All four major flyways in North America -- the aerial migration routes traveled by billions of birds each year -- converge in one spot in Canada's boreal forest, the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northeastern Alberta. More than 1 million birds, including tundra swans, snow geese and countless ducks, stop to rest and gather strength in these undisturbed wetlands each autumn. For many waterfowl, this area is their only nesting ground.

Canada is ramping up tar sands oil extraction in the boreal forest just south of the Peace-Athabasca Delta, including sites upstream on the Athabasca River. Water extracted for tar sands mining could reduce flow into the delta, killing fish -- a food source for birds -- and disturbing habitat. Wastewater discharge could also contaminate the river, creating a toxic food web and leading to reproductive problems in wildlife. In 2008, 1,600 ducks died after landing in a tar sands waste pond. Tar sands oil development also contributes to global warming, which is reducing ecologically important flooding in the delta. There are a number of developments threatening the Peace-Athabasca Delta, including the Bennett Dam on the Peace River. But tar sands oil extraction exemplifies how our addiction to oil is causing loss of critical bird habitat in the delta and throughout Alberta’s Boreal forests and wetlands.

NRDC and our BioGems Defenders are fighting to protect bird habitat in the boreal forest. We are calling for a moratorium on new tar sands projects in the boreal and encouraging a switch to cleaner forms of energy production that would reduce global warming and protect North America's last great forest.

Tell Canadian officials to protect bird habitat throughout the boreal forest.