Growing native plants to heal land at Indigenous owned nursery in British Columbia

CRANBROOK, British Colombia | At the Nupqu Native Plant Nursery in the Canadian province of British Columbia, sulfur buckwheat seedlings fill Styrofoam trays. It’s October, the end of the growing season, and each is just a small cluster of dark-green, waxy, oval leaves, undersides bleeding to purple.

Sulfur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) is a high-altitude grassland species and one of the most in-demand species for restoration of highly degraded land, says Melanie Redman, the nursery’s seed specialist. But it’s also notoriously tricky to propagate. It usually takes two to three years to coax the plant from seed to seedling. This year, however, the nursery has managed to get the whole process down to just one year.

Nupqu, which means “black bear” in the Ktunaxa language, is a wholly Ktunaxa-owned land and natural resource management company, part of a number of businesses jointly owned by the four Ktunaxa First Nations in Canada and the Ktunaxa Nation Council. Five years ago, the company acquired an existing native plant nursery, located on the ʔaq̓am reserve, and has since been building up expertise and capacity.

The Nupqu Native Plant Nursery, which says it’s the largest Indigenous-owned native plant nursery in Canada, now cultivates more than 60 plant species. Most are grown from seeds collected on the Canadian portion of the Ktunaxa’s traditional territory, which stretches over 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) across the Kootenay region of what is now British Columbia. It’s a land of jagged peaks, high alpine meadows, grasslands, dappled forests, fish-bearing streams, and more. The land also bears the scars of industrial developments like mining and logging.

The nursery grows about 700,000 seedlings on site each year, and through five partner nurseries supplies a total of roughly 2.5 million seedlings for land reclamation linked to industrial development, restoration and conservation projects, mostly within Ktunaxa territory. Along the way, its members have amassed expertise on how to collect, stratify, germinate and propagate numerous rare and difficult-to-grow plants.

“We’re trying to encourage every group to utilize native seed. And then from our end, we’re trying to build that industry,” Redman says.

The Nupqu nursery and reclamation work reflect Ktunaxa values, says Corrie Walkley, chief executive officer of Ktunaxa Enterprises Limited (KEL). “It’s a responsibility that we have as Ktunaxa people in our creation story, that we’re stewards and caretakers of this land,” he says.

Nupqu is associated with KEL and sits within the Ktunaxa Holdings Limited Partnership’s larger suite of businesses, including businesses servicing mining and other industries. Walkley, a Ktunaxa Nation citizen, says the native plant nursery and reclamation work is part of creating balance.

“Native plants, I think that it really works for our principles, our stewardship responsibilities,” says Joe Pierre, a member of the KEL board of directors and Ktunaxa Nation citizen. The nursery “allows us to do that kind of work throughout our homelands.”

Why grow native plants?

Nupqu focuses on underrepresented plants that make up healthy functioning ecosystems, but that don’t have the same perceived economic value as commercial timber species like conifers. Though there is some published information on propagating these lesser-known species, mostly from the neighboring U.S. state of Washington, much of Nupqu’s success comes from trial and error, and collaboration with other nurseries, Redman says.

The growing process starts with collecting seeds in the field. Ideally, Redman says, she likes to collect seeds on a site before a mine or other development disturbs the land. That way, her team can rescue the spectrum of genetic diversity, and put back plants that are adapted to those specific conditions. The nursery team also uses seeds collected from elsewhere within the territory, matching them as closely as possible to local conditions.

Seed collection can stretch across multiple seasons: the crew shakes seed pods from trees like cottonwood and aspen in late spring; plucks flower heads in the summer; thrashes grasses and strips huckleberries and salmonberries in the fall.

Back at the lab, the seeds are sieved, soaked and sluiced to separate them from the chaff, pods or berries. Because most will be machine sown, the seeds need to be cleaned to a high level of purity. After cleaning, the seeds are carefully dried in a moisture-controlled environment, then stored until needed.

The next step in the growing process is stratification, or readying the seeds for germination. This usually imitates the conditions the seeds would experience in nature. Some get thrown in the freezer. Others need heat. Some need alternating periods of heat and cold, or other specialized treatment. For example, bearberry or kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), which in nature germinates after passing through a bear’s digestive tract, gets an acid bath.

Finally, the team sows the seeds in Styrofoam blocks, either using a commercial seeder or by hand. Most will spend at least a summer in the greenhouse, and some will need a second summer before they’re ready to go out.

The whole process is inherently fascinating, Redman says.

“What I love about this industry is that everybody, no matter how you grew up or what your experience is, you have a connection to the land,” she says.

All that collecting, cleaning, stratifying and growing takes time. For some species, it can take more than one growing cycle to develop the kind of well- developed root system needed to flourish on a restoration site. That’s not necessarily a problem.

“[Previously] people would reclamate an entire site, and they plant everything — grasses, forbs, shrubs, pine trees, everything — whereas naturally, that seral stage is much different,” Redman says. Instead, early seral-stage plants need to be replanted first to establish soil and nutrient cycles, before the shrubs and trees are put in, she says. “And that time requirement for stratification and growth actually aligns with that,” Redman says.

That reliance on natural cycles is also more in line with Indigenous perspectives, Redman says.

“[W]hat’s growing out there naturally is there for a reason, and just to lean on those natural cycles, I think that is more reflective of that Indigenous perspective of just trusting Mother Nature,” she says.

A large portion of the seedlings grown or supplied by Nupqu are destined for restoration contracts with industry.

“Mother Nature knows exactly what plants need to be where,” Walkley says, “and it’s very important to reclaim the land [to be] as it once was, or is as best as it can [be].”

Restoring riverbeds and threatened species

Nupqu also supplies native seedlings for other types of restoration and conservation projects.

Joseph Creek, which runs through the town of Cranbrook and into St. Mary’s River, was once an important fishing site and spawning ground for westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi), but has been heavily impacted by development. This past spring, Angèle Leduc, who coordinates an ongoing restoration project, reached out to Nupqu for help restoring two sections of the creek. Redman helped her come up with native plants that would stabilize the creek banks and provide shade for fish during summer as climate change worsens. In total, Leduc’s team put in nearly 300 plants, and says Nupqu’s contribution was invaluable.

“Because they choose the right plants for the right elevation, the right site, the right condition, and grew those from local seed stock, of course it will have much higher success rates,” Leduc says. “This goes … beyond the planting and the restoration side of things, but they were so incredibly lovely and amazing to deal with.”

Nupqu also propagates seedlings for ongoing white bark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and limber pine (P. flexilis) conservation projects. These high-elevation pines are considered keystone species, but across western North America are being decimated by an invasive fungus called blister rust. Nupqu propagates white bark and limber pine seedlings using seeds selected from blister-rust-resistant trees, for restoration projects, as part of continent-wide efforts.

Propagating plants for the Osooyos Indian Band

In 2018 and 2019, devastating wildfires swept through the Osooyos Indian Band’s territory in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, burning so intensely that the forest failed to fully regenerate.

Previously, much of the land was managed for forestry. But with increasingly frequent fires, the community wanted to replant a more diverse and resilient mix of species, says Vincent Dufour, a forester with Siya Forestry. Siya Forestry is a joint venture between the Osooyos Indian Band-owned Nk’Mip Forestry, and the privately owned Infinity-Pacific Stewardship Group.

After consulting with elders and other experts, Siya came up with a list of species that would create a more historically faithful mixed forest, including plants like alder (genus Alnus), poplar, willow and black cap raspberries (Rubus leucodermis). Band members came out to help collect seeds from within their territory; it was an all-ages event, and a chance for people to share traditional knowledge, Dufour says.

Then they reached out to Nupqu for help with cleaning and propagating the seeds. Last spring, Dufour drove out to the nursery to drop off a batch of seeds. “I was quite impressed about how well set up it was,” Dufour says, “[and] it’s beautiful that side … I saw a wolf pack driving in.”

The fact that Nupqu is also an Indigenous-owned company with similar values around stewardship was attractive to the Osooyos Indian Band, Dufour says. Under the current restoration plan, Siya hopes to plant about 100-200 hectares (250-500 acres) per year, with 150,000 to 300,000 native trees and shrubs, though not all will be grown by Nupqu.

Dufour expects the partnership with Nupqu to continue, as Siya rethinks how it manages its forests. The shift includes concerns about worsening fires and declining populations of animals like moose, Dufour says.

“I don’t think we’re ever gonna go back … to plant just for timber,” Dufour says. “I think now it’s just part of our practice to involve a different type of resilience.”

Building an Indigenous-led industry

The native plant industry has seen phenomenal growth over the past few years, says Gerald Puhach, Nupqu’s operations manager for native plants. This year, Nupqu opened a new seed lab, with more space and specialized equipment for cleaning, drying and storing seeds. Building on Nupqu’s success, he says he wants to help other First Nations get involved in the native plant business.

First Nations have always been at the forefront of advocating for land restoration, Puhach says. Plus, it makes sense to collect seeds and propagate plants close to where restoration is most needed, to preserve genetic diversity and for logistics.

“Every First Nation across the province … each one could have a native plant industry going for their local area,” he says.

One of the biggest challenges is lack of technical knowledge and formal training programs in native plant propagation, Puhach says. Another is that growing native plants with locally sourced seeds is expensive, partly because of low volumes.

A final challenge is governmental. In British Columbia, the restoration of industry-impacted land is governed by a mishmash of legislations: one set for oil and gas developments, others for mining or highways. Walkley says government regulations need to compel industry to restore the land to as close as possible to its original state.

“Industry will only follow the bottom line, and if it’s not regulatory, they won’t do it,” he says.

Banner image: Sulphur buckwheat seedlings at the Nupqu Native Plant Nursery in British Columbia. The nursery propagates over 60 species of native plants. Image by Ruth Kamnitzer.

Bring the forest to the farm or the farm to the forest? Agroforestry faces a dichotomy

Credits

Jeremy Hance Editor

This story first appeared on Mongabay

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Mongabay, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.