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2009

Comment: Audubon report on birds shifting north due to global warming

February 11 , 2009 - Ottawa

The National Audubon Society has just published a study based on 40 years of data, with some shocking findings. The study documented northward range shifts, sometimes of hundreds of kilometres, in 177 bird species. This is a pattern consistent with hundreds of studies of wildlife and plants that document a clear “fingerprint” of global warming. Birds and other animals must adapt to global warming or they will disappear. Maintaining very large connected habitats allows animals to move across landscapes so that populations are not isolated, and can continue reproducing and adapting to the changes that are unmistakably underway.

These findings have vital implications for Canada. Announcements by Ontario’s Premier McGuinty and Quebec’s Premier Charest are significant in the face of findings like those in the Audubon report. Both leaders have pledged to protect at least half of the intact Boreal forest of their provinces. This will maintain carbon stored in the land as well as to provide refuge to northward shifting animals and plants.
More information can be found in The Audubon Society's report (see link at the end of this page). Dr. Jeff Wells of the Boreal Songbird Initiative is an expert on Canadian birds and global warming. He was actively involved with Audubon in this release and is available for comment to the media on the findings and implications for Canadian birds. A quote by Dr. Wells is below.

“This report shows how a healthy and intact Canadian Boreal forest is not only a shield against global warming, but also the last stop on what would otherwise be a ride to extinction for birds being forced north by these changes,” said Dr. Jeff Wells, Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. “The recent pledges by Ontario and Quebec to set aside at least half of their intact Boreal forest from development, when enacted, will protect much of the entire continent’s bird life.”

 

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For more information, please contact:

Suzanne Fraser
Director of communications, Canadian Boreal Initiative
613.232.2530; sfraser@borealcanada.ca

Other resources:

The Audubon Society - Birds and Climate Change: on the Move

Canada’s Boreal forest as carbon storage: http://www.interboreal.org/globalwarming/
Ontario protection announcement: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f58e4ec3-d68b-4364-b607-67a23a1d548f
Quebec protection announcement: http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=129450f0-d3c0-4337-8f09-9977ff6c1f40

 

Based in Ottawa, the Canadian Boreal Initiative brings together diverse partners to create new solutions for Boreal Forest conservation and works as a catalyst supporting on-the-ground efforts across the Boreal by governments, industry, First Nations, conservation groups, major retailers, financial institutions and scientists.