Coastal nations’ cedar strategy reflects cultural connections
By Malcolm McColl
An interesting suggestion was made by a woman from Kingcome Inlet, BC, who said cedar trees were once used as burial tombs, and she explained how on the west coast those giant cedar trees once entombed the precious relations in a process described as a common practice among all nations. The arrangement included digging and carving out space in the base of a well-grown cedar tree, and once inside the tree trunk entombing the body in a shroud that had hooks to keep it snug in an upright position inside the tree. They left the area to look untouched.
A moment is afoot in the coastal region to ensure the giant coast cedar trees remain available and accessible to First Nations by working out a ‘cedar strategy.’ Pacheedaht councilor Jeff Jones said, "We have serious concerns over what's left of the old growth cedar. We want something left for our children. We have concerns about the amount of cedar that leaves the area, deep concerns about how much old growth cedar leaves the forest. We see a need to express these concerns."
Tom Jones, RPF, (no relation to Jeff) said, "I’ve been developing a Pacheedaht forestry plan for cedar for almost three years and it takes that long to get anything to happen. When I came to work for Pacheedaht, they said there were long simmering concerns about cedar use, and they expressed the concern that everything went past them without a formal strategy. We basically have been working to bring together various interests to measure how much cedar is involved."
They are working on a preservation strategy to span several centuries into the future. Even the First Nations themselves are split on how to develop plans that involve signatures and commitments on plans that go that far. The demand for immediate action is real, however, and the parties involved, including logging companies and some of the official types in government have agreed to a referral process.
The referrals will be implemented in the five year plans that award cutblocks, and will include surveys and cedar blocks earmarked for use within a 400 year plan. "We talked with Elders and carvers to define the cedar needs of Pacheedaht today, and they acknowledge that the amount has shrunk from the previous years when the Pacheedaht people numbered 3,500 and was reduced to 275 souls," Jones the forester.
"The cedar strategy is designed to permit First Nation access to cedar, which would ultimately be part of any treaty. Nevertheless, we view the process of cedar conservation we have embarked on as a timely initiative that will assure conservation and continued cedar access even if treaty is never ratified. It is not related to treaty, it is more associated with rights. If a future treaty enshrines the process, so be it."
Councilor Jones said, "Resources continue to flow out of the traditional territory and it includes these cedar trees that leave. It takes 400 years to grow one of these puppies and they are being harvested right in our midst." He said the First Nation’s cedar strategy amounts to a 400 year commitment to quantities required by a culture to live at any given time, including totem poles, canoes, community centres, "they last about 100 years," he said.
Jones the forester said the conservation strategy identified a need for cedar at 1,500 total to come from either the timber harvesting land base, reserves and constrained areas, and parks. (PFN traditional territory). Jones said, "This assumes that current second growth (70 year old trees) are part of an old growth cedar recruitment process as well and will deliver suitable old growth cedar trees in 330 years." They are looking for the best of the trees, not gutted ones, and the criteria for quality trunk is met by forest service approval on a per tree basis.