YOUR GUIDE TO THE EIGHT NORTHERN ECOZONES + FIVE ICONIC ARCTIC SPECIES
CHANGES + CHALLENGES Lancaster Sound Marine Reserve Nunavut’s Grand Land Plan Grolar Bears, Early Birds and more...
CANADA’S NORTH SPECIAL ISSUE
JULY + AUGUST 2018 VOLUME 24, NUMBER 3
Atlantic Walrus Foxe Basin, Nunavut
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SIGN UP NOW! Visit CanadianConservationCorps.ca.
20 July + August 2018 Volume 24, Number 3 WildlifeMagazine.ca
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26 SPECIAL ISSUE
Canada’s Arctic 17 Our Magnetic North 18
Changing Grounds 26
The Arctic is central to Canadian identity — our sense of nature, our history and and our imagination
Monitoring carbon (and trying to anticipate the future) in the Hudson Bay Lowlands
By Matthew Church
By Aaron Todd
Sound Management 20
The Curious Case of the Grolar Bear 30
A new marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound aims to protect the “Serengeti of the Arctic.” Will it? By Kat Eschner
ON THE COVER Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) age fotostock/Alamy Stock Photo
With changes in the Arctic climes come north-south hybridization and strange new genetic brews By Kerry Banks
PLUS: from lemmings to muskoxen, profiles of five fascinating Arctic species; and your map and guide to Canada’s eight Arctic ecozones JUL + AUG 2018 3
Front 6 In Focus
CWF photo contest winner: Photographer Mathieu Dumond captures an Arctic hare near Ulurvik, Nunavut
40
9 Out There
The Ivory Gull’s scientific name, Pagophila, means ice lover, apt as it spends much of its life in the High Arctic Text and Photography by Wayne Lynch
10 Dispatches
Keeping you up to date on what’s happening in research, in conservation and in the wild right now
Back 35 Field Guide
From geographical, geological, literary, historical and botanical perspectives, the Hairy Braya (Braya pilosa), a hardy member of the mustard family, is a fascinator!
Compiled and edited by Kat Eschner
12 Bigger Picture
A complex process of determining a responsible land use plan in Nunavut can show the world how to do it well By Alanna Mitchell
By Mel Walwyn
36 Gardening
Growing communities across the Arctic are bringing affordable fruit and veg to the northern table
14 Wild Things
Can we glimpse the future in the North’s distant Pliocene past? If we can, what might it teach us?
By Jay Ingram
By Staff
38 Birding
Timing’s Off: Arctic birds’ breeding and wintering grounds are warming, and that hurts them both coming and going By David Bird
40 Urban Wildlife
Bad news, bears: In Whitehorse, the North’s largest city, animals getting into the trash is more than a nuisance, it’s a danger By Matthew Church
42 Engage
Applause please! Join us in celebrating the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s annual conservation award-winners
46 Right Here
73° 14' 60" N, 93° 29' 59" W: Muskox graze in the centre of Nunavut’s Kuganajuup Qikiqtanga, also known as Somerset Island
14
Photo by John E. Marriott Editor Matthew Church Art Director Steven Balaban Publications Manager, CWF Fred T. Ouimette Contributing Editor Wayne Lynch Proofreader Judy Yelon Copy Editor Stephanie Small Translator Michel Tanguay French Proofreader Marie-Christine Picard
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Canadian Wildlife is published six times per year by the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Advertising inquiries: Fred T. Ouimette , 1-877-599-5777; fredo@cwf-fcf.org. Editorial inquiries: editorial@cwf-fcf.org. © 2018 Canadian Wildlife Federation. All rights reserved. Reproduction without prior written permission strictly prohibited. Printed in Canada. ISSN1201-673X. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40062602. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Canadian Wildlife Federation, 350 Michael Cowpland Drive, Kanata, ON K2M 2W1. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official positions of CWF.
From CWF
Advocating for Wildlife The Canadian Wildlife Federation is dedicated to ensuring an appreciation of our natural world and a lasting legacy of healthy wildlife and habitat by informing and educating Canadians, advocating responsible human actions and representing wildlife on conservation issues. For donations and program information call 1-800-563-9453, email info@cwf-fcf.org or visit CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President John Ford Past President Bob Morris 1st Vice-President Guy Vézina 2nd Vice-President John Williams Treasurer Brad Leyte Secretary David Pezderic
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE Ron Bjorge Robert Carmichael Duncan Crawford Patricia Dwyer Jean Fink George Greene Roland Michaud Glenn Rivard DIRECTORS
Prince Edward Island Luke Peters,
Jason MacEachern
Newfoundland and Labrador
Andrew Bouzan, Brian Taylor Nova Scotia Travis McLeod, Wilfred Woods New Brunswick Charles LeBlanc, Quebec Serge Larivière, Rodolphe La Salle Ontario Kerry Coleman, Debbie Rivard Manitoba Brian Strauman, Randy Walker Saskatchewan Heath Dreger, Clark Schultz Alberta Doug Butler, Wayne Lowry British Columbia Bill Bosch, Victor Skaarup Northwest Territories Gordon Van Tighem Yukon Eric Schroff, Charles Shewen AFFILIATE MEMBERS Alberta Fish & Game Association, B.C. Wildlife Federation, Fédération québécoise des chasseurs et pêcheurs, Manitoba Wildlife Federation, New Brunswick Wildlife Federation, Newfoundland & Labrador Wildlife Federation, Northwest Territories Wildlife Federation, Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers & Hunters, Ontario Federation of Anglers & Hunters, Prince Edward Island Wildlife Federation, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Yukon Fish & Game Association. CWF SENIOR STAFF
Chief Executive Officer
Rick Bates
Chief Financial Officer
Lisa Yip, CPA, CGA
Chief Revenue Officer
Dean McJannet
Director of Strategic Planning & Governance
Laurie Montgomery
Director of Finance & HR
Maria Vallee
Director of Conservation Science
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Director of Marketing
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Publications manager
Fred T. Ouimette
Canadian Wildlife Federation 350 Michael Cowpland Drive Kanata, ON K2M 2W1 CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca
T
he Canadian Wildlife Federation was only eight years old, when, in 1970, we began advocating in earnest for protections for Canada’s Arctic. That year, the organization was instrumental in establishing the federal Task Force on Northern Development, a far-reaching and ambitious national project to learn about and prevent damage being done to northern ecosystems as a result of resource development. That same year, after several devastating oil spills, CWF led a successful campaign for a moratorium on the transportation of dangerous pollutants through the Northwest Passage. Over the next decade, we took the lead on calling for action to protect polar bears, caribou, narwhals and several other northern species. We have been advocating, with you and for you, to ensure responsible stewardship of the North ever since. One important element of our advocacy is Canadian Wildlife magazine. By sharing with you the wonder and beauty of our country’s wild areas, the issues they face and the work underway to protect them, this magazine plays a vital role in conservation in Canada. This issue features some important elements of the flora and fauna of this extraordinary part of Canada, which occupies more than onethird of our country’s land mass. Not only is this region essential to maintaining the health of the planet, it is in the midst of tremendous change: temperatures are rising here faster than anywhere, and as ice recedes, resource development is increasing, and the Northwest Passage is becoming a viable shipping route. There is much to be done to ensure that we do it right. Right now there is important work underway to secure a thoughtful and responsible path to land use in a large area of the North. I draw your attention to one of the most heartening: Alanna Mitchell’s column on the ongoing work being done to develop a comprehensive land use plan for Nunavut. It may sound dry, of interest only to the policy minded, but it is not. As the column demonstrates, this complex (she calls it “messy”) exercise could be a model for the planet in engaging diverse communities to ensure responsible development while fostering biodiversity and environmental protections. And shifting perspectives from
the overall landscape to a single, unique plant, the Field Guide section of this issue celebrates the hairy braya, a modest yet hardy member of the mustard family. It clings to existence on the northernmost point of mainland continental North America, a strange place with perpetually smoking hills that features in both the tragic first voyage of Sir John Franklin and the fantastic science fiction of Jules Verne. I find it fascinating that a sample gathered in the 1820s can still be seen in the Kew Garden herbarium near London. This one plant profile captures something of what the Canadian Arctic is all about, and why it is so captivating. This issue also celebrates this year’s recipients of the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Awards (p. 42). While each of us does our parts, I am inspired and humbled by the stories of these seven diverse and distinct individuals and organizations that have contributed mightily to the conservation of wilderness in Canada. They are an inspiration. I encourage you to help us celebrate their work, to continue doing your part and perhaps to start thinking now about conservation heroes you know to nominate for next year’s awards.
Rick J. Bates CEO, Canadian Wildlife Federation JUL + AUG 2018 5
6 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
In Focus
ARCTIC HARE (LEPUS ARCTICUS) Taken at Ulurvik, Nunavut, by photographer Mathieu Dumond: “With snow still on the ground in late May, this Arctic hare is taking a break from its search for nourishment in the scattered snow-free patches of ground. After a day keeping a distance, this one got used to me following and allowed me to move closer.� Like many images we use, this was entered in a Canadian Wildlife Federation photo contest. Visit cwf-fcf.ca to enter monthly and/or annually.
JUL + AUG 2018 7
THE EASY WAY TO BECOME A
CITIZEN SCIENTIST!
Record your wildlife observations and help contribute to conservation in Canada. Download your free iNaturalist.ca app today. It’s so easy:
2 1
CREAT E your account.
3 Using your smartphone, S NAP PH OT OS of wildlife and plants.
DO W NLO A D iNaturalist on iPhone, Android or computer.
5 4 ADD IN DE TA ILS (TIP: Keep your GPS on for instant tracking. Works offline too.)
SAVE and U PLOAD your observation.
6 D ONE! Check back to see if the iNaturalist community has identified your picture or commented. Photo: Claude Robidoux
Out There
Ivory gull SCIENTIFIC NAME Pagophila eburnea
REGION Breeds in the eastern High Arctic and winters off Labrador and Newfoundland
WAYNE LYNCH
CONSERVATION STATUS Endangered WHY SO SPECIAL One of Canada’s rarest & most northern gull species
COOL FACTS The ivory gull’s generic scientific name, Pagophila, means ice lover, and it is truly a northern species, spending much of its life in the High Arctic, commonly above 70 degrees N. Researchers on a Russian icebreaker have even sighted this gull at the North Pole. Ivory gulls generally eat small fish and crustaceans, but many rely on scavenging, especially from seal carcasses left by polar bears, perhaps tracking them as they roam. Russian biologist Savva Uspenskii wrote “in early spring on Franz Josef Land, each bear had its own group of ivory gulls, made up of four to six birds. The gulls evidently did not want to risk being separated from ‘their’ bear, and when it left the area they also disappeared.” Since the 1980s, the small Canadian ivory gull population has dropped by 80 per cent, and today there are fewer than 1,000 birds. The reasons for the decline are uncertain, but global warming and dramatic changes in the Arctic pack ice are strongly implicated. — WAYNE LYNCH
JUL + AUG 2018 9
Dispatches
Research News
Birds migrate to balance energy, study shows
New work published in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows that birds migrate to preserve a balance between the amount of energy they take in and the amount they expend. By analyzing the recorded movements of the 15 per cent of migrating bird species worldwide and placing the data in a virtual environment, British researchers were able to show that the birds who migrate do so to optimize their “energy budget� in the face of changing seasons and competition from other species. This is the first study to show a motivation for migration across all migratory bird species. For more information, see nature.com.
New lakes in the Canadian Arctic
Studying vulnerable wolverines Researchers from the University of Calgary are studying wolverines (Gulo gulo) in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks and the Columbia Mountains. Though these carnivores have a deserved reputation for being able to look after themselves among other animals, their territoriality and low reproduction rates have made them vulnerable to climate change and the spread of human settlement. This research aims to assess how many wolverines there really are and how they are affected. For more information, see rmoutlook.com.
10 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
THOMAS KITCHIN & VICTORIA HURST/ALL CANADA PHOTOS
Two new and very salty lakes have been found under glaciers in the High Arctic. Between five and eight kilometres in diameter, these lakes are concealed under more than 500 metres of ice, which means they must have an extremely high salt content to stay liquid. These subglacial lakes, the first of their kind to be found in the Canadian Arctic, may harbour unique microbes. They were found during a University of Alberta radar survey of the Devon Ice Cap. For more information, visit sciencemag.org.
In the Wild
Here are a few of the species you can meet in some of Canada’s amazing wilderness vacation spots Wheatears and surfbirds
Yukon | Dempster Highway Canada’s most northern highway, going from Dawson City to the Arctic Circle, is a great spot to see wildlife — especially birds. Spot rarities like the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) and the surfbird (Calidris virgata). For more information, visit env.gov.yk.ca.
Grizzly bear
British Columbia | Khutzeymateen Provincial Park Known to scientists as the North American brown bear (Ursus arctos), this impressive carnivore is one of North America’s largest mammals. You can watch grizzlies lead their lives from the safety of a boat at this park, Canada’s only sanctuary for the bears. For more information, visit env.gov.bc.ca/parks/.
Bull snake
Alberta | Dinosaur Provincial Park While taking in the fossils at this landmark park, see Alberta’s largest reptile. The nonvenomous bull snake (Pituophis catenifer sayi), which can grow up to 2.5 metres long, is just one of the species of snake that can be spotted in this park. For more, visit albertaparks.ca.
ISTOCK. ISTOCK. ERIC LE BEL/PARKS CANADA.
Big dipper firefly
Ontario | Ojibway Prairie Complex Found around eastern North America, the big dipper firefly (Photinus pyralis) can be seen in lawns and fields at mid-summer. Learn more at ojibway.ca.
Northern flying squirrel
Starry Cypress Hills
What’s On
SUMMER STAR PARTY August 8-13 | Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park sssp.saskatoon.rasc.ca Join the Saskatoon and Regina centres of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for this annual weekend campout. This year’s event coincides with the Perseid meteor shower.
New Brunswick | Fundy National Park This ruddy-colored squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) is one of the only two species of flying squirrel found in North America, and it’s almost totally nocturnal, so you’ll be lucky to spot one. The squirrels eat fungi and spread their spores, helping the ecosystem. For more information, visit pc.gc.ca.
Northern wheatear
Gros Morne National Park FREE ADMISSION DAY August 18 | Gros Morne National Park pc.gc.ca This remote national park in Newfoundland is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and what better time to see it than on a free admission day? In 2018, all of Canada’s national parks and historic sites are holding a free day: find your local freebies at the Parks Canada website. WORLD WATER WEEK August 26-31 | worldwaterweek.org Celebrate World Water Week by learning about your community’s water footprint. This year’s theme is “water, ecosystems and human development.” JUL + AUG 2018 11
Wild Things
ARCTICPHOTO/ALL CANADA PHOTOS
More than most people on our planet, the Inuit of Nunavut know precisely how nature “contributes� to their lives. Many live off the land and cherish their ability to feed their families through hunting and fishing
Bigger Picture
NORTHERN WAYS
How a complex process of determining responsible land use in Nunavut might show the world how to do it well By Alanna Mitchell
I
T WAS THE HEADLINE ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF the report that hit me hard. “Human well-being at risk,” it read. The logic, when I read further, contained two points. The first: biodiversity — the dizzying variety of life forms on the planet — continues to drop in every single region of the world. The second: these declines are impairing nature’s ability to keep people going. The report, by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which came out in March, is the blue-ribbon scientific examination of the state of nature, if you exclude what’s happening in the open ocean and right at the poles. More than 500 scientists contributed from more than 100 countries. The organization’s chair, Robert Watson, an eminent environmental scientist at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., takes pains in the announcement to convince us that biodiversity matters to humans in a literal, if not poetic, sense. Homo sapiens needs the dance of other creatures on the planet to give us food, clean water and energy. Nature “contributes” to people. When nature suffers, therefore, so do people.
Unless something changes. And here is where the report offers a few glimmers of hope. It is possible to slow the trend of loss. In some cases, it’s possible to restore biodiversity. Examples from every corner of the world show that when smart and thoughtful policies are established and enforced, things can get better. That’s especially true when Indigenous and local knowledge are brought into play. In Canada, the potential policy superstar is the Nunavut land use plan. This is the blueprint for which parts of Nunavut will be opened to industrial development and which parts — and their creatures — will be protected. Planning has been going for about a decade, and the latest word is that nothing will be final until 2022. When that happens, it will be binding on all levels of government, an unusual feature of any policy. This will be environmental and biodiversity policy writ large and firm. It means the key is to get it right before it’s passed. The process to do that has been methodical, if necessarily messy. It involves extensive consultations with all 25 Inuit communities in Nunavut, as well as with the Dene in
ACCORDING TO A REGIONAL ANALYSIS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS, POPULATIONS OF THE AVERAGE SPECIES IN THE AMERICAS ARE 31 PER CENT SMALLER THAN THEY WERE WHEN EUROPEANS FIRST ARRIVED It’s a bid to make us care about the loss of biodiversity, one of the toughest environmental concepts to sell to the public. I guess, for some, it’s easier to imagine that nature “contributes” to us than to think that other creatures have their own intrinsic worth and the right to be here. I remember interviewing people a few years ago about the growing number of species on the brink of extinction, only to have one of them declare, without irony, that when another species goes extinct, it means humans are winning. But if you do care about biodiversity, a report like this one can be instructive. For example, in the Americas alone — according to a regional analysis co-chaired by Jake Rice, who was chief scientist for Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans until he retired a couple of years ago — populations of the average species are 31 per cent smaller than they were when Europeans arrived centuries ago. That’s the result of such stresses as landscape degradation; pollution of air, water and land; invasive species taking hold. By 2050, as the effects of climate change kick in even more, that will rise to 40 per cent, a dramatic deepening of the biodiversity crisis.
northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with the Inuit of northern Quebec and with other governments and their scientists, plus industry. It’s all happening even as the carbon-dioxide-heated Arctic continues to thaw and as pressure for industrial development grows. More than most people on our planet, the Inuit of Nunavut know precisely how nature “contributes” to their lives. Many live off the land. They cherish their ability to feed their families through hunting and fishing. Will the new plan succeed in protecting traditional ice travel routes, important caribou calving grounds and critical bird habitat? Conservationists and scientists the world over are holding their breath. This one part of Canada — the territory of Nunavut born along with the new millennium — has a fair shot at getting things wholly right for the species that matter, based on the best science we can muster. If that happens, there will be celebrations across Canada’s three coasts and beyond. And not just for biodiversity, but for the heroic communities that showed the rest of the world how to keep it safe.1 JUL + AUG 2018 13
Wild Things
JERRY KOBALENKO/ALL CANADA PHOTOS. SPENCER SUTTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY.
The place where much of the Arctic Pliocene story is told is surprisingly small, a place called Beaver Pond near Strathcona Fiord on Ellesmere Island. Although barren today (below), it looked wildly different back then
Wild Things
CONSTANT CHANGE
Can we glimpse the future in the distant past? If we can, what might it teach us? By Jay Ingram
C
LIMATE CHANGE IS THREATENING to hit Arctic wildlife hard, but so far we can only guess what might happen. There might be winners; there will certainly be losers. As to what will the future Arctic look like, we have very few, if any, reference points. Other than today’s familiar fauna — muskoxen, polar bears, Arctic foxes — the only Arctic fauna most of us are familiar with are the animals that emerged from the last ice age. The mammoths, bison — and the humans who hunted them — populate those spectacular museum dioramas (where an unrealistic number of species crowds into an unrealistically small area). We are so fascinated with them that some even want to bring them back: establish “Pleistocene Park” in Siberia; clone the mammoth and even “re-wild” vast areas of western North America. Ironic, given that we likely had a hand in their extermination in the first place. But these animals don’t serve as a model of what might come, emerging as they did from an icy world. Still, there was a time and place in the Arctic that might offer a clue: the Pliocene, four million years ago. The place where much of the Arctic Pliocene story is told is surprisingly small, a place called Beaver Pond near Strathcona Fiord on Ellesmere Island, at latitude 78 degrees. The main part of the site was actually a beaver pond four million years ago. Today it is pretty much barren, with an annual average temperature close to 0 C. Things were different back then. While at that time Australopithecines (like the famed “Lucy”) were on the ground in Africa, there were no human relatives at all in the Arctic. Temperatures averaged as much as 20 C higher than they are now (or at least as they had been until very recently). It was a wetland, with trees species like larch, alder, pine and spruce everywhere — familiar species, though the forests were different, but not exotic.
But the animals were an impressive assemblage. As the name given to it suggests, there were beavers, but not like those of today. They were small, like the modern muskrat, and less efficient in woodcutting, partly because they had smaller incisors. Nor did they give rise to today’s beavers — they were an Arctic “experiment” that didn’t last. Then there was the “deerlet.” It sounds like it would have been impossibly cute, but we can only imagine. Based on the scant remains, all that can be said about this deer, weighing about 10 kg, is that it had highly unusual teeth, perhaps for chewing on hard woody branches. Teeth of the primitive bears in the area are also revealing: they were riddled with cavities, suggesting to researchers that they consumed vast amounts of berries. There were crowberries, lingonberries and raspberries in the area, and these bears might have depended more on fruit than meat to accrete fat for hibernation. In fact, the scientists involved in the discovery allowed themselves to speculate that bees might have lived in the area. There was a horse too, different from all North American ancestral horses, but much like some from Asia, suggesting this individual might have been a remnant of the vast migrations of species back-and-forth across the forested Bering land bridge. There has also been found the remains of a wild dog and a type of rabbit.
AS CLIMATES CHANGE, FAUNA DOES TOO. THE ARCTIC WILDLIFE WE KNOW WILL BE ALTERED... THERE WILL BE EXITS AND ENTRANCES. AFTER ALL, NATURE TENDS TO EXPERIMENT But the pièce de résistance of the Beaver Pond fauna was a giant camel, 30 per cent larger than the camels we are familiar with today, and found more than 1,000 kilometres further north than the rest of North American camels. A camel in the forest? Of course, it’s difficult to tell at this remove, but maybe it browsed like a moose. The discovery also raised the possibility that some of the familiar features of camels, the fat-filled hump and large flat feet, might have been adaptations to living in the Arctic. This remarkable Beaver Pond menagerie has been pieced together — literally — from scattered bones and teeth. Just as the 19th-century French naturalist Georges Cuvier argued that if he were given a fossil bone he could, in his mind’s eye, envision its role in the whole animal, shattered shin bones revealed a camel, rotten teeth a hungry bear, and a partial skull a horse at the end of a long multigenerational journey. Does it say anything about a future, warmer Arctic? Only in the sense that as climates change, fauna does too. There will be exits and entrances, nature will experiment, and the Arctic fauna that we have become so accustomed to will change. Only in hindsight will our descendants be able to say, as perhaps we can of Beaver Pond, that it all makes sense.a JUL + AUG 2018 15
Turtles may be slow. But they’re disappearing fast.
Help speed up recovery with a CWF Turtle Adoption!
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PAIN
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A B O U T PA I N T E D T U RT L E S
FA C T S A B O U T PA I N
Painted Turtles are the most widespread freshwater turtle in Canada; they’re found from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. They get their name from the red and yellow markings on their heads, limbs and edge of their shells. Painted Turtles are a common sight basking in large groups, on logs or rocks in ponds, lakes or other quiet waters. In many parts of Canada, Painted Turtles will spend about half the year hibernating on the bottom of waterbodies.
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T
C
M IN F O R
D I E T A N D B E H AV I O U R Painted Turtles are generally active during the day. They are opportunistic feeders, generally eating whatever they can get a hold of. As omnivores, their food preferences include algae, vegetation, invertebrates, frogs, fish, and carrion. With age however, their diet becomes more plant-based.
!
C O N S E RVAT I O N S TAT U S In most of Canada, Painted Turtles are not listed as at risk under the Species at Risk Act, however the Pacific Coast population is considered Endangered and the Intermountain population is listed as of Special Concern.
N A D O P TI
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SIZE: 11 to 25 centimetres in leng WEIGHT: Between 300 and 500 grams DIET: Omnivore HABITAT: Inhabits lakes, ponds, creeks, and wetlands. Shows a preference for soft, muddy bottom waterbodies with an abundance of aquatic vegetation.
PAINTED TURTLE (WESTER
PAINTED TURTLE (MIDLAN
PAINTED TURTLE (EASTERN
LIFE SPAN: 30 to 40 years in the
i ABOUT THE CANA
WILDLIFE FEDERA
Representing more than 300,000 Canadian Wildlife Federation is d appreciation of our natural world healthy wildlife and habitat.
CWF is funded by people who w include healthy wildlife and natu the many environmental, econom benefits they provide. Donations supporters have provided critical species re-introduction, and impo
TLE
SY M BOL
These turtles face many threats including habitat loss and INT E D T PA road mortality.
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Chrysemys p
UR
Buy yours and learn more about turtle conservation at HelpTheTurtles.ca.
PAINTED TURTLE S P E C I E S I N F O R M AT I O N
SPE
Road mortality, habitat loss and nest predation are three of the major threats facing Canada’s at-risk freshwater turtle species. In partnership with organizations like Scales Nature Park, the Canadian Wildlife Federation has helped secure over 1,200 square kilometres of wetland habitat. By purchasing a CWF Painted Turtle Adoption Kit, you’ll be contributing to our efforts to Help the Turtles.
THE CANADIAN WILDLIFE FEDERATION IS GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SYMBOLIC ADOPTION OF
A CANADIAN PAINTED TURTLE
Rick Bates CEO, Executive Vice-President
Register your Painted Turtle at CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/adopt/paintedturtle
The Painted Turtle was recently classified as a species at risk, meaning all eight Canadian freshwater turtles species are now at risk! Photo:Dave Rothwell
350 Michael Cowpland Drive Kanata (Ontario) K2M 2W1 1.800.563.9453 CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca
Canada’s Arctic SPECIAL FEATURE
18 Intro: True North 20 Policy: Lancaster Sound Marine Reserve 24 Climate: Canada’s Eight Arctic Ecozones
DANITA DELIMONT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
26 Research: Carbon Levels in the Lowlands 30 Science: “Grolar Bears” and Hybridization Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus)
AMAZING ARCTIC SPECIES
JUL + AUG 2018 17
WINDS OF CHANGE Arctic cotton (Eriophorum callitrix) on Baffin Island
Until recently the Arctic seemed as foreign and remote to Canadians as the
18 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
CANADA’S ARCTIC
True North By Matthew Church Editor, Canadian Wildlife
T
he Canadian Arctic is vast. It encompasses millions of square kilometres though numbers vary depending on how you define it. Even its shape and scale is misrepresented on maps, because Mercator projections distort its dimensions relative to more familiar regions closer to the equator. It is smaller than it appears, and yet it is bigger than we can imagine. For centuries, the Arctic’s importance has been lost on outsiders, southerners. It was seen as an unforgiving and hostile wasteland, an expanse of emptiness, of snow, ice and cold, void of life. Until recently, it was described as “the largest uncivilized land on earth.” To early European explorers, the Arctic wasn’t a place, it was an impediment, blocking passage to conquest, to glory and to the wealth of the rich cultures and lucrative trade with Asia. These attitudes persisted well into the 20th century; most Canadians saw the “barren lands,” the northern third of the country, as little more than hostile environs to pierce and navigate, to exploit and colonize with mining outposts and Cold War radar stations. The Arctic — the Canadian Arctic — was as foreign and inhospitable to Canadians as the Sahara. Perhaps, at last, today southerners are coming to know and appreciate the North. Certainly, a new generation of meteorologists understands the fundamental role that Canada’s North plays as a regulator of the global climate, cooling the planet and governing the currents and circulation of warm and cold waters between the oceans north and
with and not opposition to the demanding environs. For them, climate change is not an abstract problem, it is an existential reality: a danger to their livelihoods, their culture and their lives. The threats are numerous. Climate warming — occurring in the North at double the rate of more temperate climes — is forcing wildlife to adapt or perish. For plant life, the lengthening growing season has invited southern shrubs and trees to “invade” northward even as lakes empty and coastlines erode, threatening the survival of native plants. Earlier and wider melting of snow and ice is allowing wildlife normally found further south, including migrating seabirds, foxes and bears to move north and compete or hybridize with their Arctic counterparts. And the most destructive species is moving north as well: humans. The warming climate brings resource exploration and exploitation even as the melting permafrost compromises existing infrastructure. The opening of the Northwest Passage to ships carrying cargo and tourists will bring invasive species, garbage and disruption to sensitive marine areas. Yet there is cause to be optimistic. Canadians are growing aware of the importance of this rich and diverse land. We see it in the advanced research and monitoring underway, in the establishment of nature sanctuaries and in the cooperation with the peoples of the North. In the South, we are becoming attuned to the fact that action is needed to conserve the nature and culture of the North.
DARYL BENSON/GETTY IMAGES
Sahara. Perhaps–finally–southerners today are coming to appreciate the North south, and that Arctic waters produce 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. Contemporary biologists recognize the Arctic’s unique biodiversity and the essential wilderness that provides habitat to distinctive species such as narwhal, polar bear, muskox and Peary caribou, and breeding grounds to millions of migrating geese, ducks and shorebirds. Climatologists too are coming to understand the important role Canada’s Arctic region serves keeping the entire planet cool as the planet’s best “carbon sink,” absorbing and holding onto carbon dioxide, a central cause of climate change. And at long last, we are beginning to recognize the people who have inhabited it for thousands of years, a rich and hardy human culture that lived there, thrived there, in concert
In the extraordinary, almost musical radio documentary that pianist Glenn Gould made for the CBC during the nation’s centennial more than 50 years ago (available online and still worth a listen), he talked about the “the Idea of North” being central to Canadian identity — our sense of nature, our history and our imagination. Today, above the Arctic Circle, that imaginary line at 66°30', the issues and the challenges are very real. So are the opportunities to define our diverse nation as caring, inclusive and forwardthinking stewards of this globally essential place. It will take commitment, collaboration and, yes, imagination. Above all, it will require careful action, from all of us south and north, in Canada and around the world.1 JUL + AUG 2018 19
CANADA’S ARCTIC
At the eastern entrance to the newly navigable Northwest Passage, a planned marine conservation area will protect a fragile ecosystem. It could be a model for the entire planet
Sound Management
“THE SERENGETI OF THE ARCTIC” A flock of eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) over Lancaster Sound
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RICHARD OLSENIUS/GETTY IMAGES.
By Kat Eschner
T
he Canadian and Nunavut governments and Indigenous stakeholders recently announced the creation of the country’s biggest marine protected area in Lancaster Sound, known to the Inuit who have relied on its bounty since time immemorial as Tallurutiup Imanga. The protected area will be almost 110,000 square kilometres in size. The proposed Tallurutiup Imanga/Lancaster Sound national marine conservation area is currently being negotiated between the governments of Canada and Nunavut and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Those negotiations will hopefully be completed by March 2019, with enforcement for the protected area going into place shortly after. It will shelter vulnerable Arctic species — but that’s not its only function. Here’s a bigger look at what’s happening and who’s involved.
JUL + AUG 2018 21
The Region
The Arctic ice might look barren, but it’s teeming with life. This region is sometimes known as the Serengeti of the Arctic because of all the animals and plants that live there. The biodiversity, which includes species that the Inuit hunt for food, such as belugas and harp seals, led Inuit politicians to begin advocating for protected status for the region as far back as the 1970s. Arctic scientists agree: though there is some debate about the usefulness of marine reserves, given the recognized importance of this region, making it an area of special concern can have real value. Tallurutiup Imanga is home to iconic species covered elsewhere in this issue of Canadian Wildlife, like the polar bear, but it’s also an important region for many others. It’s crucial for ocean-dwellers like narwhals and bowhead whales, who make use of the seasonal polynyas — large ice-free patches of ocean. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s narwhal population relies on this site, for instance. The proposed new protected area includes breeding grounds for seabirds like the black-legged kittiwake and thick-billed murre: in total, about one-third of eastern Canadian seabirds breed in this region. Making this region into a protected zone will prevent oil and gas development and help protect the area from the potential impacts of the opening of the Northwest Passage. As part of the agreement, a moratorium — rather than a ban — has
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These waters, thriving with marine life, have
been placed on oil and gas development, as well as minerals exploration. When an agreement is reached, that moratorium will become permanent. Although commercial fishing will be prohibited and other activity will be regulated, the residents of Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet will all continue their traditional hunting and fishing in the protected area. “This area is the cultural heart of the region; these waters thriving with marine life have supported the lives of Inuit since time immemorial,” P.J. Akeeagok, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, told Canadian Geographic in August 2017 when the proposed protected area’s boundaries were announced.
The Stakeholders
Three governmental bodies are working on the agreements that will shape the protected area: the federal government, the government of Nunavut, and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Although their announcement last August was a statement of principle, one major document must be drafted and signed before the protected area can be formally established: an Inuit impact and benefit agreement. The five communities that make up the Qikiqtani Inuit are all part of consultations on this agreement, which legally has to be signed before the protected area can be created. This is a test case for relations between the three governments — local, territorial and federal — in Nunavut, which is governed by different laws about consultation than the rest of the country. And though the planned deadline for the agreement is less than a year away, there’s a lot to work on. When the plan was announced, federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was quoted in a government press release as saying, “We are implementing a sensible and integrated plan that will sustain biodiversity and sustain traditional ways of life.” But there’s a definite tension between the three governments. The federal government maintains it wants to work on the agreement with Nunavut and local government, who will “participate” in administering it. But representatives of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association say their participation should go farther. In December, at a conference in Toronto, QIA chief negotiator Sandra Inutiq said, “What we’re envisioning is for Inuit to fully manage and control the conservation area.” The
PAUL NICKLEN/GETTY IMAGES
LIFE ABOVE AND BELOW A hunter travels the coastline; a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) under the ice
CANADA’S ARCTIC
AMAZING ANIMALS
Visit Hinterland Who’s Who at hww.ca. to learn more
supported the Inuit since time immemorial
communities of 3,600 total people who live around the area and rely on it for traditional foods and other products have the biggest interest in its well-being, she says, and know it best. The federal government, though, has other concerns. Though the announcement of this proposed protected area has had political benefit for the current government, it’s also true that its establishment has important consequences for Arctic sovereignty. Like the hunt for the Franklin Expedition ships before it, part of the government’s political action now on something that the residents of the Baffin Island region have been agitating for since the 1970s is related to the increased attention to maintaining Canadian control of the Arctic. The federal government has shown it is willing to negotiate: when the agreement was announced last August, the prime minister’s office also signed a whole-of-government agreement, which means that during the negotiations, all cabinet members will be involved. Hopefully, this means that everyone from McKenna to the fisheries and oceans minister can come to an agreement, cutting down on red tape.
PAUL NICKLEN/GETTY IMAGES. DOMINIQUE BRAUD/DEMBINSKY PHOTO ASSOCIATES/ALAMY
The Arctic
Although the protected area will be the largest one in Canada, it’s only part of the universally vulnerable Canadian Arctic. From a conservation standpoint, its creation will be a positive step, but there are still many questions. Among these is the question of funding, which remains to be announced after the Inuit impact and benefit agreement is signed. Inutiq said earlier this year that administrating the protected area could help bring economic well-being to the communities that rely on it, which suffer from infrastructural issues like problems with access to internet and have high unemployment rates. The Inuit impact and benefit agreement could help secure opportunities for the region and empower people to take action. Conservation science is also evolving as the Arctic is changing: new research about pollution, ship movements and Arctic species is complementing traditional knowledge, demonstrating that we’re in a critical time for Arctic biomes. Getting this conservation area right — for both the Inuit and the natural world — is more important than ever.1
MUSKOX Ovibos moschatus • believed to have crossed the Bering Strait to Canada about 90,000 years ago • lifts and drops its massive head to break the snow crust when it becomes too hard to paw through • stocky and compact build, roughly human chest height, but adult bulls weigh 270 to 315 kg • slow and deliberate in its movements, but can run and climb with great agility • its wool, qiviut, is stronger and eight times warmer than sheep’s wool, but finer than cashmere, and is shed in midsummer; long, coarse hairy layer covers and protects the wool • travels in large mixed herds in winter; breaks into smaller groups in mating season • most of Canada’s 85,000 muskoxen are found on the Arctic islands, especially Banks and Victoria islands • has been under Canadian government protection since 1917; with recovery since, some Inuit hunting is permitted • IUCN status: least concern
ARCTIC FOX Alopex lagopus • smallest canid in Canada; size of a house cat • white or pale bluish-grey coat in winter; dark brown or darker bluish-grey coat in summer • depends on lemmings for much of its diet • during lemming “crashes,” abandons customary hunting areas to travel, often hundreds of kilometres, for food • excellent adaptation to cold and to a wide variety of foods, including birds’ eggs, voles and other rodents, fish, berries, carrion • dens may be up to 300 years old with 100 entrances • in March or April, two months before the end of winter, Arctic foxes begin to form mating pairs, with a long and playful period of courtship involving active chasing and play-fighting • found from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island to the southern tip of James Bay • IUCN status in Canada: least concern
The Canadian North comprises three territories above the 60th parallel — Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut — and can also refer to the northernmost reaches of Labrador, Quebec and Ontario. It holds nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s land. The Canadian Arctic, also referred to as the Far North, is the area that lies above the Arctic Circle (which, ever-changing with the tilt of the Earth, currently sits slightly above 66°33’). The Arctic treeline is a wavering band above which trees cannot grow, currently ranging from 56° in Labrador to 69° in the Northwest Territories to the upper corner of Yukon. Sourced from cwf-fcf.org.
ISTOCK. ISTOCK. MICHAEL QUINTON/MINDEN PICTURES.
DOLLY VARDEN Salvelinus malma malma • belongs to the salmon and trout family • Western Arctic populations range from Alaska and Yukon, east to the Mackenzie River • five to 10 per cent of the global population is in Canada • spawns in autumn in headwater streams; females bury their eggs in the gravel, fry emerge in May/June • threats include trend toward drier and warmer climates in the Western Arctic resulting in lower water levels and reduced groundwater in spawning and overwintering habitat • three different types, all of which spend fall and winter in fresh water: (1) anadromous (sea-run) in fresh water for three years, before migrating out to sea to feed for the summer; (2) non-anadromous (fresh water) males that live alongside anadromous fish in the fall and winter but do not migrate; and (3) other non-anadromous types that are found above falls in lakes, far from the sea • SARA status: special concern1
Canada’s Eight Arctic Ecozones
CANADA’S ARCTIC
• Arctic Cordillera
Average temperatures: from -2 C to 6 C in summer and -35 C to -16 C in winter Landscape: Mountainous with polar ice fields and deep valleys; ice and rock cover 75 per cent of this zone; mostly non-vegetated Wildlife: Polar bears and seabirds are found along coasts. Sheltered valleys are home to the Arctic fox, Arctic hare, ermine, collared lemming and birds such as the snow bunting Population: about 1,100
• Northern Arctic
Average temperatures: from -1.5 C to 4 C in summer and -31 C to -20 C in winter Landscape: rolling plains and the occasional exposed rock with shallow soils; permafrost is continuous and may extend to several hundred metres in depth; plant life is sparse Wildlife: Peary and barren ground caribou, muskox, wolf, Arctic fox, polar bear, Arctic hare, and brown and collared lemming; this ecozone is a major breeding habitat for migratory birds such as the Canada goose Population: 16,000 people, about 80 per cent of whom are Inuit
• Taiga Shield
• Taiga Cordillera
Average temperatures: from 6.5 C to 10 C in summer and -25 C to -19.5 C in winter Landscape: mountainous wilderness with foothills and narrow valleys; permafrost underlies most of this area, including most wetlands; Arctic tundra occurs in the north with taiga or open woodland in the south Wildlife: Dall sheep, woodland and barren ground caribou, moose, mountain goat, black and grizzly bear, wolf, lynx, Arctic ground squirrel, American pika, hoary marmot and wolverine; birds include the gyrfalcon, willow and rock ptarmigans and waterfowl Population: about 80 per cent of the population (about 300 people) lives in Old Crow, now Yukon’s northernmost settlement
• Boreal Cordillera
ISTOCK.
• Southern Arctic
Average temperatures: from 4 C to 6 C in summer and -28 C to -17.5 C in winter Landscape: rolling uplands and lowlands with some exposed bedrock; a transition area between the treed taiga to the south and the treeless tundra to the north Wildlife: grizzly, black and polar bear, wolf, moose, Arctic ground squirrel and brown lemming; includes the major summer range and calving grounds for Canada’s largest caribou herds: the barren ground caribou in the west and the woodland caribou in the east; birds here include the yellow-billed, Arctic and red-throated loons, oldsquaw duck, snowy owl and snow bunting; a major breeding and nesting ground for migratory birds Population: about 11,000, 80 per cent of whom are Inuit
Average temperatures: from 6 C to 11 C in summer and -11 C to -24.5 C in winter Landscape: rolling terrain with widespread permafrost; thousands of lakes and wetlands; open forests are interwoven with shrublands and meadows typical of the Arctic tundra; latitudinal limit of tree growth Wildlife: About 50 species of mammal live here, including the barren ground and woodland caribou, moose, wolf, snowshoe hare, Arctic fox, beaver, black and grizzly bears, and lynx. The Arctic and red-throated loons and grey-cheeked thrush live in this zone. Thousands of birds rest and feed here on their way to Arctic breeding grounds Population: about 34,000
• Taiga Plains
Average temperatures: from 6.5 to 14 C in summer and -26 C to -15 C in winter Landscape: mostly slow-growing conifer forests of black spruce with widespread permafrost; shrubs are well developed; upland areas support mixed forests (e.g., white and black spruce, tamarack) Wildlife: moose, woodland caribou, wood bison, wolf, black bear, marten, lynx, Arctic ground squirrel, barren ground caribou; birds include the common redpoll, gray jay, common raven, bald eagle, peregrine falcon and osprey Population: 21,400, 60 per cent of whom are Indigenous
Average temperatures: from 9.5 C to 11.5 C in summer and -1 C to -23 C in winter Landscape: mountainous ranges, extensive plateaus, wide valleys and lowlands with widespread permafrost; tree species include alpine fir, trembling aspen, balsam poplar and white birch Wildlife: woodland caribou, moose, Dall sheep, mountain goat, black and grizzly bears, marten, lynx, American pika, hoary marmot and Arctic ground squirrel; birds include willow, rock and white-tailed ptarmigans, and migratory songbirds and waterfowl Population: about 30,800
• Hudson Plains
Average temperatures: from 10.5 C to 11.5 C in summer and -19 C and -16 C in winter Landscape: This lowland plain slopes toward Hudson and James bays, with extensive wetlands, marshes and tidal flats along coastlines. Better-drained areas support open woodlands of black spruce and tamarack Wildlife: woodland caribou, moose, black and polar bears, marten and Arctic fox Population: about 9,9001 JUL + AUG 2018 25
Changing Grounds By Aaron Todd
26 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
TKTKTKTK
Monitoring carbon (and trying to anticipate the future) in the Hudson Bay Lowlands
CANADA’S ARCTIC
O
AARONTKTKTKTK TODD
CARBON STORAGE These lowlands, covering 3.5 per cent of Canada, are considered by experts to be “one of the world‘s largest, most intact ecological systems”
ur Twin Otter aircraft circled, descending gradually with each pass until the pilot was able to settle the spongy oversized tires onto an uneven gravel strip in Ontario’s Polar Bear Provincial Park. The abandoned runway, which is slowly being reclaimed by shrubs, is all that remains of a former Cold War-era radar installation about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg near the southern shores of Hudson Bay. With the propellers stopped and secured, my team from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change worked quickly to transfer the plane’s payload — the construction gear, materials and components to build a carbon-monitoring station — into heavy rope nets, which were then lifted by helicopter to the installation site a few kilometres away. This would be our temporary base of operations, a rare patch of stable dry ground in an otherwise soggy and undeveloped landscape, for the next two weeks. It was September 2017, and we were there to construct the second of two carbon-monitoring stations. We built boardwalks, erected solar panels and a metal tower, and set up and connected an array of high-tech sensors wired to a data-logging computer. All the while, we had to remain on alert for polar bears, which are forced ashore for several months each year when the sea ice melts on Hudson Bay. Even though we were 30 kilometres inland, bears had been spotted in the area, and we were mindful of a potential encounter. Thankfully, our only visitors were curious caribou. JUL + AUG 2018 27
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AARON TODD
This carbon-monitoring station in Polar Bear Provincial Park, along with a nearby station we had erected exactly one year earlier, is now beaming data by satellite to Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change offices 1,300 kilometres to the south in Toronto. Together, they are the newest in the province of Ontario’s network of five stations stretching south to north along a climate and permafrost gradient from Moosonee to Peawanuck. The stations measure the exchange of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) between the land and the atmosphere in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a globally significant carbon store. The Hudson Bay Lowlands surround the western side of Hudson Bay and James Bay, spanning across northern Ontario and extending into Manitoba and Quebec. With an area of 325,000 square kilometres, these lowlands cover roughly 3.5 per cent of the surface area of Canada. Ontario’s Far North Science Advisory Panel has described the region as “one of the world’s largest, most intact ecological systems.” The region is a biodiversity stronghold, home to mammals such as caribou, Canada lynx, martens, grey wolves, wolverines and the southernmost population of polar bears in the world. The region is also of global importance for migratory birds. It is a unique and special place. The second largest peatland in the world covers the flat and poorly drained landscape of the Lowlands, and because of the cooling influence of Hudson Bay and James Bay and the persistence of sea ice, the climate is cold for its latitude. The region contains the southernmost extent of non-alpine permafrost in North America. These cold and wet conditions slow soil decomposition, allowing organic matter to accumulate over thousands of years. They have created a massive store of carbon.
Over the past few decades, however, the region has experienced a warming trend, the implications of which are uncertain. Certainly, more change is coming. Climate models predict considerably shorter ice-cover seasons on Hudson Bay and James Bay leading to warmer and longer summers and warmer and shorter winters. Warming could result in the drying of the peatlands, melting of the permafrost and release of carbon to the atmosphere, creating a positive feedback loop with potential implications for the global climate. Drying is also likely to increase wildfires, burning of peat and loss of carbon to the atmosphere. Sam Hunter, an environmental steward with the Mushkegowuk Council, has been keeping watch on a weather station installed on a permafrost palsa (an oval-shaped raised mound of frozen peat) near his home in Peawanuck. The station has been slowly keeling over as its frozen foundation melts and slumps. “Most people think that polar bears are the indicators of climate change,” Hunter says. “For me, it’s the palsas.” Hunter joined my team in installing our monitoring stations in Polar Bear Provincial Park. He explained to me how the melting of permafrost is making it more challenging to move around on the landscape. He also showed me how the fragrant leaves and stems of the dwarf Labrador-tea plant, found only on the permafrost palsas, can be used to brew a better tea than the taller variety of the plant. Our two stations in the park are only one kilometre apart, but they are monitoring very different landscapes. The first is installed on a peat plateau, over intact permafrost that remains frozen at 30-40 centimetres below the surface in the heat of summer. The second is in an area where palsas have melted and collapsed, creating a patchwork of shallow oval-shaped ponds. Findings from these two monitoring stations will provide insights into what happens to the carbon that is stored in frozen peat when permafrost melts, helping to fill a key gap in the science of northern peatlands.
“Most people think that polar bears are the
LANDSCAPE RESHAPED View of an area where permafrost has melted and palsa mounds have collapsed, creating a patchwork of shallow ponds
AARON TODD
CANADA’S ARCTIC
Elyn Humphreys, a peatlands researcher at Carleton University in Ottawa, has analyzed the data collected since 2010 at Ontario’s two carbon monitoring stations near the Victor diamond mine, west of Attawapiskat, and our third station west of Moosonee. Humphreys’ calculations reveal a delicate balance between carbon uptake and loss, a balance that is sensitive to changes in temperature and other weather conditions. Her findings show that the monitored peatlands continue to accumulate carbon despite recent warming trends, taking up between 49 and 82 grams of carbon per square metre each year from the atmosphere. Northern peatlands are important to the global climate system not only because they are massive carbon stores but also because when warming they release methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Humphreys’ calculations show that the amount of methane released by the monitored peatlands currently is less than 10 per cent of the amount of carbon taken up as carbon dioxide. These findings are especially important because ecosystem-scale measurements of methane emissions from northern peatlands are lacking worldwide. Results from Ontario’s carbon monitoring stations are shared on the online AmeriFlux network with researchers around the world. The Omushkegowuk people have called the Hudson Bay Lowlands home for thousands of years. Comprising several Cree First Nations, their communities are remote, linked only by air, water and winter roads. They rely on the land for their food, medicine, livelihoods and culture. In January 2018, the Mushkegowuk Council hosted a climate summit in Timmins, Ont., where Elders, youth, community members and environmental managers and scientists met to share knowledge and identify gaps in our understanding of how to protect the traditional lands and the future well-being of the Omushkegowuk people. My colleague Chris Charron, an air monitoring manager at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, attended. “It was a fascinating and somewhat sobering
two days,” he told me. “For those of us who live in the south, it moved the conversation from one that has been primarily academic in nature, to one that is full of real-world consequences. Elders from several different communities spoke of the changes they are witnessing to the land, to the water and to wildlife. Many felt that the Earth was sick.” The climate summit reinforced the importance of our efforts to better understand the role of the Hudson Bay Lowlands in the global climate system and how climate change could affect these globally significant peatlands. It also highlighted the fact that climate change is a real and present concern and that strategies to adapt to a changing world are needed, particularly in the Hudson Bay Lowlands where the effects of climate change are already being felt. Thanks to the carbon-monitoring stations erected, and the work of researchers and scientists throughout the North along with committed local residents, we are getting a clearer picture of the kinds of changes occurring and what we can do in the coming years to address them.1 Aaron Todd works in the monitoring and reporting branch of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
indicators of climate change. It’s the palsas”
JUL + AUG 2018 29
TKTKTKTK
STRANGE BREW The unusual appearance of this northern bear, notably its short neck and its flat, convex face and head, suggests it may be a grizzly-polar hybrid
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CANADA’S ARCTIC
The Curious Case of the Grolar Bear With changes in the Arctic climes come north-south species hybridization and the potential for strange new genetic brews By Kerry Banks
STEVEN J. KAZLOWSKI/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
W
hen biologists Jodie Pongracz and Evan Richardson flew to Canada’s Arctic to capture and tag polar bears in the spring of 2012, they came across a startling sight — a polar bear strolling beside another bear with chocolate brown fur on its legs, a brown stripe down its back and a flat concave face and head that looked like it had been transplanted from a grizzly. This unlikely duo was sighted at latitude 73 degrees north, on a frozen arm of the Arctic Ocean near Victoria Island — hundreds of kilometres north of where grizzlies are normally found. Two years later, Pongracz and Richardson captured the same animal and took a DNA sample. It was determined that the bear was a hybrid, or what some have dubbed a “grolar,” produced by the mating of a female polar bear and a male grizzly. This was not an isolated case. Grolars have been spotted in this part of the Canadian Arctic dating
back to 2006, when a hunter shot one of these crossbreeds on Banks Island in the Northwest Territories. After viewing its carcass, the local Inuit allowed how they had no word for this creature in their language. Some scientists have speculated that grolars and other hybrids may be the advance guard of a strange new genetic brew of Arctic species that will begin to emerge as global warming removes the icy barriers that once kept different species apart. Although the evidence remains sketchy, hybridizations have also been reported between harp and hooded seals, Atlantic walrus and Pacific walrus, narwhals and belugas, and right whales and bowhead whales. There is no doubt that the reduction of sea ice in the Arctic is going to usher in profound ecological changes. Hybridization will be one of them. As Brendan Kelly, a marine biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and executive director of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change, notes, “In the case of Arctic species, you’ve had a continent-size mass of sea ice keeping species isolated for thousands of years. If you remove that barrier, you can re-establish contact. Right now, the sea ice is melting quite rapidly, so we’re going to see a lot of previously isolated populations come into contact. We’re likely to see a lot more hybridization.” In 2010, Kelly and two other American scientists, Andrew Whiteley and David Tallmon, published an article in the journal Nature in which they cited 34 opportunities for hybridization across 22 Arctic or near-Arctic species. These were based on animals’ genetic compatibility and geographic range. JUL + AUG 2018 31
In certain cases, such as interbreeding between North Atlantic and North Pacific minke whales, the crossovers would not result in a loss of biodiversity, notes Kelly. In other instances, such as between bowhead whales and rare North Pacific right whales, whose population is estimated at fewer than 200, interbreeding could lead to extinction of the smaller population. Not all cross-species matings produce viable offspring, but the chances are better in Arctic marine mammals, says Kelly, because their number of chromosomes has changed little over time. This is certainly true of cetaceans, says Carla Crossman, a marine mammal geneticist with Oceanwise, a global conservation program. She says there are 18 to 20 known crosses among cetaceans. For now, most scientists don’t view hybridization as a major threat to biodiversity. “The dangers are real — if unqualified,” notes Marco Festa-Bianchet, a professor of biology at Quebec’s Université de Sherbrooke, who co-chaired a group of wildlife experts with the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 2010 that tried to come up with recommendations
32 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
on how to deal with hybridization. “While we can generally predict that some species will move north, predictions of when, where and how are very imprecise.” In recent years, red fox, white-tailed deer, Pacific salmon and killer whales have all begun appearing in the Arctic. The orcas’ big dorsal fins, which impede navigation in ice-choked waters, had previously kept them from the region, but that has changed with the warming climate. Aside from increasing the chances of hybridization, the sudden entry of an apex predator could have a major impact on the region’s ecology: orcas have been observed attacking and eating belugas and narwhals. Barren-ground grizzly bears are also moving northward, and they seem to be thriving. As Andrew Derocher, a biologist at the University of Alberta and a world authority on polar bears, explains, “The climate has warmed, there is enough food for them, and there are fewer grizzlies being shot as the Inuit lifestyle shifts from hunting and trapping to a wage economy.” At the same time, polar bears are at risk: most of their hunting for seals is on the ice during winter, so now they are spending more time on land as the sea ice recedes, causing them to lose body weight and decline in numbers. Bear hybrids in the Arctic would most likely be produced by male grizzlies travelling and mating with female polar bears because male grizzlies emerge earlier from winter hibernation and head out in search of food while the females tend to stay close to home. Such liaisons, explains Derocher, would not be casual encounters, as it takes several days to several weeks of frequent copulation to induce ovulation in female polar bears. How well-adapted such hybrids would be to Arctic conditions is unknown. Polar-grizzly hybrids in a German zoo exhibited behaviour associated with seal hunting but did not possess the strong swimming abilities of polar bears.
ISTOCK. ISTOCK.
ANOMALY OR HARBINGER All eight cases of “grolar bear” hybridization that have been documented can be traced to one female polar bear that mated with two grizzly males
CANADA’S ARCTIC
STEVEN J. KAZLOWSKI/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. A & J VISAGE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO.
MORE COOL SPECIES
Another perplexing question — the source of this mysterious cluster of bear hybrids — was recently answered by DNA analysis. According to a study headed up by Pongracz and Richardson and reported in a 2016 issue of the scientific journal Arctic, all of the eight documented cases of hybridization — four first-generation hybrids and four second-generation “backcrosses” — can be traced to one female polar bear that mated with two grizzly males. That female and three of her offspring have since been killed, leaving the researchers to wonder if this spate of hybrids is merely a blip caused by the actions of one mate-less female polar bear, or if this type of unusual mating signals the start of the breakdown of species barriers. “We don’t know if there are other hybrids running around out there,” admits Richardson, a polar bear research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “Three of the hybrid cubs (all of them male) may still be alive, and if they take after their father’s taste in partners, then more hybrids could be produced.” The odds of these bears’ survival may be reduced simply because their curious features make them attractive trophies. “Their pelts can be sold for a good price,” says Derocher. As for the question of whether we can expect to see more hybrid bears, Derocher is unsure. “What this means in the longer term is impossible to say. It’s very difficult to predict the path of evolution.” What Derocher is more certain about is the bleak future of polar bears. He expects them to disappear from their present ranges long before their genes are swamped by those of grizzly bears. “The best estimates indicate that we’ll probably lose somewhere around two-thirds of the world’s population around mid-century, just based on the simple fact that we’re losing sea ice,” says Derocher. “No sea ice means no seals. And no seals means no polar bears.”a
NORTHERN COLLARED LEMMING Dicrostonyx groenlandicus • mouselike rodent that lives in treeless areas of northern Canada; one of three species in the Arctic • only species of lemming on which fur colour changes with the seasons: grey with brown in summer, solid white in winter • can reproduce within weeks of birth • remains active throughout the Arctic winter without freezing to death • front feet develop two enlarged claws, presumably to help dig through the hard-packed tundra snow • has colonized the Queen Elizabeth Islands right to the northern tip of Ellesmere Island • roughly four-year cycles of drastically fluctuating populations • because it is an important food for ermines, Arctic foxes and snowy owls, fluctuations have significant effect on Arctic life cycles • IUCN status: least concern BELUGA WHALE (EASTERN HIGH ARCTIC–BAFFIN BAY POPULATION) Delphinapterus leucas • adults range in total length from 2.6 to 4.5 m and weigh up to 1,900 kg • name from the Russian belukha, which means white • adults are pure white in colour; newborns are born dark grey or mottled • thick skin and lack of dorsal fin probable adaptations to ice-filled Arctic waters • well-developed sense of hearing and refined ability to detect objects by sound • in summer, found in the waters of the central Arctic Archipelago, many in the estuaries of Somerset Island; migrate through Lancaster Sound in the fall to over-winter in Baffin Bay off Greenland • in High Arctic waters, feeds on turbot and Arctic cod; further south, also eats Arctic char, squid, shrimp, molluscs and marine worms • vulnerable to predation by polar bears and killer whales; returning to the same locations yearly increases vulnerability to human hunting and disturbance JUL + AUG 2018 33
Discover the North Atlantic Right Whale! These extremely rare whales spend the summer in Canadian waters. For thousands of years, whales have provided Indigenous peoples with food and tools. It was of such importance that one of the beliefs of the Mi’kmaq people was that the whale was the master of life in the sea. Once much more common, there are only about 500 of them left on Earth. We all need to work together to ensure this massive marine mammal is around for generations to come.
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FIELD GUIDE + GARDENING + BIRDING + URBAN WILDLIFE
| Outdoors
Hairy Braya FIELD GUIDE
From geographical, geological, literary, historical and of course botanical perspectives, this is a fascinator
Canada’s Arctic! When I was alerted to the idea that this entire issue of Canadian Wildlife would be devoted to that fascinating region, I was determined that Field Guide would focus on the most extraordinary, most Canadian exemplar. The hairy braya (Braya pilosa), a hardy member of the mustard family, is just that. First, this exceptionally rare plant lives way up north and nowhere else. The only place it can be found on the globe is at and near the very tip of Cape Bathurst, a peninsula in the western Arctic forming the northernmost point of mainland Northwest Territories. It is one of only a few slender fingers of coastal North America to reach above the 70th parallel. Hairy braya was gathered there three times early in the 19th century and recorded again only 154 years later in 2004 by a botanist travelling from Utah. Second, on this peninsula are the “smoking hills,” a bizarre yet natural phenomenon of burning shale oil strata that smoulder in the frozen ground. It is a bizarre site: smoking hills in an icy tundra. Adding to the weirdness of the site, resulting ponds of foul-smelling sulphur dioxide dot the nearby landscape, like something out of science fiction.
JIM HARRIS
Which brings us to the third amazing fact: Cape Bathurst, through some obscure linkage, became central to Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Le Pays des fourrures (The Fur Country). In it, the French fantasist portrays the spit as a massive though unrecognized ice formation that, after a volcanic eruption, breaks away and drifts west and south. The gigantic iceberg carries a Hudson’s Bay Company fort and its inhabitants through the Bering Strait as it gradually melts away. (At the risk of being the spoiler, I will reveal that all hands are eventually saved.) Fourth, where fact becomes stranger than fiction, the first western scientist to see and categorize this exceptionally rare species was the Scottish ship surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer, John Richardson. He found it in 1826. And how did he come to be there then? He was a member of Sir John Franklin’s two first JUL + AUG 2018 35
Outdoors
Which brings us to the botanical story. With largish white flowers, hairy braya is distinguished by the hair (hence the name) on its multiple stems, which range from four to 12 centimetres. A perennial, it grows on isolated patches of calciferous silt and sand in an area that remained ice-free during the Pleistocene era. There are an estimated 15,000 plants in 13 areas spread over 64 square kilometres. Little is known about it, though the fact that it is fragrant and has large blossoms suggests it is pollinated by insects. Not surprisingly, given its limited range and harsh environment, the hairy braya’s days seem numbered. A decrease in sea ice on the Beaufort Sea as temperatures rise is leading to rapid erosion of its coastal habitats (10 metres a year) and to harmful salt spray as a result of storm surges. The most substantial populations further inland are threatened by flooding. The plant is ill-equipped to compete with other species when expanding into new areas, though relatives flourish in Greenland. Since 2013, Braya pilosa has been listed as endangered by COSEWIC under the federal Species at Risk Act. The future of this found and lost and found Canadian rarity therefore may be coming to a sad end. — MEL WALWYN
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Fresh, Not Frozen GARDENING
Growing communities across the Arctic are bringing affordable fruit and vegetables to the northern table When you are expected to pay north of 10 bucks for a handful of tomatoes, you are going to want to think seriously about growing your own. But when you live north of the 60th parallel, growing vegetables is no simple proposition. It is, however, becoming more popular. There has been a new willingness to “grow your own” in the last few years. A farming school is spreading the word — and the skills required. And more and more community-access greenhouses are sprouting up. Together, these growing concerns are helping to address serious issues for those living in the North: food security, proper nutrition and affordability. For millennia, humans have harvested much from the lands north of 60, not only hunting and fishing but gathering a healthy diet of berries, shoots, greens, roots and bark. There is evidence too that sea kelp and lake grasses were part of the prehistoric diet. Being nomadic, early peoples had no call or capacity for agriculture. As Europeans arrived to settle, gardens did too. In 1787, the great explorer Alexander Mackenzie mentions seeing “as fine a kitchen garden as I ever saw in Canada,” at the trading post of explorer Peter Pond near Lake Athabasca. By 1930, the Mackenzie District was reporting local harvests of oats and barley to cauliflower, lettuce and more. Hardy gardeners eked out a harvest. As access to the North opened up, more processed and packaged food was shipped from the south, to feed a growing population. By 1970, when the federal Dominion Experimental Agricultural Station at Fort Simpson was shut down, hopes for northern agriculture died on the vine. It was more than 40 years later, in 2013, that the Northern Farm Training Institute opened in Hay River, N.W.T. Established by local Métis, led by northern farming legend Jackie Milne, it offers agriculture and animal husbandry training on its 100-hectare campus. Livestock include goats, cattle, yaks and chickens, and crops encompass everything from beets, kale and cabbage to raspberries, saskatoon berries and haskap berries. Five years in, more than a hundred graduates from 30 communities have returned home with “growing enthusiasm.” For many more northern locations, farming is not an option, except “indoors.” Greenhouses have become a popular solution. In Inuvik, a city of 3,300 on the Mackenzie Delta, 100 km from the Arctic Ocean, the local greenhouse program is entering its 20th season. Run by the community as a cooperative, in season they have a farmers’ market and recently introduced an affordable fresh veggie box weekly delivery program. Nearly 3,000 kilometres to the east, Iqaluit’s Community Greenhouse Society is in its 17th year providing fresh produce to locals at a fraction of what imported food costs. Above the treeline at the south end of Baffin Island, Nunavut’s capital city has a population about 7,800. Last year, the society initiated a hydroponics program in the schools, combining hands-in-the-dirt education with a year-round supply of fresh vegetables. They celebrated Thanksgiving with a homegrown harvest. But it is not just the larger cities. In 2013, Naujaat (pop: 1,082), on the shores of Hudson Bay in Nunavut, a not-for-profit called Growing North built a greenhouse designed to withstand the harsh climate. The harvest last year included 250 heads of lettuce, 350 kale plants and the fruit from 16 tomato plants. That was using only half the available space. They held their first farmers’ market as well, selling produce at half the cost in the local store. — MAGAZINE STAFF
ISTOCK
expeditions to the North. Yes, that Franklin, he of the Erebus and Terror and their disastrous quest for the Northwest Passage two decades later. Richardson was one of those who survived Franklin’s first calamitous foray via the Coppermine River (1819-22), which involved murder, cannibalism and the most exceptional lack of preparedness on the leader’s part. Just a few years later, during what was a rare successful enterprise under Franklin (who was either ridiculously unlucky or, more likely, incompetent), Richardson helped map 3,000 kilometres of coastline. He was personally responsible for gathering thousands of plant samples, later categorized in several volumes of Flora BorealiAmericana (1830) by Sir William Hooker, a grandee of early botany. It was Hooker who recognized and categorized the plant as Braya pilosa, part of the Brassicaceae family of angiosperms. Amazingly, today at the Kew Gardens herbarium near London, there are dried samples from three separate expeditions: Richardson in 1826 and 1848 (during an unsuccessful search for Franklin’s final and most deadly failure) and one from a Captain Pullen in 1850.
A legacy gift that’s perfectly…
natural
For more information, visit
CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/PlannedGiving. Getty Images
Inspiring a love for wildlife is a beautiful gift. Ensure that your legacy continues for future generations by making arrangements for a Planned Gift in your will. It’s a simple way to share your love of wildlife and ensure critical funding for species research and recovery.
Outdoors
Timing’s Off BIRDING
Arctic birds’ breeding and wintering grounds are warming, and that hurts them coming and going Whenever I am asked to comment on the impact of climate change on Arctic birds, two words immediately pop into my mind: winners and losers. And the former are in a very small minority among the 85 bird species that breed in the globe’s northern regions. Being highly mobile creatures, birds will not be as hard hit as those organisms living year-round in the Arctic. But both breeding and wintering grounds will be affected.
Rising temperatures affect migration too: birds are migrating earlier because of warming spring temperatures. A 63-year study of 96 long-distance migrant species concluded that more than a quarter of them are arriving earlier. But many of these same species are not returning north any earlier. Since they cannot know what weather and food conditions are like on their breeding grounds in the Arctic, they may well arrive to discover there’s barely enough to survive on, let alone fatten up enough to produce eggs. Specialist species that eat only one or two foods will be especially hard hit. For example, ivory gulls, which specifically forage along disappearing sea ice, have declined by 90 per cent in just the last 20 years. With entire ecological communities being disrupted by climate change, Arctic birds are challenged by a whole army of new parasites, predators and competitors to which they are not adapted. Thick-billed murres breeding in northern Hudson Bay are experiencing higher egg loss and adult mortality due to a combination of heat and greater numbers of
38 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
According to one large-scale study, birds are initiating egg-laying at an average rate of 6.6 days earlier every 10 years. This is a bad thing because raising young is no longer matched with the time of best food availability mosquitoes. Habitat changes can also be indirect, as warmer conditions coupled with less snow and ice bring more tourism and resource development with all their associated infrastructure to the Arctic. Scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia created a research model that took climate breeding conditions for 24 Arctic bird species and projected them into 2070. They gloomily predicted that more than 80 per cent will lose virtually all of their breeding habitat. In a research report from the Wildlife Conservation Society in the United States, nine species were identified as either highly or moderately vulnerable due to changes specific to Alaska (not taking into account changes elsewhere in their range). Of the two most vulnerable one is the gyrfalcon, for decades now my favourite bird. Other, long-term gyrfalcon studies in Greenland reveal significant incursions of more aggressive peregrine falcons into their hunting grounds and their nests. Then again, the peregrines are having their own climate change problems in Greenland: massive increases in rainfall (a whole season’s worth falling in a mere three hours) is causing peregrine nestlings to drown or die of hypothermia. Falcon experts there feel it is just a matter of time before one of the two species will become extinct. These are just a few of the losers in the reality that is climate change. — DAVID BIRD
ISTOCK
One of the most critical issues involves timing. According to one large-scale study, birds are initiating egg-laying at an average rate of 6.6 days earlier every 10 years. The common murre, a seabird breeding widely throughout the Arctic, is 24 days earlier per decade. This is a bad thing because raising young is no longer matched with the time of best food availability. This has two negative effects: parent birds are unable to feed their offspring sufficiently; and later, fledglings will be unable to find adequate food to fatten up before migration.
Food that makes it healthy to
eat like a bird! A healthy diet makes for a healthier bird. The Canadian Wildlife Federation’s exclusive line of bird seed can help make that happen.
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NATHALIE DUHAIME
Outdoors Humans are not the only creatures who enjoy this neck of the northern woods. Calling itself “the Wilderness City” is not just another tourist board boast: the wild is right there. Not far outside of town is a wildlife preserve with, among others, thinhorn sheep, mountain goats, muskoxen, elk and Canada lynx. Right downtown you might see foxes, wolves and bears. Plenty of bears. Since 2012, Whitehorse has also been home to the Centre for Human-Wildlife Conflict Solutions, a not-for-profit working to reduce the lethal outcomes that result from the clashes between humans and wildlife. Operating under the catchier sobriquet WildWise Yukon, the organization’s ambit encompasses the entire Yukon territory, researching trends and engaging and educating communities about the best ways to reduce dangerous encounters on roads, trails and around their homes and businesses. In the past several years, WildWise has been paying attention to the increasing number of bear-human clashes in its own backyard in Whitehorse itself. As the city has continued to grow, so has the problem: there was a six-time increase in incidents between 2006 and 2012. Wanting to understand the true scale of the challenge, WildWise began in 2015 with an audit, funded by the territory and city governments, the Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation, the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, businesses and non-profit agencies. A firm of experts in bear behaviours was hired to conduct a hazard assessment. They found that between 1997 and 2014, there had been at least 243 bear-human encounters, 33 occurring in the downtown area alone. Since then, they have been increasing. On average, since 2012 there have been 20 human-bear conflicts reported within city limits per year. From 2012 to 2017, 18 bears within the city limits had to be destroyed, one-third of those in the last year.
In the North’s largest city, animals getting into the trash is more than a nuisance With more than 26,000 citizens, Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, is the largest city in all of northern Canada. While it is one of those city names Canadians know, many would be hard-pressed to say exactly where it is: it lies just about 80 kilometres north of the 60th parallel and the border with British Columbia. Situated on a wide riparian plain on the shores of the Yukon River, with a steep escarpment and plateau at its back, it is an inviting location. Archeological evidence dating back 2,500 years points to it being a popular locale for hunting and fishing among Indigenous peoples, likely ancestors of the Southern Tutchone, Inland Tlingit and Tagish peoples who live in the area today. Protected in a valley surrounded by mountains to the east, south and northwest, it has a gentler climate than other northern cities: warm, dry summers with long hours of daylight. Winter nights are long and cold of course, though mild compared with other cities in the Canadian North. Still, even at extremes, the harsh temperatures are mitigated by the advantageous location, stunning natural beauty and congenial urban life.
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Why the increase? First reaction seemed to be a case of “blaming the victims.” But animals go where the food is easiest to get. According to the consultants’ report, garbage and other “nonnatural attractants” in the expanding city were the cause in 70 per cent of encounters. The suburban neighbourhoods, easiest to access for bears, offer plentiful garbage and organic waste to be composted. Greasy barbecues and bird feeders are lures too, as are fruit trees and shrubs, especially those from which the fruit has not been harvested. Even city parks, playgrounds and schools are below basic standards. The consultants’ numerous recommendations included introducing bear-proof garbage bins, surrounding other attractants (beehives, hen houses) with electric fencing, removing bird feeders during the summer and reducing the use of decorative fruit and berry trees on residential and city property. The response to the report was mixed. In a follow-up door-todoor survey in 2017, two-thirds of respondents said a better system for securing waste in bear-proof containers should be enacted by the municipality. But, as to taking down bird feeders, securing barbecues and reducing the use of decorative fruit trees, barely one-third agreed, despite the likelihood that more bears would be drawn to their neighbourhoods and more destroyed. For its part, at the time of writing, the Whitehorse city government has not introduced bear-proof containers, has not enacted a wildlife attractant bylaw or added meaningful wildlife attractant management to its solid waste bylaw, even as it rolls out enhanced curbside organics collection. Sounds like a good way to attract bears. — MATTHEW CHURCH
ISTOCK
Bad News Bears URBAN WILDLIFE
EARLY BLOOMS SPRING UP + CAN YOUR PLANTS HEAR YOU? + GET KIDS OUTSIDE
Killer whales are invading Hudson Bay + Grizzly behaviour — nature vs nurture
BUSY BEES
Marianne and Matt Gee are working for pollinators — one hive at a time
Depths of
DESPAIR
GARDEN VARIETIES
6 Public Spaces You’ll Love SAVE THE KING
You are the Endangered Monarch’s Last Chance
Whales are suffering, dying slow deaths entangled and maimed by fishing gear. In the Bay of Fundy, a community responds
CWF CONSERVATION AWARDS Let’s Give Them All A Big Hand
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MARCH + APRL 2017 VOLUME 23, NUMBER 1
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Insects Are First Responders in Fort McMurray + Climate Change: Poetry Behind the Data
OUR GUIDE TO BECOMING A
Great Canadian
JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2017 VOLUME 22, NUMBER 6
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A Round of
Applause Every year, CWF is proud to recognize remarkable individuals and groups from coast to coast who are helping to deepen Canadians’ appreciation for wildlife and conservation. Here are this year’s deserving winners, who were recognized at our annual banquet on June 16. Visit cwf-fcf.org to learn more about these amazing folks, as well as our impressive register of past recipients
42 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
Griffin Andersen Belcarra, British Columbia
Even in elementary school, Griffin Andersen demonstrated tremendous commitment when he took charge of his school’s salmon enhancement program. Ever since, he has been active: as a youth ambassador and as a fundraiser, including for the Mossom Creek salmon hatchery and environmental education centre when it was destroyed by fire. Inspired by the experience, he created a website called Wishful Thinking that continues to support a wide variety of non-profit environmental organizations.
SHERRI KOOP
WADE LUZNY YOUTH CONSERVATION AWARD Recognizing youths and youth groups who have undertaken exceptional habitat and conservation projects or activities
TKTKTKTK
JUL + AUG 2018 43
Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
Over its 26-year history, the Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador has focused on creating environmental and cultural projects and educational resources and outreach that provide employment training, a sense of communal responsibility and an understanding of environmental and climate change issues among youth. Thousands of students throughout the far-flung regions of the province have been inspired to learn more and to take action to reduce environmental impacts in their own lives and in their communities.
G3E Education and Water Monitoring Action Group Quebec City, Quebec
Through a dizzying number of province-wide programs — from adopt-a-river to science training and outreach — G3E has engaged more than 50,000 young people in water monitoring and field conservation work. Thanks to a network of regional coordinators, G3E has delivered high-quality citizen science programs to a diverse and dynamic youth population, fostering province-wide connections and community while conserving water resources and habitats for the enjoyment of many generations to come.
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ROBERT BATEMAN AWARD Recognizing an individual who has furthered the awareness of and appreciation for Canada’s wildlife and habitats through artistic expression
RODERICK HAIG-BROWN AWARD Recognizing a significant contribution to furthering the sport of angling and the conservation, development and wise use of Canada’s recreational fisheries
ROLAND MICHENER CONSERVATION AWARD Recognizing individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to promoting, enhancing and furthering the conservation of Canada’s natural resources
WILD EDUCATOR AWARD Recognizing the efforts of CWF WILD Education facilitators and instructors who provide innovative and meaningful experiences for youth that focus on wildlife and the building of a conservation ethic
Aleta Karstad Bishops Mills, Ontario
Aleta Karstad has been writing and illustrating books since 1979, with a focus on bringing to life the natural history of little-known areas. Working in partnership with and in support of local citizens and conservation organizations, she has taught and promoted respect for biodiversity and the environment through her remarkable visual arts, her tireless fundraising work and an exceptional online presence. Visit www.aletakarstad.com to learn more.
Ray Makowecki Edmonton, Alberta
For more than 40 years as a teacher, biologist, environmental consultant, angler, hunter and all-round outdoor enthusiast (as well as a CWF director for 10 years), Ray Makowecki has had a profound impact as an educator, then as a manager within the fish and wildlife division programs of the Alberta government and as a private consultant, in addition to a lifetime for volunteer efforts. He has inspired and motivated many Canadian anglers.
James (Jim) G. Wilson Quispamsis, New Brunswick
Described by one nominator as “the public relations person for wildlife in New Brunswick,” Jim Wilson has worked tirelessly for decades informing people and inspiring them to get involved in nature. An avid birder, he has played a central role in advancing the knowledge of birds in the province, from conducting nocturnal owl surveys and co-authoring bird atlases to establishing the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory, a source of invaluable data on seabird migration used by academics and researchers all over the world.
Sue Penney
Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia As a WILD-certified education coordinator in a popular wildlife park, Sue Penney has reached thousands of visitors, delivering outdoor workshops on a wide range of ecological subjects to kids of all ages. She shares her remarkable enthusiasm with everyone she meets. Committed to her work, she has trained and inspired countless other educators to help reach even more youth and in doing so has created an enduring legacy of passion for wildlife and conservation.
PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: CURTIS COMEAU, AARON MCKENZIE FRASER, JESSICA DEEKS, VALLEY PHOTO.
YOUTH MENTOR AWARDS (2) Recognizing individuals and groups who create, present and encourage conservation, habitat and wildlife programs to young Canadians
Clockwise from top left: Ray Makowecki, Sue Penney, Aleta Karstad, Jim Wilson
JUL + AUG 2018 45
Right Here
73° 14' 60" N 93° 29' 59" W
JOHN ABBOTT / NPL / MINDEN PICTURES
Muskox graze in the centre of Kuganajuup Qikiqtanga, also known as Somerset Island, in Nunavut. Photographer John E. Marriott shot this in summer when the ice covering this massive uninhabited island melts, revealing a complex web of deep canyons, dramatic cliffs and lofty waterfalls.
46 CANADIAN WILDLIFE
N AT U R A L I S B E A U T I F U L . Healthy shorelines for healthy lakes. Natural is beautiful, especially along your shoreline. Planting and maintaining a naturalized shoreline rich in native vegetation helps restore and maintain lake health, improve lake water quality, minimize erosion and create new wildlife habitat. Conserve the health of your lake and contribute to a thriving wildlife population by naturalizing your shoreline.
Your
Check out before and after photos including planting resources at LoveYourLake.ca. Photo: CWF
The Love Your Lake program is coordinated by
A picture is worth a thousand words. We’d prefer a photo that leaves us
SPEECHLESS.
Enter the Canadian Wildlife magazine Reflections of Nature photo contest. Your photography could be showcased in the pages of Canadian Wildlife & Biosphère magazines. Contest closes October 31, 2018. For details, visit CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca/PhotoContest.
DEVER VILLENEUVE