"Of rice-root, Crabapples, and Huckleberries: Evidence for Environmental Management by First Nations in Northwest British Columbia"

Abstract

In northwest British Columbia, long indigenous occupancy and management of the landscape has had pervasive ecological effects. In such an environment discriminating "natural" and "anthropogenic" vegetation and plant distributions may be problematic. One approach to revealing the influence of First Nations on vegetation and plant distribution is through analysis of the anomalous distributions of plant species which are known to be ethnobotanically important. My research with Ken Downs, recently graduated MAIS student, focuses upon anomalies in the distribution of two key economic species: Pacific Crabapple; and rice root lily in the Skeena River region. Examination of historic management for berry species through landscape buring is another approach to documenting the influence of First Nations on habitats and productivity of managed species.