Canada's Boreal Forest is the largest intact terrestrial, ecosystem remaining on Earth. It is an irreplaceable stronghold of nature that benefits every corner of the planet, whether through its endless swaths of carbon absorbing trees or incredible biodiversity, sanctuaries to birds that migrate as far away as the tip of South America, dispersing seeds all along the way.
But the Boreal is not just a forest of green, it is also a forest of blue that contains more surface freshwater than any other ecosystem on the planet. It is home to a quarter of the world's remaining wetlands, several of the largest pristine and undammed rivers left on the planet and more than 1.5 million lakes that connect our country from coast to coast to coast. It represents 2/3s of Ontario's precious forests. However, much like other major aquatic and forest ecosystem on Earth, the Boreal faces a litany of threats. Logging, mining, forest fires, invasive pests and the myriad ways those forces interact with climate change, have made conservation efforts even more challenging than a decade ago.
In The Breathing Lands, the Brothers will speak with local community members and leading conservation scientists to reveal how we all benefit from the Boreal forest and how we can collaborate to protect this unique habitat with emerging movements like the Indigenous Guardians, who are trained experts that manage the land on behalf of their communities. They restore animals and plants, implement and monitor environmental protection plans. We will follow a local chapter and learn how their work is guided by indigenous and western science and shaped by Indigenous knowledge of the Boreal built over thousands of years.