Newsletter Archive

Volume 6 Winter 2005/6

Sound like a Cosmo cover story? Could be. After all, the idea is to increase your appeal as a coveted dinner party guest. You know, the kind that is funny, charming, and always has the most interesting and important things to say. We can't help you with the funny and charming part, though no doubt you are both and more, but we can divulge some little-known, remarkable facts about the very stuff on which we supp. For example:

• There are more life forms in one square metre of temperate rainforest (Clayoquot Sound), than in one square mile of tropical rainforest - many too small to be seen by the naked eye, but no less critical to the web of life.



• Although the extinction of various species is a natural phenomenon, the rate of extinction occurring currently is exceptional - as many as 100 to 1,000 times greater than normal -  Dr. Donald A. Levin, American Scientist magazine.



• Unless we change our ecounfriendly behaviors, half of all living bird and mammal species could well be gone within 200 or 300 years.



• A distinct species of plant or animal becomes extinct every 20 minutes - Phillip S. Levin, National Marine Fisheries Service Biologist, and expert on the demography of fish, especially salmon.



• In global history, there have been five mass extinctions. We are currently experiencing the sixth. The earth took several million years to recover from each of the first five, but what now when not just the species (man included), but their habitats too are destroyed?



• The Clayoquot Sound Biosphere is the largest intact example of temperate rainforest left on earth. It is, in effect, an upside-down rainforest. Where, unlike tropical rainforests where wildlife is concentrated in overhead canopies, all the action takes place at and below ground level.



• Maintaining wild salmon stocks is as critical to temperate rainforest health, as is the flow of fresh water. Salmon are a major food source for whales, seals, black bears and eagles, but also, through their cycle of spawn and decay, contribute (via bear migration) nitrogen rich fertilizer to inland habitats.



• Organics are the new old-fashioned alternative. Prior to WWII, there was virtually no such thing as 'conventional' (non-organic) farming in North America. Today, over 90% of crops are grown using synthetic and chemical pesticides. Immune system and reproductive health improve in direct proportion to consumption of organic food.