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Watchers of the Land in the Boreal Forest
Guardians help inform and protect
© dfaulder / FCC
The Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area in the Northwest Territories, Canada, protects more than 18 million acres of the boreal forest. Rangers in the Ni Hat’ni Dene — or Watchers of the Land — program help visitors understand the rules and also monitor the health of the ecosystem. One way they do that is with automated birdsong recorders that fill gaps in our understanding of which birds – like this Blackpoll Warbler – appear where throughout the year.
Learn more about the remarkable achievement that is the Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area on the Threatened podcast.
BirdNote®
Watchers of the Land in the Boreal Forest
By Ari Daniel
This is BirdNote.
[Ambient bird sounds throughout]
Iris Catholique helps run the Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Her responsibilities include managing the Ni Hat’ni Dene ranger program, which means “Watchers of the Land.”
Iris: The Ni Hat’ni Dene are our go-to guardians for monitoring and helping folks understand what our rules and regulations are.
Inside this swath of the boreal forest, they also monitor the water, the ice and snow, the fish, and the birds.
Iris: The health of the birds is quite important. With climate change and things of that nature, are the seasons coming or going faster or slower? Like, all of the geese are starting to fly south; that’s a telltale sign that winter is coming.
The rangers have installed automated song recorders that capture the sounds of birds like this American Robin. This information fills in gaps in our understanding of which birds appear where throughout the year. Jeff Wells is with the National Audubon Society.
Jeff: One of these best-kept secrets of bird conservation is that these indigenous governments and communities and leaders are protecting more birds than just about anywhere else in the world.
Iris: We’re showing the rest of the world that, yes, if you want to protect your lands, your water, your wildlife, your birds, like essentially where you come from, that is achievable.
To hear more about the remarkable achievement that is the Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area, subscribe to “Threatened” wherever you get your podcasts.
For BirdNote, I’m Ari Daniel.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Ari Daniel
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by Jeff Wells
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2020 BirdNote December 2020 Narrator: Ari Daniel
ID# boreal-04-2020-12-15 boreal-04
Ari Daniel
Writer