Leader staff

An announcement made in Fredericton, New Brunswick, could impact the forests around Lesser Slave Lake.

On March 21, Natural Resources Canada announced the Indigenous Seed Collection Program.

This “will build the capacity of Indigenous communities to collect seeds from tree species of cultural, spiritual and economic importance to those communities,” says the news release.

The announcement was made in Fredericton because that is where the NRC’s National Tree Seed Centre (NTSC) is located, which will facilitate the program.

The news release included the following details about the Indigenous Seed Collection Program. It will: “explore Indigenous seed collection and storage capacity; assess equipment and training needs across Canada; incorporate Indigenous knowledge into seed collecting, training and conservation efforts; collaborate with communities and Indigenous-led small and medium-sized enterprises to identify technical and training needs; co-develop a strategy with Indigenous communities to support the collection of species of interest for habitat creation, management of species at risk, restoration of ecosystems and community forest programs; and develop a network of community participants to assist in seed collection and processing.”

“It is through the past and continued support of the NTSC that our capacity is slowly growing,” says Elizabeth Jessome, Mi’kmaq Forestry Initiative Project Manager, Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources. “We are hopeful that this partnership can continue and that we, in turn, can help to identify species of local significance and provide local seed for research and storage.”

The NTSC, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, is Canada’s national centre for the collection and conservation of tree seeds, says the news release. It started collecting seeds from native shrubs and trees in 1951. It has the most diverse collection in canada, with over 13,000 unique seed collections from over 200 tree and shrub species.