canol road 2013

The wonder and beauty of the boreal winter

In March 2013, Pew’s Arctic Science Director Henry Huntington headed for the boreal forest with four

friends to explore the Canol Road, built during World War II to support a pipeline connecting the Norman

Wells oilfields on the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories with the new Alaska Highway in

the Yukon.

Here are some of the things they saw on their1300 km/800 mile trip.

The Yukon section of the Canol is maintained for summer use as

a gravel road.

Not so on the NWT side, with the result that we could not quite reach Norman Wells …

Even without maintenance, the road and equipment are still visible, seventy years later

The trip was wonderful, if cold (-42°C/-44°F was our low, and it was often in the -30s)

We traveled from the pines

of the South Canol to the

spruce, tamarack,

willow, and poplar there and farther

north

Not forgetting the ambitious spruce high on the slopes, and

willows on a high plateau

Plus lots of animals! Winter is a great time for tracks.

Clockwise from upper left:wolverine, snowshoe hare, wolf, caribou, moose, porcupine, fox,

least weasel

Fortunately, the bears were still hibernating, but they left scratch marks on trees and

fur in the spruce sap

And the ptarmigan, one of my favorites!

The ice and snow are also beautiful, delicate, and complex

The sky offers its own spectacles night and day, from aurora to sun dogs

May the boreal long continue to inspire and delight us, and may human presence remain light and respectful

From left: Glen Liston, John Burch, Jon Holmgren, Matthew Sturm, Henry Huntington