David Henry first started looking for a readable scientific book on the boreal forest when was a graduate student in the early 1970s. Authors have explored and explained other forests all around the world, but seldom the northern snow forest.

Henry has now helped to fill that gap with his own book, Canada's Boreal Forest, which was published in September. He hopes that it will give something back to a land that has intrigued him for decades, and help to change people's perceptions of the forest that blankets more than a third of Canada.

While the boreal forest dominates the Canadian landscape, most Canadians experience this vast region only in summer. To Henry, this seasonal relationship has contributed to our treatment of the boreal as "an immense economic barrens" that has not been given the protection it deserves.

"I want to challenge this deep-rooted Canadian concept of the boreal forest as 'the land of little sticks' or 'just the bush,'" says Henry, a Parks Canada conservation ecologist based in Haines Junction.

The boreal forest or taiga encircles the northern reaches of the globe, making up one of the world's largest biomes or natural regions. This mainly coniferous forest does not have the massive trees of coastal forests or the complex ecosystems of tropical jungles, but Henry says that this region has many great ecological stories to tell.

Near the top of that list is the essential role that fire plays in the boreal forest, helping to recycle plants and trees and renew the forest itself. Some of the animals living in the boreal forest are dependent on forest fires for their very survival.

While the taiga is often referred to as the "spruce-moose" forest, moose do not fare well in endless expanses of mature conifers. They feed mainly upon aquatic vegetation and browse from deciduous trees and shrubs, foods which are usually less than plentiful in a mature forest.

In order to expand their populations, moose depend on the blush of new growth that comes in after a fire, and populations of moose are known to skyrocket in burn areas as the abundant food there allows cow moose to regularly give birth to twins.

The book delves into many of the mysteries of the boreal forest, from the power of lowly mosses to influence which type of forest can grow in an area, to the dramatic ten-year cycles in populations of snowshoe hares and the many species that depend upon them.

Cycles are generally known to occur in relatively simple ecosystems like the taiga, but after decades of intensive study researchers still are not sure what drives the snowshoe hare cycle. Some scientists have suggested that woody plants wage chemical warfare every few years by producing chemicals that repel browsers, while other researchers link the cycle to peaks in sunspot activity.

The point is that even though the boreal might look like an unbroken swath of green to some people, the ecosystems there are as complex and interesting as those found anywhere in the world. It is the breeding ground for a multitude of different bird species, including all of the whooping cranes left in the wild.

In addition to exploring the natural history of this region, Canada's Boreal Forest also surveys how differences in cultural attitudes towards the boreal affect management of this landscape. Swedes have a deep cultural attachment to the taiga, and Henry predicts that Sweden will be the first northern country to develop a truly sustainable timber industry.

"They do not have redwoods or other forests and the taiga covers two-thirds of the country. It is their main forest. In Finland it is 90 percent, so these Nordic people are on a very different footing from Canadians. The taiga is woven into the culture, and that connection goes back for many centuries," he says.

He presents case studies of two Scandinavian communities that are trying to live more in tune with the land. One community, for example, uses grazing sheep to thin the forests instead of spraying chemicals on them.

Berry picking also helps support local economies, and Scandinavians are willing to pay dearly for these delicacies. "A little jar of cloudberries sells for 25 U.S. dollars in Stockholm," Henry points out.

Henry says that the same sorts of opportunities exist in Canada, and some are already being developed. For example, over the years there has been a boom in the farming of wild rice. In La Pas, Manitoba, Keewatin Community College is teaching rural residents how to supplement their incomes with non-timber forest products such as dried mushrooms and birch syrup.

"I think that the Canadian perception of the boreal forest as 'the bush' is beginning to fracture and I hope that my book contributes to that. It is really important because the boreal forest across Canada is changing so rapidly. I think that this next decade is just crucial for it."

Canada's Boreal Forest is written by J. David Henry and published by the Smithsonian Institution Press.