Developing the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations Stewardship Program

• Main Author: Olson, Erica
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2022
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2022ssec/allsessions/84; https://cedar.wwu.edu/context/ssec/article/3246/viewcontent/91_Olson_2C_20Thompson_2C_20Ma_2C_20Nielson_2C_20Sobey_2C_20Hanson_KCFN_20Stewardship_20Program.pdf

Over the past two centuries, the combined impacts of resource extraction, over-harvesting, and government policy has adversely impacted environmental health within Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations’ (KCFN) territory, and impaired KCFN members’ ability to utilize resources to harvest foods and medicines, and for cultural and other purposes. In response, KCFN has created a Stewardship Program to monitor and safeguard ecological and cultural resources, to document and/or deter human activities, and to establish a presence in the territory. In the first year of the program, Stewardship staff acquired equipment, conducted training, and carried out an initial set of activities, including boat-based patrols of the territory, and baseline ecological monitoring. To ground program development in KCFN community values and priorities, KCFN is (1) engaging community members and leadership to determine the long-term program goals, to document the key issues and concerns the program should address, and to identify core monitoring activities; (2) developing tailored monitoring and analysis plans to meet their data and decision-making needs; and (3) developing a custom data management system for data storage, visualization, analysis, and reporting. We review the process KCFN is undertaking to develop the Stewardship Program and highlight initial insights from the program’s first year.