Our Work In Reducing Habitat Destruction

Loss of habitat is the single greatest threat to plants and animals in Canada. Habitat is where a species lives, grows and reproduces. Plants, animals and humans depend on a variety of habitats for survival. Despite this, habitats across Canada are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Wetlands are being filled in, grasslands plowed under, forests cut down and rivers diverted and dammed. Habitat destruction and over-harvesting are major factors in species decline.

What is causing habitat destruction?

• Urban Sprawl
  Urban development disrupts and divides natural habitats with the construction of new roads, subdivisions and malls. This leaves isolated fragments of ecosystems, changes pollination and seed-dispersal patterns, disrupts wildlife migration routes and reduces the size of breeding grounds.
• Forest Destruction
  According to Global Forest Watch, Canada contains over one-third of the world's boreal forest, one-fifth of the world's temperate rainforest and one-tenth of the total global forest cover. Yet research shows that right now more than 80 percent of the logging carried out in public forests is done by clear-cutting, a method of harvesting timber where all trees are cut in a prescribed area. This can cause major problems with erosion, as well as the loss of sensitive plant species.
• Agricultural Practices
  Enormous amounts of land, once host to a wide variety of native plant species, have been fundamentally altered for modern agricultural practices. Heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables are also now very rare, as modern agriculture focuses on only a handful of food crops. According to Seeds of Diversity, 75 percent of the 100,000 vegetable and fruit varieties in North America today are endangered.
• Alternative Medicine Industry
  Commercial sales of herbal medicines have exploded in recent decades. As their popularity has grown, several species, including echinacea, ginseng, goldenseal and snakeroot, have become victims of over-harvesting.

Evergreen is working to restore, protect and steward habitat in urban environments across Canada. We facilitate and fund community projects to remove invasive species, reintroduce native plants and help people come together to protect the environment.