‘Utilizing Blackfoot ecological knowledge': Blood Tribe receives federal funding for wildfire research

CTV News

5 days ago

A fire guardianship program is among projects Ottawa will fund, with the Blood Tribe eager to share its ways with the rest of Canada.
The Blood Tribe Land Management is hoping to use Blackfoot methods to help combat the risk of wildfires as firefighters across the country battle Canada's second-worst wildfire season on record.
The federal government has announced $47.5 million in research funding to better understand and mitigate fire risks.
The funding will go to 30 research projects across the country, including 10 Indigenous-led projects.
The Blood Tribe has received $500,000 for its Fire Guardianship program.
'We're utilizing fire to fight fire and help to manage our landscapes by utilizing Indigenous-led management techniques that are based on our seasonal rounds,' said Alvin First Rider, environmental manager with the Blood Tribe Land Management.
Cultural burning
First Rider says they use cultural burning to help balance out the ecosystems to create conditions that are historically normal.
He says rather than burning thousands of acres at a time, they burn one-or 200 acres in a mosaic design to create different vegetation patterns.
'Really utilizing that Blackfoot ecological knowledge that is here today and implementing it and utilizing it from a western perspective and cultural perspective and how we could balance the two to manage our landscape is kind of how that funding is really helping us,' said First Rider.
He said the funding will be used to educate members about fire mitigation and allow the nation to do controlled burns throughout the year rather than only in the spring and fall.
Instrumental role
The new funding comes as the country battles the second-worst wildfire season on record. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, more than 7.3 million hectares have already burned across the country this year.
'These investments will play an instrumental role in helping us understand how we can reduce the impact of wildfires on Canadians, by accelerating how we develop and adopt initiative and adaptive wildfire and forestry practices,' said Corey Hogan, Calgary-Confederation MP.
Glenn McGillivray, managing director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, says while increasing fire suppression resources is important, 'but we're not going to supress our way out of this. We never could and we never will.'
He says funding into getting people to fire smart their properties, understanding fire from a social-science lens, and using alternative safety measures is equally important.
'There's a whole raft of gaps in our understanding and our knowledge and I think some of this work will go a long way into filling those gaps,' said McGillivray.
Which is what First Rider is hoping to do with the added funding into Blackfoot ways.
'Then it's up to the listener to take as much knowledge and utilize it,' said First Rider.