Couple works to promote non-timber forest products

When most people think of forests and economic opportunities, their thoughts turn to trees and all the items they are transformed into, from lumber for construction to pulp used to make paper products. But for one couple in Green Lake, wood products are just one part of what can be harvested from Saskatchewan's northern woods.

"We've been looking at the trees and now it's time to see the forest," said ecotourism entrepreneur Ric Richardson who, along with his wife, Rose, has been working for years to promote the opportunities that exist around harvesting of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). With the recent uncertainty swirling around Saskatchewan's forestry sector after closure of Weyerhaeuser's pulp and paper mill in Prince Albert this past spring, Richardson believes the time has never been better to look at economically viable ways of using other parts of the province's forests.

According to information on the Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food Web site, there are a number of NTFPs that can be found in the province. Two products that are already the focus of commercial harvesting are wild mushrooms and wild blueberries, but the potential exists to harvest and market everything from fiddleheads to medicinal herbs to craft products like mosses, birch bark, pine cones and willow branches.

With assistance from a grant from the ministry of First Nations and Metis Relations, the Richardson's have contracted with Royal Roads University's Centre for Non Timber Resources, a B.C.-based centre that works to encourage sustainable use of non-timber forest resources, and are in the process of putting together a strategic plan for the harvesting of Saskatchewan's non-timber forest products. Richardson said an investment of $15 million dollars over 10 years would be sufficient to make the NTFP project viable.

"This is an extremely inexpensive cost-benefit analysis," he said. All you need is a quad in order to get into the forest to harvest the plants, and this, he said, is cheaper and less environmentally damaging than using big equipment.

Richardson estimated the result would be $50 to $100 million in revenue, annually. "And that is potentially foreseeable within 10 years of the start of development."

The plants would be harvested in a way that promotes their sustainability, said Richardson. "We won't run out of product."

Fair trade is another important component of the proposed project. So is the fact that the plants are organically grown, given the growing market for such products in Europe, where many of the locally harvested products could be sold.

By training harvesters well, the conditions of sustainability, organic quality and fair trade could be met, Ric Richardson said. "You know who the harvesters are, and there's traceability" of what is harvested and how it is reaped and processed, he said.

Richardson's vision includes having micro-enterprises in each community do the harvesting and bring the product to distribution centres. He has talked to many potential stakeholders about the project and also wants to enter into discussions with Metis, First Nations and northern community groups.

"We're trying to make sure everyone who lives in the north is represented," he said.

Richardson foresees the NTFP project helping communities by not only providing employment and income, but also by giving Aboriginal people an opportunity to become more connected to their culture and traditions.

"There's a lot of concern that young people are not trying to learn about culture," Richardson said. By becoming harvesters of non-timber forest products, many of which have been harvested by Aboriginal people for generations, they can relearn traditional harvesting practices and traditional uses for many of the plants that grow in the forest, and earn a living in the process.

The time is ripe for helping people see a different way of looking at the forest by capturing its true value, Richardson said.

"It's something that we believe in, that we need economically, environmentally and socially."