In Canada alone, the boreal forest (also called the taiga) covers more that 1.5 million square miles, fully one-third of the country and 20 percent of the entire North American continent. Terminating to the north with the treeless tundra, this region is inhabited and utilized by indigenous people and is home to unique populations of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet. J. David Henry challenges the perception of the boreal forest as an 'economic wasteland' by explaining how economically and ecologically valuable it is.