As world leaders head to COP26 in Glasgow in search of ways to fight the climate crisis, Canadians may be surprised to learn that solutions are lying right under their feet.

Canada is home to 25 per cent of the Earth’s wetlands and boreal forests, not to mention endangered prairie grasslands and the world’s longest coastline. These ecosystems can store immense amounts of carbon, a power that makes them crucial in the fight against the climate crisis.

While Canada is blessed with an abundance of carbon stores, many of them lack protections from industrial development. But efforts are underway to turn things around. Here are four stories from The Narwhal’s Carbon Cache series on nature-based climate solutions that dive deep to spotlight the people trying to protect Canada’s natural landscapes.

The Dene Tha’ are forging a plan to protect Alberta wetlands with more carbon-storing capabilities than the Amazon

Mbehcho (Bistcho) Lake in northern Alberta is one of the largest lakes in the province. Spanning 426 square kilometres, the region is home to threatened caribou, sandhill cranes and wolverines, to name just some of the wildlife the lake supports. Not only that, but the surrounding wetlands hold five times as much carbon per square metre as the Amazon rainforest. 

Enter an innovative proposal by the Dene Tha’ First Nation to create the first Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area in Alberta. The Dene Tha’ have a long history of stewardship in the area, with archaeological studies showing thousands of years of history. Now, they are coming up with a plan that would protect the community from the impacts of oil and gas development and help the nation manage the land. 

“Maintaining the carbon-storing wetlands within the region will be critical to combating climate change,” the Dene Tha’ proposal read.

Meet the Cheakamus, the only community forest to develop carbon offsets in B.C.

In B.C., there is a little-known forest that provides an important example of how to log while minimizing impacts to ecosystems. 

The 33,000-hectare Cheakamus forest, located about a 40-minute drive south from Whistler, B.C., is teeming with life, supporting everything from bears, marmoset and cougars to lichens, moss and wildflowers. 

But the forest isn’t immune to the threats of industrial activities such as logging. That’s why, in 2007, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), the Lil̓wat7úl (Líl̓wat Nation) and Whistler formed the Cheakamus Community Forest Society to run the forest. Now, they’re charting new territory for sustainable timber harvest that outlaws clearcuts, respects Indigenous governance and combats the climate emergency. 

Canada is investing $25 million into natural carbon storage in the drought-stricken Prairies

This past summer brought a brutal drought to many parts of Canada. Perhaps no area was more affected than the Prairies, and no profession more so than farmers. So when the federal government announced a $25-million investment to conserve and restore wetlands and grasslands in the Prairie provinces, farmers rejoiced.

Draining wetlands not only destroys ecosystems but also impacts the ability to grow crops as the dirt is often damp and saline. 

“You plant it, you keep planting it, you put the same amount of fertilizer on it every year … and it doesn’t do well at all,” said organic grain farmer Karen Klassen. Providing funds for restoration “might actually tip the balances to incentivize people to turn it into wetland,” she said.

Another perk? Wetlands influence local microclimates, which means keeping them healthy could soften the severity of droughts.

The $25 million in support is one piece of a federal effort to boost the adoption of climate-friendly farming practices like cover cropping, nitrogen management and rotational grazing.

Natural climate solutions could offset 11 per cent of Canada’s emissions by 2030

Canada has the opportunity to offset 11 per cent — or 78 megatonnes — of its greenhouse gas emissions annually through natural climate solutions, according to a recent report published in Science Advances.

How big is that number? It’s the same amount of emissions produced from powering all homes in Canada for three years, or the 2018 emissions from all heavy industries in the country.

The single largest way of stemming greenhouse gas emissions is through protecting Canada’s grasslands. 

According to the report, preventing the conversion of 2.5 million hectares of native grasslands and grazing lands across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba could mitigate 12.7 megatonnes of carbon pollution annually by 2030.

As the world looks for ways to address the climate crisis, protecting grasslands could be one of the most promising avenues for change. Thankfully, there are plenty of people who are working to save them.

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More than 10 per cent of Canadians are living in homes that are increasingly threatened by wildfires, with on-reserve First Nations communities being disproportionately affected, according to new research published by scientists from Canada’s natural resources department.

The new study, published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, found that roughly 4.1 million people — or 12.3 per cent of the Canadian population — reside within what the authors call a ‘wildland-human interface’ or areas where homes and public structures intermingle with forests.

But the percentage of people at risk in on-reserve First Nations communities is nearly three times higher, with 32.1 per cent of this population facing looming dangers as the climate crisis exacerbates natural disasters. The authors estimate First Nations reserve inhabitants make up only 1.1 per cent of the Canadian population, based on the 2011 census.

The research is coming to light a few months into a devastating forest fire season with more than 2.7 million hectares of land in Canada already affected by wildfires, including a deadly blaze in June that killed two people and destroyed the town of Lytton, B.C. That fire resulted in roughly 300 insurance claims and $78 million in insured damage, according to recent estimates by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

The threat wildfire poses to communities is expected to increase in the future, since 17.3 per cent of forested areas in Canada are close to housing, industry and infrastructure, according to the new research, published in April.“Personally, I think I really underestimated the number of people and the amount of area subjected to wildfires in Canada,” Sandy Erni, lead author of the study, told The Narwhal in an interview. 

Yan Boulanger, a co-author of the study and a research scientist in forest ecology at Natural Resources Canada, said that the annual number of lands affected by wildfire is only going to increase.

“This is mostly caused by an increase in temperature,” he said. “Because temperatures are increasing, the climate is drier. So conditions are more fire conducive. Also, the fire season itself begins earlier in the spring and ends later in the fall, so there’s more time for fire to burn the landscape because of this increase in temperature, especially out west.”

But the climate crisis is not solely responsible for the heightened wildfire risk to a growing number of Canadians. Erni, who specializes in fire risk research with the Canadian Forest Service, said climate is just one side of the coin, the other being human society itself.

“We have got more people living in the forest, so we spread out human areas. And we don’t have the common sense that Indigenous cultures have about living with the forest. So I think that’s something very interesting to understand — you’ve got the fire, but also the society, which is increasing the pressure on the ecological system.”

Erni is not alone in her thinking.

Andrew Judge (Mkomosé), an assistant professor of Anishinaabe Studies at Algoma University who is not affiliated with the study, believes that people need to shift their mentality and recognize the “symbiotic relationship” between humans and the forest. From an Anishinaabe perspective, humans are the most reliant of all creatures and need the most from other beings, Judge said, but many humans are also caught up in prioritizing financial, rather than ecological, values.

“We continue to look at the forest as lumber and not breath,” he said. “The forest represents the breath of life — it inhales what we exhale, and exhales what we inhale.”

Judge said it’s now more urgent than ever to change the way we think about the natural world, because the cost of not doing so is and will continue to be disproportionately felt by marginalized communities.

The federal wildfire study shows just how the pressure of wildfires are bearing down more directly on First Nations reserves.

Currently, 17.8 per cent of the on-reserve First Nations population living in a wildland-human interface is exposed to a fire return interval of less than 250 years. By comparison, only 4.7 per cent of the remaining population across Canada lives in this interface. 

Not only are wildland-human interfaces more likely to cover First Nations reserves, these communities also have a shorter fire risk interval — the time that is expected to take place between two fire events.  

The study also notes that First Nations reserves make up almost one-third of all evacuees and evacuation events from recent decades.

The study predicts that remote First Nations communities in particular will bear the brunt of wildfires in the coming years. In northwest Ontario alone, six First Nations communities have evacuated this summer due to wildfires.

Judge noted that while climate change is at the root of the problem, we need to expand the metaphor to grasp the ways in which wildfires can compound the vulnerabilities of marginalized peoples.

“Climate change is also the trunk because it has so many branches, and then the roots of that are colonial greed, colonial violence, racist policies — there are so many other roots. If you think of the roots of a tree, there’s so many I don’t think you can just define one root.”

The study also predicts that, regardless of the climate change scenario, the amount of human settlements close to forests with a high fire risk will continue to increase. As such, Erni explained, Canada needs to focus more energy on preparation and mitigation, and less on suppression.

“And everybody can play a role. We often talk about policies and authorities, but even homeowners cleaning their backyard can make a huge difference,” she said. “I think that’s good to remind people sometimes.”

Being aware of the risk is the first step, said Boulanger, and communicating it is the second. That is what he hopes their research can accomplish.

“We see that we can certainly bring some solutions to those problems. Of course, these are tragedies. But now that we know the burn probabilities around Canada a little bit better, we’ll get a little bit more confident about what we should do.”

The study was co-authored by Lynn M. Johnston, a forest fire research scientist; Francis Manka, a forest biologist; Pierre Bernier, a forest productivity research scientist Emeritus; Amy Cardinal Christianson, a Métis fire social scientist; Thomas Swystun, a forest systems modelling specialist and Sylvie Gauthier, a forest succession research scientist. All the co-authors work for the Canadian Forest Service.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

When Eva Voinigescu looks back on her path to The Narwhal, the throughline becomes clear.

One of her earliest memories of engaging with environmental issues is making a documentary on chlorofluorocarbons and the hole in the ozone layer with two other girls in Grade 8. She recalls walking through the empty cornfields adjacent to her suburban Ottawa development and narrating into the camera as she tried to recreate scenes from the documentaries she had seen on TV. After getting tongue-tied one too many times, she shortened “chlorofluorocarbons” to “CFCs.”  

At the time, it was just another school assignment. Now, looking back, she can see how fitting it is that she has ended up working in environmental journalism. 

That documentary ended up winning a national student award, marking the beginning of a long line of accomplishments.

Eva describes her professional experience as “part start-up, part newsroom, part non-profit.” She started her career as an account coordinator at an ad agency in Toronto before doing her master’s in journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago. After graduating, she worked as a video producer at an advertising start-up, a communications specialist at a non-profit that funds scientific research and a freelance journalist, producer and audience consultant. 

In her role as outreach manager, Eva will be liaising with partners and donors, as well as working on audience engagement to ensure The Narwhal continues to connect with readers in meaningful ways.

We got a chance to chat with Eva about the many hats she’s worn and the steps she’s taken to bring her to The Narwhal.

The Narwhal’s new outreach manager winning a national student award for a documentary she produced with two other girls in Grade 8. Eva’s fun fact about this photo: the two other girls are also now working in journalism. Photo: Eva Voinigescu. Photo illustration: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Why did you decide to work in journalism?

There wasn’t any one moment where the decision was clear, but I’m a pretty curious person and I like figuring things out. I’ve always been a really good student and really liked formal education, so I’ve always seen journalism as a way to be a student forever — you’re always learning new things.

I had a lot of exposure to media as a kid — my mom always had Scientific American magazines hanging around the house and my dad was obsessed with the BBC and CBC. But ironically, they weren’t too keen on me going to journalism school. They wanted me to do something more stable, like business or science. We moved to Canada from Romania when I was young, so it’s very much the immigrant story in that sense. So even though I applied to J-school for undergrad, I kind of chickened out and I did a bachelor of arts instead. At the time, I convinced myself that it was a good middle ground between what I wanted and what my parents wanted. 

But after a couple of years, I still couldn’t shake the journalism bug and I’d also grown into myself more — the idea of talking to strangers didn’t scare me as much. So I went back and I did my master’s in journalism with a focus on science journalism and documentary.

How have you connected to nature throughout your life?

My family in Romania has farms and land in the countryside, so I’ve always liked to be in the garden, with the farm animals, and in open spaces. I definitely idealize the pastoral a bit too much. 

I also read a couple of books a few years ago, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Waldman, that really changed the way I thought about the finite nature of our environment. 

I didn’t really come to embrace spending time in nature until my 20s and it’s partially tied to those books. It’s also partially tied to the fact that my mom moved to the West Coast and I got to experience those more dramatic landscapes regularly, in a way that I didn’t growing up in the suburbs of Ottawa and the east end of Toronto. 

Eva Voinigescu poses for a portrait in Toronto. “I’ve always liked to be in the garden, with the farm animals, and in open spaces.” Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

What do you enjoy most about the job so far?

What I love about it so far is what a tight-knit team The Narwhal is. Having freelanced for the past three years, it’s so nice to have regular interactions with a community of people who are working toward the same goals and who are really smart and really passionate about the same things that I’m interested in. And not only that, but I think The Narwhal is really pushing the boundaries of independent journalism in Canada. They’re really challenging the old business model of journalism and working to make it sustainable again. 

Having this strategic business-minded side of my brain, it’s really exciting to be working for an organization that is willing to take risks, try new things and figure things out as they go, rather than being stuck in the old way of thinking.

How does your background in science journalism influence your work at The Narwhal?

I think it makes a really good foundation for working at The Narwhal because even though a lot of what I’m working on is actually business focused — brand strategy, events, media and partner outreach — any business decisions we’re making have to be compatible with the bigger mission, which is to produce in-depth journalism about the natural world. My understanding of journalism, branding, technology, communications and relationship building all really help me in my role.

What does good journalism look like to you?

It’s a tough question to answer succinctly because there’s so much that goes into good journalism. But I think for me — and I think this is at the core of what The Narwhal does — good journalism provides context. It speaks to the complexity of a situation, even if that makes the takeaways less definitive. It respects the humanity of the people who are sharing their stories. 

I think good journalism is also not dogmatic in how it’s practised. It’s flexible to changing as needed to address the moment we’re living in and to best serve people in the moment we’re living in. To not just serve principles, but to serve people.

What are three random things about you?

I went to journalism school in Chicago, so I’m a bit of a deep-dish snob. The best one I’ve had in Toronto is not at a restaurant. It’s the one my partner and I make at home and the secret ingredient is cornmeal. And that’s all I’ll say.

One of my first memories encountering wildlife is being charged by a ram at my great-aunt’s farm in Romania when I was four or five. The ram came at me and hit me in the stomach and it actually sent me flying, but luckily my bones weren’t broken. 

I’m pretty obsessed with podcasts and I am a committed speed listener — I have to play them at double speed to get through them all. I really loved Bear 148, and I also produce a podcast about the energy transition in Alberta and Canada.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

“The coverup continues. Site C should be cancelled.”

That sentiment from former BC Hydro president and CEO Marc Eliesen was the major takeaway from our panel discussion on Thursday about the future of the Site C dam, the most expensive public infrastructure project in B.C.’s history. 

We organized the event to address the influx of questions following our B.C. reporter Sarah Cox’s blockbuster investigation into the troubles facing the dam. Cox obtained freedom of information documents that revealed major problems with the project were kept from the public for more than a year.

“There’s been a great deal of secrecy and a lack of transparency,” Cox said, setting the stage for our panel of experts to talk about what lies ahead for the beleaguered project.

West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson spoke about how the revelations have influenced how he and his community think about the future of the dam. West Moberly First Nations have taken the B.C. government to court on claims that their traditional territory and burial grounds will be destroyed by the hydro project.

“This is an infringement on Treaty Rights … there has to be a reason to infringe and with Site C there is no reason,” said Chief Willson.

“We believe [Premier John] Horgan failed the people of British Columbia by allowing this project to go ahead.”

Judith Sayers, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council president and a board member of Clean Energy BC, spoke about the conflict between the B.C. government and First Nations fighting the project. According to Sayers, the project has been a “huge disappointment” and “a slap in the face” to Indigenous people.

“The fact is, this is a bad investment for British Columbia.”

Eliesen likewise did not mince words when asked about the future of the project. “To continue is totally reckless. If [Horgan] continues, this will be his folly,” he said.

“Calamitous events can be avoided if [Site C] comes to a halt now.”

And so, attendees wanted to know how they could make their voices heard.

“People really need to rise up in the province and just say no,” Sayers said. “The whole issue has got to become a really hot potato that Horgan has to deal with in this new term he’s got in front of him.”

Echoing that, Eliesen added that a grassroots movement “can have impact.”

Read a full recap of the event below.

Site C dam webinar – Curated tweets by thenarwhalca

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

It’s the most expensive public infrastructure project in B.C.’s history and yet the future of the Site C dam has never looked so uncertain.

In response to the growing number of questions surrounding the project, The Narwhal is hosting a webinar on Thursday, Nov. 26 from 4-5 p.m. PST. Join us and our panel of guest speakers for a discussion on B.C. reporter Sarah Cox’s recent investigation into the project’s geotechnical problems and escalating budget.

The event will feature a Q&A with our guests, who bring a diverse set of experiences to the panel. Sarah will speak about her blockbuster investigation into the beleagured Site C dam and how she found out top B.C. officials new the project was in trouble a year before the public was informed. Sarah is also the author of Breaching the Peace: the Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand Against Big Hydro.

The Narwhal has also invited Marc Eliesen, former president and CEO of BC Hydro, who was at the helm of the public utility when its board of directors rejected the project in the 1990s. Marc is also the former chair and CEO of Ontario Hydro and the former chair of Manitoba Hydro.

Judith Sayers will also be bringing her expertise to the panel. Judith is the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council president, a board member of Clean Energy BC and an executive advisory council member of Indigenous Clean Energy.

Finally, attendees will hear from West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson, who also sits on the B.C. First Nations Energy and Mining Council.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Narwhal has been named a finalist for three 2020 Webster Awards, which recognizes excellence in B.C. journalism, for stories detailing the impacts of workplace abuse out at sea, the consequences of logging in a rare inland rainforest and a decade-long battle against a proposed mine.

Carol Linnitt, co-founder and managing editor at The Narwhal, said it is an honour for the publication to be recognized by the province’s journalism community in the first year it submitted entries.

The Narwhal’s members deserve much of the credit, Linnitt said.

“These nominations are yet another reason to express gratitude to our monthly members who really make the kind of resource-intensive journalism we do possible. We truly wouldn’t be able to do it without the more than 1,800 people who give to support The Narwhal each month.”

The resources that The Narwhal puts into its stories are evident in the pieces that were nominated.

An investigation by Jimmy Thomson was named a finalist in the “excellence in business, industry, labour and economics reporting” category. Thomson spent months looking into the culture of intimidation and harassment in B.C.’s trawl fishing industry. He spoke with 11 current or former at-sea observers about the abuse they faced trying to keep fisheries accountable.

Fisheries observers are responsible for monitoring bycatch on industrial trawlers off the B.C. coast. Many of these individuals feel not enough is being done to protect them from intimidation and harassment while at sea. “It’s a very dangerous thing for observers to be out there,” one whistleblower told The Narwhal. “You’re out there alone, often without cell service or contact.” Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

The Narwhal’s B.C. reporter Sarah Cox was nominated in the “excellence in science, technology, health and environment reporting” category for her longform feature on Canada’s forgotten rainforest. The piece was edited by Editor-in-Chief Emma Gilchrist and accompanied by photos from Taylor Roades, both of whom were also recognized in the nomination.

The feature, which explored the risks facing a rare inland temperate rainforest being logged as fast as the Amazon, was also a finalist at this year’s Digital Publishing Awards, where Roades’ photos Roades garnered a silver medal.

Michelle Connolly, forest ecologist and director of Conservation North, a non-profit society created by Prince George scientists. Connolly was photographed by Taylor Roades for The Narwhal’s feature Canada’s forgotten rainforest, now a finalist for a Webster award. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

In the “excellence in legal journalism” category, Linnitt, Gilchrist, reporter Judith Lavoie and photographer Louis Bockner were nominated for The Narwhal’s in-depth reporting on the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s 12-year battle against the proposed New Prosperity mine. Our team’s reporting included news articles, a visually rich on-the-ground feature and a descriptive timeline of the protracted legal process that spanned numerous government agencies.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently rejected an appeal from mining company Taseko, putting a likely (but not guaranteed) end to the protracted legal battle over a project that threatened a lake of profound cultural and spiritual significance for the Tsilhqot’in.

Lavoie and Bockner’s feature also received a silver medal in the feature writing category at the 2020 Digital Publishing Awards. 

Xeni Gwet’in Chief Jimmy Lulua sits in a pit house built as part of the Xeni Gwet’in traditional village near the shores of Chilko Lake in the Nemiah Valley. The Narwhal has provided in-depth coverage of Taseko’s proposed New Prosperity copper and gold mine, which has been rejected by the Supreme Court. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

The Websters celebrate achievements in print, radio and podcasts, television and online media in British Columbia. The Narwhal is up against the Vancouver Sun, CTV Vancouver and Hakai Magazine. The winners of the 2020 Webster Awards will be announced on Dec. 8 during an online ceremony.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.