These warblers—the Cape May (top) and the Tennessee—are two of the many species that breed in Canada’s Boreal, then migrate south to winter in shade coffee. Creative commons licenses: Cape May Warbler Tennessee Warbler

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What do coffee, chocolate and toilet paper have to do with birds?

Most people wipe their butts with virgin forest and don’t even know it. Trees logged in Canada’s Boreal are primarily pulped and turned into disposable products such as toilet tissue, paper towels, junk mail and catalogues. Cutting down those trees means fewer places for birds (and other animals) to live. Migratory birds lose twice because winter habitats in Central and South America are often destroyed to make way for coffee and cacao (aka cocoa—ie the chocolate bean) plantations.

Read labels and choose products that leave more trees, birds and other creatures in the forest. Look for:

• PCW (post consumer waste) recycled
  These products promote energy conservation by reusing resources that have already been extracted and stop more solids from entering the waste stream. (This is what happens to the flyers and envelopes you send to your municipal recycling centre.) Do the best you can—PCW content can vary from 10 to 100 per cent.
• PCF (processed chlorine-free)
  Besides being safer for everyone (chlorine is toxic to produce and poisonous to fish), chlorine-free paper processing uses less water.
• Bird friendly
  This refers to coffee or cacao (aka cocoa—the chocolate bean) grown under the rainforest canopy, in habitat where birds thrive, fertilizer is organic leaf litter and insects are controlled by natural predators such as bats and birds. Also called shade-grown, this label distinguishes its products from monoculture crops that require chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Bird friendly beans are also organic—grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

Purchase Rain Forest Alliance Certified Boreal Blend Coffee online - $1 from each bag goes directly to the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

Lindsay’s next video takes you up the bird-friendly shopping aisle. Sign-up at QueenofGreen.ca.

Nature Now Winter cover crops promote soil conservation AND provide feeding grounds for migrating birds. Farmers in Delta, BC plant over 3,000 acres in winter cover – and support thousands of transient snow geese and other waterfowl.