Keifer Ecological Services

• Kinbasket Reservoir Revegetation Program
• Arrow Lakes Reservoir Revegetation Program
• Silviculture, Wildfire and Forest Stand Effects on Huckleberries
• Spalding’s Campion Inventory and Habitat Assessment
• MOE Elder Creek Prescribed Burn
• Spatial and Quality Attributes of Culturally Important Plants
• Rare Plant Propagation and Restoration, Waneta Expansion Project
• Whitebark and Limber Pine Restoration in BC
• Impact of Accelerated Timber Harvesting on NTFPs
• Aberfeldie Channel and Revegetation Program
• Effects of Mountain Pine Beetle on NTFRs
• Revegetation of Disturbed Wetlands in Westpath Expansion Area
• Managing Saskatoon and other Traditionally Important Plants
• Invasive Plant Inventories at Provincial Parks
• Profile of NTFRs in the Cascade Forest District
• Invasive Species Mitigation Practices after Forest Management Activities
• Ethnobotanical Inventory, Invermere
• Reconnaissance Level Wetland Testing on TaTa/Skookumchuck Range
• Revegetation Monitoring - Kootenay 230 kV System Transmission Line
• Cultural Plants of the Creston Wetlands
• Morels in the East Kootenay, BC

Profile of NTFRs in the Cascade Forest District

The purpose of this project is to profile non-timber resources of the Cascades Forest District of British Columbia.  Non-timber resources (NTFRs), also are well known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and include all biological materials other than timber, which are extracted from forests for human use (Belcher 2003).  Included with NTFRs are botanical and mycological products and associated serves of the forest such as wild food, medicinals and floral greenery, arts and crafts materials, specialty wood products and small diameter wood (non-conventional), ethno-botanical teaching and ecotourism (Resources 2006).  Though also non-timber resources, wild animal products such as antlers and fur, or rangeland plants for forage are not included within the scope of this project.

Non-timber forest resources in all their diversity pose unique challenges to the land manager interested in managing for biologically diverse forests and ranges due to wide diversity in species and our general lack of knowledge about them.  Few attempts have been made to map their spatial extent and generally such efforts have been focused on a small number of species of high commercial interest, for example the pine mushroom or American matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare).  Front and centre with the ecological issues is First Nation title and rights.  There is a large body of local and traditional ecological knowledge held by local people, however, this type of knowledge seldom reaches forest managers and there have been relatively few examples of this type of knowledge being incorporated into management decisions.  Some of the plant species that are now being commercially harvested have also been cherished and managed by First Nations for millennia.  However, the knowledge base of the First Nations is in a fragile state due to the impacts of colonisation such as the loss of indigenous languages and ethnobotanical knowledge.  In BC NTFRs are increasingly being seen as a new frontier in our relationship with the forests and their management. 

The study area for this profile encompasses the Cascades Forest District, an area comprised of the Lillooet and Merritt Timber Supply Areas (TSA) that is over 2.2 million ha.  Communities within the District include Lillooet, Merritt, Princeton, Lower Nicola, Tulameen, Lytton, Goldbridge, Seton Portage and Pavilion. 

At an overview level, this profile will examine NTFRs for the District.  In order to make this profile manageable in scope the project focused on profiling key areas of activity within the District.  Undoubtedly the best known NTFR business in the District is Siska Traditions, a business that produces jams, soaps, teas and other products, as well, it is also involved in education, fisheries and land management.  The Nicola Tribal Associations (NTA) research arm, Tmixw Research has been involved in documenting aboriginal land use and its interactions with the land for over a decade.  Through the leadership of the NTA, key individuals have been contacted and interviewed to form the basis of the interests and concerns that are being presented.  At a broader scale is the Nicola Similkameen Innovative Forest Practices Society (NSIFS); through the collaborative work of this society the basis for NTFR management within the Merritt TSA has been set.  Along with the above entities, there are number of small businesses that have been identified in this research that are profiled to show the diversity of businesses within the District.