Millions of hectares of land could be changed by fires that burn them down
It starts with a branch from a poplar tree.
With a light touch and a sharp knife, the bark comes off easily. The carver makes a series of cuts in the soft wood by applying just the right amount of pressure and using a technique that has been perfected through practice. He slides the bark back on in a few seconds.
A first-grade student grabs the new whistle with eagerness. He finds a new way to make music by blowing air into the small wooden instrument.
Students go to the Nihithow Askiy Cultural Education Camp to connect with nature in new ways.
Students from Stanley Mission, Sask., come to the site in the woods at least once a week to learn the Cree language and land-based ways of living, such as hunting, gathering, and making tools.
But wildfires have already made it necessary to change these lessons.
“This year, we didn’t catch any rabbits. We’ll let them have babies,” said Sylvia McKenzie, a teacher on land.
“There used to be a lot of rabbit tracks out here, but since the fire, we haven’t seen as many.”
The fire season in Canada has been the worst on record. Eight or moreMillion hectares of land have been burned. so far in 2023.
A lot of that land is used for things like hunting, gathering, and cultural practices that are part of treaty rights. Some people in Indigenous communities worry that the land and traditional ways of life will suffer if nothing changes soon.
Changes in the environment have an effect on treaty rights
Stanley Mission, which is about 500 km northeast of Saskatoon, knows a lot about wildfires. In 2015, 8,000 people in the north were forced to leave their homes because of fires.
Since then, the small town of about 1,500 people has been forced to leave several times, including in 2021 and 2022, when fires came within a few kilometers of most of the homes.
The story can be seen in the trees that line the gravel road that leads to Stanley Mission.
“The trees you see here are the birch trees that burned in 2022,” said Maurice Ratt, the emergency management coordinator for the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, which includes Stanley Mission and five other First Nations.
“These trees have died. “They won’t be able to make oxygen or grow back, so they’ll eventually rot and fall down,” Ratt said.
He bends over to look at the bottom of a tree.
“The fire burned under the root, which is what kills it and burns it all the way down.”
Ratt said that this area had a small fire last year. Small trees with leaves that fall off are already growing among the dry, burned plants.
But in some places, the fire burned so hot that it burned the minerals out of the ground. Any nutrients that could have helped the plant grow back are no longer there.
“There will be growth here, but it will take at least 10 years for that to start happening,” said Ratt.
Fires are sometimes a natural part of the ecosystem of a forest, buta recent study showsWhat grows back in Canadian forests is changing because of climate change and wildfires that are getting worse. When fires burn the same areas over and over, the landscape could end up looking more like a desert in the worst cases.
Ratt said that any change in the environment has an effect on the Indigenous people who live off the land.
“We have to give up our traditional lands to do things like hunt and trap. People are scaring the animals away. “There isn’t much plant life for rabbits and other small animals to eat,” he said.
“When we don’t have the resources to get to our cabins to put in sprinkler systems, we lose our way of life there because a lot of people still live off the land all year long.”
People who had to leave their homes could feel “ecological grief” when they went back
As of June 27, wildfires had forced more than 6,198 people from Indigenous communities to leave their homes.
Others who were forced to leave their homes when the fire season began in May have since been allowed to go back, but seeing their land burned to the ground can be hard to deal with.
“One of the things that really helps you find yourself after a fire evacuation is being able to go out and do your cultural activities, but you can’t do that,” said Amy Cardinal Christianson, a fire researcher with Parks Canada who is Métis.
“It’s hard for people to deal with.”
Cardinal Christianson said that she has talked to people who had to leave their homes and were “devastated” by what happened to the forest.
It can be a form of “ecological grief,” said Cardinal Christianson.
She suggests that communities get mental health and cultural supports after a fire to help people deal with their feelings.
“Sometimes, the return can be seen as the end of the emergency. I think organizations are starting to step up and help communities in this way, but I don’t think it’s been enough so far,” she said.
More training means better safet
Indigenous Services Canada and the Assembly of First Nations just updated theirfive-year strategyThat talks about fire safety in Native American communities.
It has goals like making sure that all First Nations have the best firefighting equipment possible.
In Saskatchewan, the province says that it has trained members of the northern First Nations in all levels of firefighting and that it holds training every year in the north for people who want to work in the field.
But the chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Tammy Cook Searson, says that there are still more people in the community who want to help and want more training.
“They want to protect the people in their own communities,” she said.
“We rely on this land.”
First Nations from all over the country are in charge of putting out fires on their reserves. Outside of that, provincial or municipal crews make the decisions.
Peter Beatty, a former chief and band councillor of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, said, “I hope we can get to the point where First Nations people are more involved in fighting forest fires.”
“They can be a good source of help if asked and given the tools to do so.”
Beatty worked for decades to help northern Indigenous firefighters get better training and tools. He wants the government to put more money into Indigenous fire crews, who are able and willing to do more than just take care of their own treaty lands.
“There are so many trained firefighters in our towns and cities. “That’s true in all First Nations communities in Canada,” he said.
“Yet governments don’t want to use all of the resources they have. They’ll call for help from the other side of the ocean. What’s the point of doing that? You don’t have to go far to find what you need.
In an email, the minister of emergency preparedness for Canada said that both domestic and international resources are being used to fight fires.
Indigenous Services Canada gives money to help First Nations prevent and fight fires. The budget for last year said that$39.2 million over five yearsTo help First Nations get the tools and training they need.
Ottawa said in June that it would give money to train firefighters in places that need them. That includes training this season for more than 300 Indigenous firefighters and 125 Indigenous fire guardians.Natural Resources Canada says so.
Land-based camp save
A group of first graders run down a dirt road. With whistles in their hands, they huff and puff their way to the finish line, which is a colorful sign that says “land-based camp.”
The sign has a lush, green forest on one side.
From a few meters away, the trees look like thin, black sticks that stick up into the blue sky.Green spots are desperately trying to get through the soot-colored dirt.
“This is where the fire started last spring,” said Sylvia McKenzie, a teacher.
Last year, the camp, which was a way to keep learning and getting to know people through the land, almost caught on fire.
The land was saved by a fire guard, which means a lot to McKenzie and the students who will soon be in charge of taking care of their community.
“They are so proud of what they are able to do out here.”