The largest impacts made to the Boreal Forest are caused by human activity. Industrial development poses threats on the forest every day including clearing for oil and gas, mining, deforestation, and hydroelectric development. These impacts destroy the rich and natural resources that the Boreal Forest provide not only for the species living in it, but for humans as well. The two most prominent impacts created by humans on the Boreal Forest are as follows:
Oil and Gas
Oil and gas developments in the Boreal Forest have many more impacts than one may think. For one, large clearings of forestry are made to reach the oil and gas that lie beneath 140,000 sq. km of northeastern Alberta. A study in 2007 showed that there were approximately 4,264 oil sands within Alberta, covering an area of 64,919 sq. km. Not only are forests cleared for actual oil production; clearings are made for roads, pipelines, and seismic lines to transport oil and gas. Oil and gas development takes a major toll on the Boreal forest, clearing about 92,000 hectares of forest per year. However, not only do the direct impacts of the physical destruction on habitat in the Boreal, there is an indirect impact resulting in climate change, which will affect the range and health of this ecosystem.
Mining
Mining in the Boreal forest has one of the largest impacts on the environment. There are many natural resources in the Boreal forest such as gold, iron, magnetite, limestone and salt, are which has actually stimulated over 10,000 jobs for Canadians. However, mining has large impacts such as deforestation, diversion of water flow, and pollution. This not only impacts the parts where mines are present; pollution from these mines create contamination in water streams, which can affect wildlife miles from the actual mine. Also, by clearing certain parts of the forest for mines, roads are built for trucks and equipment to go to and from mines. However, many of these mines were constructed with little to no environmental oversight or with the long-term health of the forest in mind. This could lead to over mining, where it could take forests centuries to recover.
This Is The Great Northern Forest Video
This is a video of a broader view of human impact on the Boreal Forest.