Wildfire and Ecological Impact Session

Session Hosting Format: 
pre-recorded session
Date/Time: 
Saturday, April 30, 2022 - 10:40am to 12:20pm
(CST)
Room: 
Online
Organizer(s): 
  • Jode MacKay, Circle CRM Group
Contact Email: 
Session Description (300 word max): 

The Session will seek to reflect on archaeological, anthropological and community impacts, related to the rise in recent wildfire activity and weather/ecological influences. Discussion topics maybe wide ranging, and will likely encompass landscape impact, methodological concerns during archaeological assessments (pre- and post- impact), wildfire rehabilitation and living in communities in a post-wildfire ravaged area.
Session presentations will seek a diverse voice of experiences, ranging from Regulatory, Consultant, Academic, First Nation and Community perspective, with key points related to compiling recent data from wildfire related programs, present findings and disseminate key points, identify strengths and weaknesses in current methodologies, with the ultimate goal of creating guidance for future ecological impacts and resulting Regulatory Policy.

Presentations
10:40 AM: The BCAPA Wildfire and Ecological Committee
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Jode MacKay - Circle CRM Group Inc.

The membership of the British Columbia Association of Professional Archaeologists is engaged in archaeological research and the archaeological resource management process throughout British Columbia. In September of 2021, the Membership struck a new committee: the Wildfire and Ecological Impact Committee, (WEC). The Mandate of the WEC is three-fold: i) to track the progress of the current Wildfire Permit; ii) to centralize, organize, compile and experience share data of various wildfire related programs, and iii) with the ultimate goal, of preparing future guidance documents (for Industry, Regulators, Consultants, Academics and Communities). This presentation will seek to overview the last five years of wildfire activity within the Province of British Columbia, outline the response, and variety of actions that are commonly undertaken in response to wildfire destruction, resulting rehabilitation and remediation projects, various industry actions, and ongoing development of preventative. Ultimately, the paper will propose several future areas of interest which will require assessment in advance of the next wildfire season. We believe that both, community and archaeological voices can have an immediate effect for positive change in addressing the strengths and weaknesses of the currently employed systems, aid in the protection of heritage resources, and develop beneficial community practices.

11:00 AM: Wildfire Impacts and Archaeology in Alberta
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Angela Younie - Ember Archaeology
  • Brian Leslie - Ember Archaeology
  • Braedy Chapman - Ember Archaeology

In recent decades, natural events such as coastal erosion, flooding, and forest fires have become both an increasing threat to archaeological sites and a source of opportunity for discovery, protection, and management. Numerous case studies in Alberta have shown that natural phenomenon, such as wildfires and windstorms, can reveal the presence of materials previously obscured by thick vegetation or forest detritus. It has been observed that post-impact assessments conducted after timber salvage operations can reveal significant cultural resources due to the disruption of buried sediments. As the rate of wildfire increases, we propose that now is the time to develop a framework for preservation of heritage sites that may be impacted during fire fighting efforts. This should include the study of sites that are revealed after fire, and the associated fire fighting efforts, have run their course. Drawing from case studies in the combined management of wildfire and heritage resources from across western North America, we discuss how these might be applied to Alberta-specific environments and archaeological sites. Throughout, we address the importance of how indigenous ways of understanding heritage, forest, and wildfires can shape the future of archaeological study and environmental management.

11:20 AM: Phytolith Analysis of Indigenous Forest Gardens: a Pilot Study Examining Land Management Practices
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Kali Wade - Atlatl Archaeology Ltd
  • Chelsey Geralda Armstrong - Simon Fraser University
  • Michael Blake - University of British Columbia
  • Natasha Lyons - Ursus Heritage Consulting
  • Morgan Ritchie - University of British Columbia

Phytoliths are an important archaeological dataset that can provide valuable evidence in reconstructing paleoecosystems, analyzing environmental change, and identifying past human land-use activities. This study examines phytolith assemblages from 17 soil samples taken from modern ecosystems surrounding archaeological sites in Sts’ailes (Coast Salish) and Gitselasu (Ts’msyen) territories. Samples were taken during the summer of 2021, from nine shovel tests and trenches completed in two ecosystems: forest garden shovel tests (n=6) and conifer forest shovel tests (n=3). Phytolith presence was ubiquitous in every sample, displayed substantial concentrations per gram of sediment in each sample, and showed a variety of textbook morphologies. Monocots dominate the assemblages with an abundance of grass silica short cells (GSSC’s) in both forest garden and surrounding conifer forest ecosystems. GSSC's hold potential promise in identifying ecosystems as well as conifer forest understory compositions, following previous work completed in the area. Additional work is ongoing, to better understand phytolith signatures of forest management and ecosystem change over time. This work contributes to a wider set of experimental methodologies attempting to document integrated cultural-biophysical phenomena for a more complete view of Indigenous historical ecologies.