PRISTINE WATERSHED STEPS CLOSER TO PROTECTION FOR POSTERITY.

Canada's National Observer.

The Seal River is pristine and untouched by development with waters clean enough to drink. Now, the remote watershed is one step closer to becoming one of Canada’s first Indigenous-led conservation areas.

Story here.

More proof. A walk-in-the-park really can boost our feelings of well-being - especially when there are wild birds to sing to us along the way! Researchers.

It's not exactly "news" that spending time in nature benefits human health and well-being. But an experiment conducted by social scientists along some mountain trails in Colorado shows - it's not just the wind in our faces or the grandeur of the scenery we need to thank. 

                                            by Larry Powell

A PinP photo.

Assessing the dwindling wilderness of Antarctica

Nature

Antarctica. Aerial photo by Astro_Alex.

Less than 32% of Antarctica is made up of areas that are free from human interference, and these areas are declining as human activity increases, reports a paper published in Nature. The study finds that although 99.6% of the continent can be considered to be wilderness (a relatively undisturbed environment), this area does not include much of its biodiversity.

Despite Antarctica’s isolation, the continent is under increasing pressure from human activity, including scientific research, the development of infrastructure and tourism. However, the total area of wilderness on the continent is unknown, as is the extent to which Antarctica’s biodiversity is contained within this.

Four killer whales cooperatively hunting a crabeater 

seal off the coast of Antarctica. Photo by Callan Carpenter, 

taken from one of many research vessels in the area. 

Steven Chown and colleagues assembled a record of ground-based human activity across Antarctica from publications, tourism data and scientific databases from 1819 to 2018. This resulted in approximately 2.7 million records, which were used to calculate the total area of wilderness across Antarctica, and its representation of biodiversity. The authors found that wilderness encompasses nearly the entire continent, but excludes much of its important biodiversity. Less than 7% of more than 23,000 species records in the Antarctic Terrestrial Biodiversity database were found to occur in areas classified as wilderness. Of Antarctica’s terrestrially important bird areas and specially protected areas, only 16% and 25%, respectively, were within areas of wilderness that had experienced negligible human impact.

The authors argue that the expansion of specially protected areas could reverse the decline in pristine areas and secure the continent’s biodiversity.

 

RELATED: 

Australia Wants to Build a Huge Concrete Runway in Antarctica. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea

 

End park mining in Manitoba. (Video)

The Wilderness Committee

Save the Wilderness. A music video by Eric Bogle and Larry Powell

With special thanks to Eric Bogle, for granting me permission to use his song for this video!

Thanks, Eric! You are the greatest! Larry.

Climate change made the Arctic greener. Now parts of it are turning brown.

ScienceNews

A green Arctic meadow - Baffin Island, CA.
Photo by Mike Beauregard.

Warming trends bring more insects, extreme weather and wildfires that wipe out plants. More here.

A call to protect much more land and sea from human encroachment

Science X 

Riding Mtn. Nat'l. Park - Manitoba, Canada. A PinP photo.

A new paper in the journal Science strongly supports establishment of many more land and sea areas as protected sites. Failure to do so, the editorial warns, chillingly, could spell doom for many species, including our own! More here.

While America Focuses on Tax Bill, Congress Quietly Tries to Open Arctic Refuge to Oil Drilling

EcoWatch

The U.S. Senate has passed a Republican tax-reform package that contains a provision to authorize oil drilling on the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, placing the biological heart of one of our last pristine, untouched places in severe peril. Story here.

Barrenground caribou, Nunavut. 

Ansgar Walk photo.

RELATED: Proposed oil development threatens yet another caribou herd.

Supreme Court rules in favour of Yukon First Nations in Peel watershed dispute

CBCnews

Unanimous decision returns planning process to earlier stage, requires additional consultation. Story here.

Boreal forest in the broad valley of the Hart River, (Peel Watershed). Photo: Juri Peepre

Site C Dam Threatens Canada's Largest World Heritage Site: UNESCO

Sierra Club BC

Wood Buffalo National Park. Photo credit: UNESCO -  Vincent Ko Hon Chiu 

Canada has failed to protect its largest World Heritage Site. Based upon a process initiated by Sierra Club BC, UNESCO visited the Peace River Valley in the fall of 2016 to investigate how the Site C dam endangers Wood Buffalo National Park. UNESCO strongly criticizes Canada for exposing the park to danger. Story here.

Aerial photography of northern Ontario's Ring of Fire

     Canadian

Geographic

Photo credit - Garth Lenz, Canadian Geographic.

The James Bay Lowlands contain both environmentally crucial peatlands and one of the largest potential mineral reserves in Canada. Story here.

Conservation groups urge increased protection for boreal caribou habitat

The Globe & Mail

Federal and provincial governments are being urged to increase protection for the boreal forest and its imperilled woodland caribou herds from resource-company activity, as environment ministers prepare to meet in Ottawa this week to devise plans for greater conservation efforts. Story here.

Nature trust 'astounded' by response to 100 Wild Islands campaign

CBCnews

Nova Scotia coastal archipelago now 85 per cent protected. Details here.

PROTECTING CANADA’S NATIONAL PARKS. A CALL FOR RENEWED COMMITMENT TO NATURE CONSERVATION

CPAWS Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

Are human animals "loving our parks to death?" PinP photos.

For almost a decade CPAWS has observed a significant shift in Parks Canada’s approach to managing our national parks, away from their legislative first priority of protecting nature, towards a more tourism and marketing focused agenda which is putting wildlife and wilderness in our national parks at risk. Details here.

We can learn so much from nature

rabble.ca

A forest in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, rendered "ghost-like"   by hoarfrost. PinP photo.

If you fly over a forest and look down, you'll see every green tree and plant reaching to the heavens to absorb the ultimate energy source: sunlight. What a contrast when you look down on… 

 Story here.

Humans have now carved up the Earth’s wilderness into 600,000 little pieces

The Washington Post

Scientists Thursday provided a global quantification of one of the most pervasive, but least recognized, ways that humans are marring the coherence of the natural world — by building endless numbers of roads. Story here.

A logging road in the UK. Richard Webb

Save BC's Ancient Temperate Rainforest. PLEASE SIGN!

Take the Pledge to Help End BC's Grizzly Hunt

Conservationists Announce New Protected Areas For Great Bear Rainforest

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

PinP photo

Four private parcels of land have been added to protected zones in the largest coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth, ensuring their permanent protection from commercial logging, conservationists announced Thursday. Story here.

The World Has Lost a Tenth of All Its Wilderness in The Past Two Decades

The Washington Post

Mule deer - Grasslands Nat'l. Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Copyright © 2016 PinP

Wilderness areas on Earth have experienced alarming losses in the past two decades, a new study suggests. Story here.