Striking Balance

Most of the time when Canadians think about nature, they think about far off places untouched by humans. But the reality is people have been a part of nearly every Canadian landscape for thousands of years, so what if our concept of nature included people?

Most of the time when Canadians think about nature, they think about far off places untouched by humans. But the reality is people have been a part of nearly every Canadian landscape for thousands of years, so what if our concept of nature included people?

The old-growth forest and pristine glacial lake of Quebec's towering Mont Saint-Hilaire are cherished by the communities that surround it, but unchecked - their growth threatens the very mountain they love. As Canada's very first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve it's one of the best breeding habitats in Quebec for the peregrine falcon, that was almost wiped out by DDT.

On the Bras d'Or Lake in Cape Breton, oyster farming was seen as a sustainable alternative to working in coal and steel. After a parasite ravaged the oyster population, both traditional Mi'kmaq knowledge, and western science are being used to bring the oyster back.

The people of Georgian Bay, Ontario, struggle to mitigate the impact of increasing numbers of cottagers and a new 4-lane highway on the region's endangered species. Some of the highest diversity of reptile and amphibian species in Canada can be found in the 10,000 wetlands stippling the Bay - a refuge for many rare and threatened species, like the massasauga rattlesnake.

Most of the time when Canadians think about nature, they think about far off places untouched by humans. But the reality is people have been a part of nearly every Canadian landscape for thousands of years, so what if our concept of nature included people?