Lands, Resources & Treaty Rights
Healing the Land
Habitat Restoration
In 2019, FNFN received funding from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) to implement Caribou Habitat Restoration in the Kotcho Lake area to benefit the Snake-Sahtahneh caribou herd by limiting predator use of legacy seismic lines and using re-vegetation to increase habitat suitability for caribou.
Through interviews with community members, areas were identified through the territory based on the linear disturbance and cultural importance. FNFN has implemented a prioritization scheme for identifying key areas for boreal caribou habitat restoration and created a restoration plan. Restoration progress will be monitored over the course of several years to evaluate the impacts of restoration on caribou habitat.
FNFN’s Kotcho Lake Restoration
FNFN’s Elleh Restoration
Oilfield Restoration Pilot Project
Beginning in 2018, the FNFN, BC Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) and the Oil and Gas Research Innovation Society (BCOGRIS) piloted a trial restoration project to restore former oil and gas industry sites to their natural state. Utilizing funding from the BCOGRIS, the working group has restored borrow pits in the Clarke Lake area and other former oil and gas sites, using ecologically suitable and culturally appropriate restoration techniques. The project working group initiated field sampling and site specific prescriptions during the summer of 2018. Earth work followed in the early fall, completed by the FNFN’s contractor and employees. Native plant seeds collected during the early fall were provided to Springtime Garden Center in Fort Nelson to grow for planting. The sites were successfully planted in Summer 2019 and on-going monitoring of the sites will occur over the next few years.
Dene Fire Project
The Fort Nelson First Nation has a long history of managing land through controlled burns. Trappers and hunters would light fires in the spring to encourage plants that attract large game such as deer and elk. Forests were also burned to spur the growth of berries and medicinal plants. But that practice dwindled, with the province discouraging the burning of valuable timber. We have a long-standing tradition of cultural interaction with fire. Fire is a vital practice that must be continued and passed down to the next generations.
In 2013, the Fort Nelson First Nation embarked on efforts to use controlled burns as a way to attract the Nordquist Bison herd back to its home range in FNFN territory. Fires get rid of deadwood building up in the forests and stimulate growth of plants the bison prefer to eat. The project was funded by Environment Canada and carried out in partnership with Shifting Mosaics Consulting (Sonja Leverkus), and Liard River Adventures.
Read our 2015 project report, Fort Nelson First Nation: Interaction with Fire and Wood Bison here. See the 2013 CBC National Documentary, Imagine the Fire, with Duncan McCue here, or in the video box on the left.
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