Beyond the Trees

A lot of attention is paid to the overstory, but the shrubs, forbs, lichen, and mosses are also critical for the people and animals using a forest. In particular, Indigenous practices make use of many understory plants for nutritional, medicinal, spiritual, and economic purposes. The goal of this project is to identify which plant species are culturally significant and understand how fire and forestry practices are impacting them.

The first stage was to build relationships with communities interested in participating in the project. Since 2023, we have been visiting Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation and Ile-à-la Crosse in Saskatchewan and Tall Cree in Alberta, where we began building relationships and heard the community’s perspectives. The meetings with the knowledge keepers and their communities demonstrated why it is essential to take this careful approach of building trust and spending time to understand each community’s unique situation. There were major differences in priorities between the two communities, their level of trust in forestry companies, and their view of wildfire.

The next step is to co-design field trials, working with knowledge keepers to select sites and forest companies to implement different silvicultural treatments. While preparation for this second phase is underway, we will also begin the relationship building process of phase one with two additional Indigenous communities in Alberta. We are also exploring relationships in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario.