Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said Friday that he's considering writing a letter of complaint to National Geographic magazine, after the publication wrote a scathing article about the province's boreal forests.

Boreal forests that ring the world's northern hemisphere are as "as important" as the Amazon for curbing greenhouse gases, the magazine said. And it said Alberta's boreal forests are among the most threatened in the world.

Forestry companies have cut down large areas of trees. Oil and gas producers have cleared land for pipelines.

Ralph Klein

"Alberta is sort of the poster child ... of making a choice of intensely exploiting and developing its boreal forest," journalist Fen Montaigne said.

According to Montaigne, bears, woodland caribou, and migratory birds are disappearing, probably because of loss of habitat.

But Klein is refusing to take the article seriously.

"I'm quite confident that our forestry programs are good," he said. "And National Geographic, of course, they're entitled to their own opinion."

One trapper said Friday that most of the damage to Alberta's forests is already done. Dave Donohue doesn't expect much improvement.

"It's not like it was, and I don't think it will ever, ever be the same. I don't think there is any generation where we'll see the forest here in Alberta as I've seen it."