fears no enemy other than humans: the killer whale (orca), so named because its diet includes seals, belugas and other whales. Their aerodynamic bodies, signature black-and-white coloration and incredible speed (up to 40km/h) make them the Ferraris of the aquatic world. They’re most commonly seen around Vancouver Island and along the Inside Passage to Alaska.
Other whale species frolic in eastern waters, such as around the Fundy Isles in New Brunswick, the tip of Digby Neck and the north shore of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and in Witless Bay in Newfoundland. Belugas are the smallest, typically measuring no more than 4.5m and weighing about one ton. They are chatty fellows who squeak, groan and peep while traveling in closely knit family pods. Blue whales are the planet’s largest animals, reaching up to 27m in length and weighing as much as 30 elephants. Each one chows down about 40 tons of krill per day. Finbacks aren’t much smaller; they’re easily identified by the asymmetrical coloring of the lower jaw – white or yellowish on the right side and black on the left side. Humpbacks average 15m and typically weigh 30 tons – some serious heft to be launching up and out of the water for their playful breaching. Minkes can grow to 10m and are likely to approach boats, delighting passengers with acrobatics as they, too, hurl themselves out of the water (a bit more easily than the lumbering humpback).
Canadian skies are home to 462 bird species, with BC and Ontario boasting the greatest diversity. The most famous feathered resident is the common loon, Canada’s national bird. It’s a waterbird whose mournful yet beautiful call often rings out across quiet backcountry lakes early or late in the day. The great blue heron, one of the country’s largest birds, is a timid fellow that’s an amazing sight on take-off.
What’s all the flap about? Well, if you’re a Canada goose, it can be up to 1000km a day. Flying in their distinctive V formation, some of these geese have made the trip from northern Québec to the USA in a single day! Now that’s something to crow about…
If Canada’s seabirds ever got together and held a popularity contest, the puffin would win hands (wings?) down. Everyone loves these cute little guys, a sort of waddling penguin-meets-parrot cross, with black-and-white feathers and an orange beak. They hang out in the Atlantic provinces, especially Newfoundland.
The true ruler of the sky, though, is the bald eagle, whose wingspan can reach more than 2m. It was Canadian banker Charles Broley who first connected the dots between DDT and the plummeting population of these regal birds. That was in the late 1940s, and things have been looking way up since then.
Canada is a forest nation. Trees cover nearly half of the country, providing living space to roughly two-thirds of the estimated 140,000 species of plants, animals and micro-organisms living in Canada. Stretching from coast to coast and from the US border to the Arctic tree line, they are highly diversified and have adapted to the soil, climate and weather conditions.
In the far north are the frost-molded landscapes of the Arctic tundra, a word derived from the Finnish tunturia and, quite appropriately, meaning ‘treeless plain.’ It may look barren, but there’s actually plenty of growing going on, with more than 1700 types of plants thriving during the short summer season, most of them lichen, mosses and low shrubs; even some wildflowers take root.
Further south, tundra transitions to taiga, better known as boreal forest, named after Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind. This giant green belt dappled with bogs, fens, marshes, lakes, rivers and wetlands is the country’s largest forest ecosystem, stretching for about 5000km from the Yukon to Labrador. Cold-tolerant conifers such as pine, fir and spruce thrive in this harsh climate of long winters and short but warm summers. On the southern edge of the boreal forest you’ll sometimes see a few deciduous trees – mostly white birch and poplar.
In eastern Canada, the Acadian forest in the Maritime provinces and the Laurentian forest in Québec both support eclectic flora. Pines, including the majestic wine pine, and spruces tickle the leaves of maples, oaks, birches and other hardwoods that supply Canada’s famous fall colors.
Ontario hosts the parkland zone, which marks the transition between the eastern forests and the prairies. Trembling aspen is the dominant tree.
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are best known for their flat prairie grasslands, now mostly covered in cultivated grains. Short, mixed and tall grasses once blanketed this region but, except for a few protected pockets, these are a thing of the past.
BC has the most diverse vegetation in the country. The Rocky Mountain forests consist of sub-alpine species such as Engelmann spruce, alpine fir and larches, with lodgepole pine and aspen at higher elevations. In the rainforest-like climate of the Pacific coast, the trees soar skyward. There are ancient, gigantic western red cedar, Douglas fir, western hemlock and Sitka spruce species. Some are more than 1000 years old, making them veritable Methuselahs of the tree world.
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Canada has vast national and provincial park systems that protect places where Nature has offered up some of her most creative work. The national parks are so freakin’ sublime we have written an entire chapter about them. Flip to it for the lowdown on activities, itineraries, costs and history. Whether it’s a park, a conservation area, reserve, historic site or landmark, if it has the word ‘national,’ it’s managed by Parks Canada (for an explanation of all entities under the group’s umbrella).
Each province also runs its own system of parks and reserves. There are literally hundreds of them, mostly used for recreation but also, to a certain extent, to protect wildlife and historic sites. Many are just as spectacular as the national parks. The best-organized provincial parks offer similar infrastructure to their national cousins, including interpretive centers, equipment rental and campgrounds. There’s usually a small admission charge, although many parks are free. Parks in the territories tend to be small, simple and inexpensive to visit; they are often used for overnight camping, although facilities may be basic.
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Canada practically started the modern environmental movement. It birthed Greenpeace, for crissake! The group launched from a Vancouver living room in 1969.
Vancouver is also the home of environmental pioneer David Suzuki, a retired professor from the University of British Columbia (UBC) who has been writing about sustainable ecology for more than 30 years. David Suzuki’s eponymous foundation (www.davidsuzuki.org) and large body of work (43 books and several TV series, of which the CBC’s The Nature of Things is most widely known) are long-time, respected sources of conservationism. Vancouver continues to be the country’s hotbed for eco-activism, led by Suzuki and UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
Environmentalism seeped into Canadian politics 25 years ago and now commands a fair-sized chunk of support. The Green Party (www.greenparty.ca) scored 4.3% of the popular vote in the 2004 national elections, almost quintupling its 2000 showing. Alberta and British Columbia offered the strongest support, Manitoba the least. (Compare this with the USA’s Green Party, which had its most successful year in 2000, when it got 2.7% of the vote – a feat unmatched before or since.)
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So much for Kyoto. It was a nice idea, but as unmet goals came and went, everyone sort of coughed and ahem’ed and then kept right on pumping crap into the environment.
Hey, those weren’t realistic targets, the current government says. Apparently not. Canada was supposed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% below 1990 levels beginning in 2008. Yet the country’s last report to the United Nations showed it to be 35% above that amount. Ooops.
Meanwhile, the clock ticks. And the ice melts…
Because of Canada’s wealth of arctic terrain, it gets to witness the effects of climate change firsthand. The average annual temperature has increased by 0.9°C over the past 50 years. And while that might go unnoticed by someone in Ottawa – other than prompting a few less days of toque-wearing in winter – residents of northern Canada are seeing some strange sights indeed.
Take the Yukon. As the permafrost thaws around Herschel Island, long-buried coffins are floating to the melting earth’s surface (for more on this spooky topic, Click here). In Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay’s frigid coast, polar bear now arrive sooner, stay later and sniff closer to town. Shorter winters have dissolved their ice-based seal-hunting habitat, and all of a sudden, nearby humans are starting to look like juicy T-bones (Click here for more).
Climate change also has bizarre economic ramifications. In the Northwest Territories, the ice roads that carry trucks to the diamond mines are melting, which means supplies have to be flown in – a much costlier (and more polluting) method of transport. And the Olympics are headed to Vancouver in 2010, but will there be enough snow for the slopes and bobsleigh runs?
Then there’s the issue of warmer waters changing fish migration patterns (sockeye salmon have been spotted in the Arctic), warmer weather allowing insects to hatch and infest BC’s forests, and the list goes on.
From those first furry beaver pelts, Canada’s resources have always been abundant and ripe for the picking. For years it was easy to have the attitude, ‘Wow! We’re rolling in fur, fish, timber and all that other jazz. Take as much as you want!’
Then reality struck. In the early 1990s, Atlantic Canada faced the horrifying fact that the cod were fished out. The greatest fishery in the world, in business for more than 400 years, was now kaput. Cod were even listed as endangered in 2003. For additional information, Click here.
Logging is a tricky issue, especially in BC and New Brunswick, where it’s a big part of the provincial economies yet has ugly consequences for the environment. Along the same lines, companies strip huge areas of forest and soil cover to access coal, iron, nickel and other mineral resources. These ore deposits are developed all the time, particularly in seldom-visited northern regions such as Labrador and the Northwest Territories, where there is little public scrutiny or attention. Recently there has been a spate of oil and natural gas development in the Atlantic provinces, much of it on the ocean floor, with untold consequences for marine life (for an example of such actions, Click here).
And then there’s good old-fashioned pollution. In northern Alberta, oil is coaxed from oil sands, a messy process that requires huge amounts of energy and poisons the atmosphere with greenhouse gases (Click here for more). Nearby, plans are underway for a controversial 1220km-long pipeline, the Mackenzie Gas Project, to be tunneled beneath the wilderness of the Northwest Territories. In eastern Canada, acid rain kills trees and pollutes rivers and lakes because the soil there lacks the alkalinity needed to neutralize the acids raining down from the industrial corridors along the US–Canadian border. It’s not a pretty sight.
Finally, everyone agrees something has to be done. The government’s current plan is set to reduce greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020 compared with 2006 levels. By 2050, it will cut emissions by 70%. Is that good enough? Are government and big businesses really doing all they can to ‘use less and live better,’ as their saying goes? Stay tuned.