Using indigenous knowledge to fight forest fires

In Saskatchewan, some communities are preparing for the 2024 wildfire season. Experts interviewed by CBC believe that indigenous know-how, combined with human goodwill, can help avoid these disasters.

Renee Carrier, a furbearer trainer and trapper in the Saskatchewan River Delta in the province’s north, participates in the projects We Are fire”,”text”:”We Are Fire”}}”>We Are Fire And Muskrats to Moose”,”text”:”Muskrats to Moose”}}”>Muskrats to Moose.

Both use indigenous firefighting practices and combine them with western fire management strategies.

The Saskatchewan River Delta facilitates these practices, being the seventh largest inland deltas in the world and boasting a wide variety of plants, animals and birds.

We Are Fire” was born from our cultural practices which have taken place for hundreds of years in this territory”,”text”:”The “We Are Fire” project was born from our cultural practices which have taken place for centuries hundreds of years on this territory”}}”>The project “We Are Fire” was born from our cultural practices which have taken place for hundreds of years in this territoryexplains Renee Carrier.

According to her, this practice involves strategically burning the edges of lakes and streams.

At a certain time of year this is really good, as it eliminates certain types of plant species and causes other, more favorable types to growshe explains.

Renee Carrier explains that these intentional burnings had to be stopped in the late 1980s due to a change in policy.

For 10 years, the team has been working to restore what it calls the good fire for the region.

The fires are lit in appropriate seasons, when there is ice on the lake and snow in the forest, so that the fire cannot spread.

The team collects plant species and evaluates them each year to provide data to scientists.

This may not apply to other regions of the province or Canada, but here we are an aquatic territory. For us, burning, getting rid of these plant species is part of our livelihood and cultural practicescontinues Renee Carrier.

She adds that the goal is to revive plant species such as sweet snowflake and red willow, which animals like to eat and which are also useful for humans.

Human involvement is an important vector in the fight against forest fires, as explained by the forestry program director at the Grand Council of Prince Albert, Cliff Buettner. The latter has been dealing with forest fires in Saskatchewan for over 40 years.

This man who has started many fires must know how quickly things can get out of control.

According to him, three elements are necessary for a fire to start: fuel, air and Source.

We have the fuel, the dry grass, the dry branches, the twigs littering the ground. We have trees. We look. But we need a Source to trigger the processhe said.

This Source could be, for example, an ember from a campfire, a spark on a railway track, lightning or the exhaust of an all-terrain vehicle.

Cliff Buettner points out that actions dependent on humans can be controlled to prevent fires.

Last year, the province experienced one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record.

The province had 494 fires and 1.9 million hectares of land burned, about five times the size of Prince Albert National Park.

With information from Aishwarya Dudha