Earth's green halo

Home to a myriad of habitats

The Boreal Forest is truly an amazing place. Preservation of this abundant, intact forest will not only protect us from accelerated climate change, but also protect a wide-range of biodiversity from ecological collapse.

Here are some facts about one of the largest intact ecosystems on the planet, Canada's Boreal Forest:

• A 50% reduction in logging in the Boreal would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking all the passenger cars in Canada off the road;
• Logging in the Boreal releases half as much global warming pollution as all the vehicles in California (If California were a country, it would be the 10th largest contributor to global warming);
• Second to the ocean, the Boreal's soils and forests are considered the largest terrestrial carbon storehouse in the world, making it a vital regulator of global climate;
• The Boreal alone comprises one-quarter of the world's remaining original forests;
• Since 1975, logging companies have cut down 65 million acres of the Boreal, an area the size of the United Kingdom;
• Billions of birds, about a third of all of North America's songbirds, migrate to the Boreal to breed in its rich habitat;
• Over a million freshwater lakes make it a haven for fish and waterfowl;
• The Boreal ecosystem supports the largest freshwater system in the world, holding almost a third of the world’s freshwater.