Does forestry threaten the biodiversity of our forests? Does the woodland caribou deserve to be its super symbol? Questions that may surprise so much the answers seem acquired. However, they deserve to be revisited from a historical perspective.
“Protecting biodiversity” has become a rallying cry for all those promoting protected areas. But what biodiversity are we really talking about?
First of all, you have to be aware that biodiversity is a very very broad concept that refers to all living things: animals, insects, plants, microorganisms, etc…
It is a huge catch-all concept of the “living”. In the forest, it is not limited to woodland caribou as one might sometimes think.
Also, the content of this tote has undergone profound and irreversible transformations for more than 500 years. The fault lies with Christopher Columbus.
Before the discovery of the Americas, this continent had evolved without much interaction with the rest of the world since the end of the last Ice Age. By discovering this continent, Columbus set in motion an immense process of exchange of biodiversity on a planetary scale which is still fully active today.
It is impossible here to be the least exhaustive on the transformations brought to the ecosystems of the Americas by these exchanges.
Let us note first of all that if we are worried about the future of our beehives, it is in fact an element of our biodiversity imported by European colonizers. There were also no earthworms in our ecosystems. The latter had been literally planed by the glaciers.
The colonizers, by introducing these great soil engineers, contributed to irreversibly transforming all the biodiversity of our undergrowth.
We are even recreating here ecosystems from elsewhere in an attempt to regain an ecological balance. This is the case of the emerald ash borer, from Asia, for which a wasp predator of this insect was deliberately introduced into its original ecosystem.
Such has been life in the biodiversity of the Americas for more than 500 years now…
The woodland caribou, rare by nature
The caribou is a native species. Forestry has a negative influence on caribou habitat and populations. The science is very clear on this. But not just forestry.
“Twelve”. It is the number of daily off-trail skiers that are sufficient to trigger an avoidance reaction in mountain caribou located within a radius of less than two kilometres. This key figure is taken from a study published in 2018 by the team of specialist Martin-Hugues St-Laurent. These results are in line with other studies on this theme and which also apply to woodland caribou (“mountain dwellers” and “forest dwellers” are different ecotypes).
In short: the woodland caribou likes to be quiet in its corner, very very far from the human presence.
Our conservation efforts are based on the delimitation of its range in 1850. The latter then reached as far as the American states bordering Quebec. In 2012, this boundary was established north of Lac St-Jean. Hence “the problem”.
However, when crossing the biological knowledge of caribou with the history of Quebec, there is a “bug” with the range of 1850.
Before the arrival of Europeans, what was to become Quebec was occupied from east to west and from south to north by humans. Humans who developed this territory with fire. They were also farmers and hunters. The caribou was game. How, under these conditions, could the woodland caribou have had a range as vast as that of 1850?
Humans would almost have to disappear from the territory… and that is in fact what almost happened at that time.
Throughout the Americas, First Nations suffered greatly from epidemics caused by diseases introduced by Europeans. We are talking about apocalyptic mortality rates of the order of 80% to 90%. To this must be added the efforts of conquest in the 19th century to reduce as much as possible the indigenous influence on the territory.
It should also be noted that in the middle of the 19th century the wolf, an effective predator of woodland caribou, had been eradicated from the south shore of the St. Lawrence.
Finally, by the middle of the 19th century, the great efforts to colonize the North had not yet begun.
This means that between the virtual eradication of its natural predators (humans, wolves) and pending colonization efforts by Europeans, the caribou had a very favorable opportunity to extend its “playground”.
When colonization began in earnest, it is normal that woodland caribou moved north and that their populations declined. By its nature, it is not a species destined to be abundant in an inhabited territory.
In conclusion…
From a historical point of view, the influence of forestry on the biodiversity of our forests pales in comparison to that of the international exchanges of biodiversity that have been going on for more than 500 years. As for the woodland caribou, we should realize that our conservation efforts aim to recreate the effects of an immense historical drama: the virtual disappearance of humans and predators from Quebec territory.
We aim to limit human presence as much as possible and we trap predators. However, for thousands of years, woodland caribou have evolved in the midst of managers, hunters and predators. Our conservation bases for this species should take into account this historical reality, not just the biology of the species.
–Eric Alvarez Ph.D. Independent researcher and blogger in forest management