Title Slide: Kaska Elders’ Perception of Environmental Change
Leslie Main Johnson (Athabasca University) and Linda McDonald (Kaska
Nation)
Our talk today is about Kaska Elders’ Perception of Environmental Change.
I’m Leslie Main Johnson, and my co-author Linda McDonald was unable to
be here today. First we’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this
land and thank them for allowing us the opportunity to speak here. The
overall focus of this forum is on local perceptions and understanding of
change in vegetation. Kaska, as hunting people, focus more on the physical
environment, weather, and the behaviour of animals, but also are aware of
change in vegetation. Some of this change is “normal” successional change,
and other change appears to be in response to accelerating climatic change
observed over the past several decades. The people we have worked with
are primarily Elders, people over the age of 60 at the time of our discussions.
Much of the data presented here is from a 2010 project on Kaska Elders
Knowledge of Environmental Change which my collaborator Linda
McDonald (herself Kaska) and I carried out. We spoke with 5 Elders in a
group meeting, and did individual interviews with 3 other Elders. A lot of
what the Elders shared during that project speaks to animals, moral
behaviour, causation, concerns for the future of the land, and of the youth.
Today we will focus mainly on vegetation related observations.
Slide 2 (Clara Donnessey and Alice Brodhagen)
Change in climate was noted by all of the Elders, though the specific
observations and the time scale differed. Elders all commented on how the
winters are not cold like they used to be. Now the weather is variable, with
winter rain or thaws at times, not very cold and dry. Snowfall is variable
and summer temperatures may be hot and dry, or unseasonably cold and
rainy.
Slide 3 Climatic change affecting rivers and bottomland vegetation:
- We will discuss two overall areas where change has been noted:
changes relating to rivers and floodplains, and changes relating to
“drying” and fire. People travel on or along rivers, live along rivers,
hunt along rivers, fish, and gather medicinal plants. Elders mentioned
the following changes which affect the dynamics of river channels,
sediment deposition, flood frequency and flood height. All of these
-
affect bottomland vegetation. variation in snowpack and melt timing
affects flood heights and time of high water
high flows create scour and deposition
floods affect floodplains and low terraces with saturated soils and silt
deposition
new gravel bars start succession
old forested islands may be eroded
channel change can cause abandonment of channels, or reactivate old
channels
Slide 4 availability of riparian plants is affected by river flow and
sedimentation
Linda, Mida and I were looking for caribou leaves, a plant that grows along
river banks in 2010. This is an area where Mida had previously picked this
medicinal plant for winter use. The previous year’s high flood had deposited
large amounts of sand in the woods along the floodplain, and there was no
longer any caribou leaves in that site. We had to go to a different location to
gather.
Slide 5 Freddie Hasselburg
Elder Freddie Hasselburg observed that the gravel bars are a “jungle” now
because of the rapid growth of willows with the warmer climate. Eddie,
now in his 70s or 80s, grew up along the Upper Liard River, and used to
walk the river bank to Watson Lake for School. Compared to when he was
young, there is much more thick growth of willow and alder in the
bottomland, making walking difficult.
Slide 6 Willows at the mouth of Tu Cho
Freddie Hasselberg described how there was greater growth of willows on
river bars now. Changes in temperature causing faster growth, reduced
flood scour frequency, or changes in the nature of spring breakup of river ice
all could be causes of the observed change. The view is of an island in the
Frances River at its confluence with the Liard.
Slide 7 tu tili
On an active multichannel river like the Liard, there is considerable shifting
of channel position over time. Here we see a wide river channel, now cut off
from the main flow of the river, but still retaining the channel width of a
main channel. It is filling in with sediment: sand silt and clay, and has
sparse vegetation. This image is shot at fall low water; for most of the
summer season, this area would be submerged. The changes in channels and
vegetation on the river floodplain are noted by Elders, who have a clear
sense of successional relationships. Elder Mida Donnessey described that
this site was formerly the active river channel.
Slide 8 tu tsel (Fanny’s Slough)
A river channel, when cut off from through flow, accumulates fine
sediments and undergoes succession. It becomes Tutsel swamp, wetlands
that form in abandoned river channels, locally called “slough” in English.
This slough consists of an old major channel, now much silted in and
affected by beavers, and fringing wet meadows dominated by sedges. This
site is a gathering area for medicinal plants, especially wild mint Mentha
arvensis, and ‘caribou leaves’ Artemesia tilesii ssp. elatior.
Slide 9 tsele “creek”
This site, a narrower channel fringed with bottomland forest, was called
tsele’ which can be translated as “creek”. Here the narrow channel has
woody vegetation (willow Salix and alder Alnus) along its fringes, is much
influenced by beaver activity, and is far from active flood scour. When
beaver ponds empty, the fertile muds may support medicinal plants such as
wild mint.
Slide 10 drying and fire
One of the themes Elders brought up in discussions of environmental change
was a concern about hot summers and plants and the land “drying up”. They
also suggested that there were more bad fire years than formerly, because
there were more hot summers.
Slide 11 berries: worries they are drying up
In 2004, when the large Contact Creek fire was burning, Elder Mida
Donnessey and I had a difficult time to find good cranberries (Vaccinium
vitis-idaea). Blueberry crops (Vaccinium uliginosum) may also be affected
in hot dry summers. Spring temperatures (which can affect flowering and
fruit set) and summer moisture (which affects fruit development) both make
berry crops unpredictable from year to year, and spatially. In 2010 Elders
called attention to this concern, and in 2012 Linda, Mida and I had difficulty
finding good wild strawberries, usually abundant and juicy in Kaska country
in July.
Slide 12 Leda Jules and May Brodhagen, Frances Lake 2000
Leda and May participated in interviews during our 2010 fieldwork on
climate change. Both Elders spoke about fewer and smaller berries.
Slide 13 yellow willow leaves
The summer was very hot and dry in 2010. The willow leaves were turning
yellow and rusty, drying up in the perspective of the elders, who attributed
the unseasonable colouring of the leaves to the heat. This year was a bad
fire year as well. While we were on the trip where I photographed this
willow, we stopped to put out a small fire at a camp area beside the Liard
River. Subsequently, there was a very large fire which burned for at least
two months to the south across the border in BC. (I had to wait for a convoy
to travel down through it when I drove back to Edmonton at the end of my
fieldwork).
Slide 14 Contact Creek burn
The Elders believe there are more large fires now. In 2004 while I was in the
Watson Lake region, the summer was very dry and several very large fires
were burning in the southern Yukon and adjacent British Columbia. I
photographed this fire just after the black areas burned. The weather turned
cold and rainy, and the fire ceased crowning. There have been a couple of
other fires near this since I took this photo, supporting the notion that bad
fire years may be becoming more frequent.
Slide 15 “Fire Come Through”
People recognize old burns and say in English “fire come through”.
In 2002 at a Kaska Language class, Elders discussed habitat terms.
Elder Mida Donnessey contributed cho– lade; burned place
Tom Smith, an Elder from Ross River provided , sa’a guka– dek’a–n for
‘long ago burned’
and desk’ese tses- small trees, poles on old burn [on mountainside?],
describing the post fire vegetation.
The upper right photo is from the Cassiar Mountains, and the prefire stand
was lodgepole pine and probably white spruce. I witnessed the Cottonwood
Creek fire in 1980 while it was burning, and rephotographed it in 1997. The
Simpson Lake burn was in black spruce. In the Boreal forest, fires are large,
and may burn for months, consuming tree canopy and organic soil. The
Boreal forest is a patchwork of stands of different ages,but most show
evidence of past fire.
Slide 16 raspberries
Raspberries, Rubus idaeus are a disturbance species. Elder Alice Brodhagen
observed they may become more abundant if fire frequency increases.
Slide 16 brush, tsedle
Thick, brushy pine stands with small trees, tsedle, are good for snaring
rabbits and may provide habitat for grouse. They are (usually?) formed by
post fire succession. Is there more brush now? Does it grow more thickly
and rapidly?
Slide 17 Rancheria River debris torrent 1988
Landslides and avalanche tracks also restart succession. Slides witlat are a
recognized landscape type. (I’ve driven by it since, and it is now covered
with thick woody vegetation.)
Slide 18 Elder Robert Jules
Elder Robert Jules told us there are more landslides around Frances Lake.
This may be due at least in part to the effects of permafrost melting.
Slide 19 robin
Although this talk has primarily been about Kaska perception of changes in
vegetation and plant response to climate change, I’m going to close by
mentioning animals. Kaska, as with other Northern hunting people, are
acutely aware of animal numbers, behaviour and habitat associations. In
discussing environmental changes, people often focused on changes in
animal behaviour. One observation mentioned by several Elders was a
perceived reduction of songbird numbers, and of certain other migratory
birds like cranes or yellowlegs. Some Elders reported seeing fewer robins,
while others mentioned other small birds like redwinged blackbirds. We
speculate that environmental change or habitat degradation in wintering
grounds may contribute to this observed change.
Slide 20 (landscape view)
So, to summarize, the perception of vegetation change in response to
climatic change, and in response to disturbance we share today is in the
context of a hunting culture and in a system where the physical part of the
biophysical environment is active and of strong importance in human
livelihoods. Medicinal plants and berry crops are the most significant
concerns of people with regard to plants. There is a concept of “drying up”in response to hot summers- leaves going brown early, and depressed fruit
production from berries .Unseasonably cold early spring weather can also
affect flowering and fruit set. Rates of vegetation regrowth, changes in river
bar vegetation as a consequence of changes in freeze thaw events, stability
of the ice cover, nature of spring break-up, and f spring flood heights and
frequency . The occurrence and frequency of large ±catastrophic wildfire is
another driver of the balance of vegetation types and stages on the
landscape. While the Boreal Forest has always been characterized by
relatively large and infrequent stand replacing fires, people are arguing that
large fires have become more frequent in recent years, which would change
the balance of stand types in the landscape. Landslide activity, which also
resets vegetation succession, is also said to be increasing, probably in part
due to loss of permafrost with resultant active layer slumping.
Slide 21- thanks and acknowledgements
We wanted to thank all of the Elders for sharing their knowledge. We thank
the Liard First Nation for permission to carry out the work. We thank
Athabasca University for research funding through an Athabasca Research
Fund Grant. Johnson also acknowledges the Canadian Circumpolar Institute
and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for
earlier support.