Couple promoting non-timber forest resources

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When the Chelsea Flower Show opens its doors on May 24 Ric and Rose Richardson will be there. But the husband and wife team from Green Lake aren't attending the event to check out the new plants being introduced or to find out about the latest gardening trends, or even to catch a glimpse of members of the British royal family, who traditionally attend the show the day before it opens to the public. The Richardsons are travelling to London to participate in the show as part of an exhibit designed to increase awareness of the many non-timber forest products that can be found in Saskatchewan's boreal forest.

The Richardsons are members of the Taiga Rescue Network, an international non-profit organization that works to promote environmentally sound development of the world's boreal forests.

The network's exhibit, one of only 20 show gardens that will be featured at this year's event, will attempt to recreate a small pocket of boreal forest on the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea where the flower show has been held each year since 1913. Through its exhibit, the network hopes to raise public awareness of the importance of sustaining boreal forest ecosystems, showing the forests as a source of food and medicinal plants and a home to a diverse collection of plants, animals and people.

The garden will feature a variety of non-timber forest products, such as blueberries, tree sap and bark, that can be harvested commercially without negatively affecting the boreal forest ecosystem.

The Richardsons own and operate Keewatin Junction Station, a restaurant and museum located in Green Lake where they share information about Metis people with their guests.

"We felt that a combination of tradition, culture, heritage and history would be the best way to enter into business as Aboriginal people in modern times, Ric said. "So we try and incorporate all those features in everything that they do."

In keeping with that philosophy, the Richardsons have also been working to create business opportunities for Aboriginal people in the north by promoting development of an industry based around non-timber forest products. With more than half of the province covered in forest there is no shortage of product supply for such an industry and, with a growing market both here in Canada and abroad for products coming out of the forest, demand isn't a problem either. Yet very few of these products are being harvested commercially in Saskatchewan.

"I believe that, nationwide, there's about $240 million that comes in for the sale of non-timber forest products, but Saskatchewan only enjoys about $1 million of that, and that's just in mushrooms," Ric said.

The list of products that could be harvested from the province's forests goes well beyond mushrooms, he said. Plants that can be made into teas and a variety of berries that could be marketed as is or turned into jams or jellies are just two of many. The list can be expanded even more if you take into account non-food products that can be created from forest resources, like bark being turned into birch bark baskets or used to create art through birch bark biting.

"Like myself, I'm a moose antler carver, so that's even a non-timber forest product," he said.

Developing industries based on harvesting non-timber forest products makes good sense, especially in the north where unemployment rates are high. Starting up these types of businesses would see social spin-offs as well as economic benefits.

"Since it relies on traditional knowledge or our people, I think that it would also help to ensure cultural survival and strength," Ric said. "Because right now we always hear about gang problems, about drug problems, violent crimes by Aboriginal peoples. And a lot of it is around the youth. My wife and I have worked for many years with youth in crisis and what we found was that generally they're looking for an identity, a place to belong."

"We believe that if we can say, 'Lern your culture and you can make a living,' it's a lot better than saying, 'Either learn about your culture or make a living,' which is sort of the way it is now. So we can see this an beneficial on a lot of different levels," Ric Richardson said.

Part of the reason why so little has been done to capitalize on non-timber resources in Saskatchewan is that the provincial government can't see the forest for the trees, Ric explained.

The government has focused much of its efforts on large scale developments in the nort-including pulp mills and OSB plants-and hasn't paid much attention to smaller scale developments like harvesting, processing and marketing non-timber forest products which, in Ric's words, aren't "as glitzy" as pulp mills and don't generate anywhere near as much money.

With unemployment rates in the north sitting at around 70 per cent, the only way many Aboriginal people in the area would even be able to consider starting up a business in the non-timber forest product industry is with government aid. The Richardsons have had meetings with a number of provincial government ministers to discuss their ideas in this area and, although their presentations were enthusiastically received, no commitment has been made to ante up the dollars needed to get this industry off the ground. If that doesn't happen soon, the Richardsons are worried that interests from outside the region will recognize the opportunities that exist and step in to take advantage of them. Then Aboriginal people, and the province of Saskatchewan, won't be the ones benefiting.

"Presently we have opportunities for foreign investment to develop this. We don't want it. We want to own and operate the businesses here," Ric said.

"That is part of the problem that we've identified for business development in northern Saskatchewan-too many times it relies on foreign investment and ownership of businesses that take the profits from our resources away. We're trying to design it in such a wy that the people of Saskatchewan get the first benefit."