In the Heart of the Boreal    
Al Simmons/Ken Whiteley

I wrote the words and Ken Whiteley composed the music —as a reminder of how valuable this globe-spanning forest is in keeping our planet healthy.

This Boreal Forest you see

Circles the Northern nations.

A living, giving legacy

For future generations.

We find it in our very own 

Precambrian shield.

Come and take a look at all

The riches it can yield.

The smell of the deep pine forest,

The sound of the crying loon,

The pulse of the pounding rapids,

The sight of a rising moon.

Through pink pre-Cambrian granite

The river carves its way.

It’s on this cold white water

That humans come to play.

In the heart of the Boreal.

Their roots entwine, spruce, fir and pine

Deep down underground.

Their branches share the clean fresh air

Where birds and bugs abound.

A dead leaf feeds the future seeds,

The rain provides the water.

The boreal is the perfect home 

For the river otter.

In the heart of the Boreal.

The songbird and the sunset,

Grey owl and the moon,

Blue heron, chestnut lamprey,

Bald eagle, duck and loon,

Fishers, martin, moose and lynx

Timber wolf, black bear;

The endangered woodland caribou

Just might be hiding there.

In the heart of the Boreal.

Drawing H2O and sunshine in,

Trees give off pure oxygen.

The world’s halitosis is

Cured through photosynthesis.

The tree’s bark holds its history,

The rings count out the past,

The pine-cone holds the future,

The boreal will last. In the heart of the Boreal.

In the heart of the Boreal. In the heart of the Boreal