'Our conservation backup plan': new Indigenous seed collection program begins in Maritimes

As Evan Simon harvests tiny seeds from a red maple tree, he thinks of his two-year-old daughter. 

"I want her to be able to carry on our ways from her ancestors and then pass them on to her children," Simon said.

Simon, an intern with the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources' Earth Keeper program, is taking part in the Indigenous Seed Collection program.

He envisions that the seeds he collects are for his daughter, and for future generations.

"I want her to know that every step in the good direction that we take, and everything we do with good intentions toward the land, it'll benefit all of us," he said. "Not just the Mi'kmaw Nation, but everyone here."

The Indigenous Seed Collection program is beginning this month in the Maritime provinces, conducted by Natural Resources Canada. It will expand across the country in the fall.

In Nova Scotia, the program is run in partnership with the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources (UINR) and the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq. Eventually, it will be fully Indigenous-led. 

Donnie McPhee, the coordinator of the National Tree Seed Centre in Fredericton, N.B., held a training session Monday near Westville, N.S., to teach Indigenous partners his department's method of harvesting, drying and transporting the seeds in a way that prevents germination.

"We're doing some training and we're actually learning ... about their views on seed collecting and how they would go about it," McPhee said. "They're going to be shipping a lot of the seed to us and we're going to dry down, clean, process and test it and then store it." 

McPhee said the program is the first of its kind. Typically, only at-risk species are collected, and it is conducted by the department, not by Indigenous communities. 

He said this is a "conservation back-up plan."

"We're harvesting red maple today. There's no problem with red maple, but that doesn't mean there won't be sometime down the road. But by having the collections made and in storage, we're kind of backing it up."

Seeds taken from native species

All the species in the program are native to the area where they are collected. This means their seeds are adapted to the region and will be more likely to thrive when planted.

"If you go to a local box store and you buy a maple tree, there's no telling where that tree originated from, where the seed came from," McPhee said. "If you took seed from way up far in the North and try to plant it in the South, most of them are going to die."

Not only is each tree native to the area, they all have cultural significance to the Mi'kmaq. 

"It's really easy to get access to trees that would be traditionally harvested for saw logs or pulp and paper — so a lot of the conifers," said Elizabeth Jessome, Mi'kmaw Forestry Initiative manager with the UINR. 

"But it's harder to get access to trees that would serve food or medicinal purposes, or wildlife purposes."

Keith Christmas, the UINR lead for the Earth Keeper program, said community consultation will be a crucial aspect of the project.

"It's important to to engage with our communities, engage with our youth," Christmas said. "We can learn from them to see if we're collecting properly and also to find out what seeds are important for our people. And what are some of their main concerns and what are some of the areas they would like restored?"

The seeds will be collected by Mi'kmaw communities in the spring and fall, depending when the trees naturally drop seeds. If they are processed properly, they can be stored for up to fifty years. 

Jessome said this longevity and the diversity of seeds collected is important in the face of threats like climate change, forest fires and invasive species. 

"If you lose one or two species because of invasive insects or pathogens, then there are still others there who can kind of fill that niche while the forest tries to kind of adapt and evolve over time."

The trees will be planted throughout the province in the years to come. 

"A lot of this program has to do with providing our urban centres and our conservation groups and ... our national and provincial parks with the seeds they need, because currently it's just not available," McPhee said.

When Simon harvests seeds from a tree, he offers tobacco as part of a traditional ceremony. Then he logs the date and scientific name of the specimen.

"That's what two-eyed seeing is," he said. "It brings both worlds together of Western science and the holistic side of a more traditional approach. So we blend them both together."

Simon hopes that as the trees grow in the future, so will land-based knowledge.