Deers, bears, elk and grouse are all residents of the land-based Snuneymuxw ecosystems the First Nation hopes to monitor under a new land guardian pilot program. Announced on Nov. 10, the program is being organized by Snuneymuxw’s lands and natural resources department.
Wolfgang Schoenefuhs, Snuneymuxw’s lands director, told the News Bulletin that the initiative is based on providing stewardship opportunities on traditional land and collecting valuable baseline data.
“We will be undertaking wildlife counts, small-based restoration projects and providing … opportunities for members to get out and reconnect with the land through educational programs and different hunting and gathering opportunities as well,” Schoenefuhs said. “This isn’t something we’re providing right away, but once we get the land guardians more familiar with the land and build the program out we hope to be able to offer more services.”
The model follows the organizational structure of Snuneymuxw’s marine division, which has fisheries technicians obtaining data to influence conservation efforts. This is a first for the lands division, which Schoenefuhs said previously didn’t have the capacity for fieldwork and wildlife monitoring, calling the new resource technicians the “next step in capacity building.”
So far the department has hired two land resource technicians, also known as land guardians, both of whom have previous experience as hunters and know the area.
“We have them looking at the deer populations and deer herds moving through our territory but we’re hoping to look into bear and grouse coming through, we want to get a sense. We know it is going to be tough, but with some of the knowledge the community has we’re hoping to utilize what we can where applicable and set those baselines so we know how to compare that moving forward.”
With this data, Schoenefuhs said the nation will be able to more accurately plan generations into the future, setting goals and target numbers for deer and elk populations that cross into Snuneymuxw land.
He said that if members and non-members see the land guardian program trucks out, which currently share the logo and design of the marine division, he wants them to feel welcome to approach and ask questions. “Feel free to flag us down and have a chat with the land guardians, they are extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. Anything we can do to make the environment better and a safer place is going to go a long way into the future.”
For more information about the program, e-mail landguardian@snuneymuxw.ca.
