Why planting black ash trees is so important for P.E.I. and the Mi'kmaq - Action News
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PEI

Why planting black ash trees is so important for P.E.I. and the Mi'kmaq

Numbers of P.E.I.'s native black ash have dwindled to just a few hundred, while Mi'kmaw communities need the wood for basket weaving and other cultural endeavours.

'It gives me hope that there's a future for our black ash here in the Atlantic region'

A three-year-old black ash sapling, about a foot tall, has been recently planted in a muddy bog area.
The trees planted in the Hermitage Creek by Charlottetown Rural students were raised in a partnership between many organizations, including the Island Nature Trust, the Abegweit Conservation Society, the MacPhail Woods Ecological Forestry Project and both of P.E.I.'s First Nations. (Nicola MacLeod/CBC)

Charlottetown Rural High School students took a field trip behind their school Wednesday to make a mark on P.E.I.'s ecological and cultural landscape.

The students were planting black ash trees. Once prominent on P.E.I., there are likely only a few hundred left across the entire province.

"We are really replanting and reintroducing a very culturally significant species to this area," said Aleida Tweten.

"Black ash, for many like thousands of years, has been used by Mi'kmaq people for various things, most notably the baskets. So it's a very special kind of wood and it's very rare."

Tweten is of Cree ancestry and now lives on P.E.I. working on the P.E.I. Forested Landscape Priority Place project as a Mi'kmaw engagementco-ordinator.

The project protects species at risk and their habitats, and while it's hard to know how many black ash are left on the Island, Tweten said 450 is a good guess.

"It gives me hope that there's a future for our black ash here in the Atlantic region,"said Julie Pellissier-Lush, a Mi'kmaw educator and storyteller.

"To know that our traditions, our customs, our artistry with our baskets, our ko'jua sticks, all the different things that we would use traditionally, is going to be available for the future generations."

Ecological, cultural significance

The effortto repopulate the province with black ash has been underway for a few years.

Aleida Tweten stands with her back to a pond. She wears a blue shirt and black rain coat.
Aleida Tweten is of Cree ancestry. She says the black ash planted today will take seven to nine years to mature and produce seeds of their own. (Nicola MacLeod/CBC)

The tricky part? The trees only produce seeds about every seven years and the window to collect seeds is narrow.

The trees planted this week at Hermitage Creek are already about three years old raised with the help of nurseries at the MacPhail Woods Ecological Forestry Project and Lennox Island First Nation.

And students have also been learning aboutthe ecological rarity of black ash, as well as what it means to the Mi'kmaq.

Two students stand side-by-side in the forest. One is in a white hoodie and the other a black puffer jacket.
Emily Shi and Morgan Norquay are both Grade 10 students. They say it felt good to give back to the planet by planting trees and learning about the Mi'kmaq along the way. (Nicola MacLeod/CBC)

"It was really fun to hear how they were able to turn the trees into those beautiful baskets," said Grade 10 student Emily Shi.

"Planting the trees is, like, definitely important to me. We're currently on their land right now, so I'm really grateful for, like, what we could do."

Classmate Morgan Norquay agrees.

Young people are dispersed in the trees, digging holes to plant trees.
Charlottetown Rural students planted the trees in the boggy, wooded area behind their school near Hermitage Creek. The creek flows into Ellen's Creek and then on to the North River. (Nicola MacLeod/CBC)

"The fact that they're going to be here for a long time and it feels great to say, like, 'I planted a tree,'" she said.

"It just feels great to be a part ofhelping bring it back to its former glory."

Some Mi'kmaqfrom across the Island made the trip to Charlottetown just to witness the celebratory occasion.

"I think it's amazing. The one thing that all Indigenous clans across Canada are really trying to rebuild is the knowledge of their culture and be grounded in that," said Em McFadyen, a First Nations Guardian from Lennox Island.

First Nations Guardians are people designated through a federal program and givenfunding to support Indigenous groups in exercisingtheir rights and responsibilities to the lands, waters, and ice of their traditional territories.

Em McFadyen stands against a forested backdrop. They have a tattoo of a lion along their throat with hair in a top knot.
Em McFadyen is one of two First Nations Guardians from Lennox Island who came down to witness the important planting event. McFadyen says it's wonderful to see both Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks connect to the culture. (Nicola MacLeod/CBC)

"The adults of today are fighting really hard so that youth, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, can understand and connect to the Indigenous culture."

Tweten said the project feels like reconciliation in action.

"I'm a hopeful person," she said.

"I do believe in change for the good and when we have opportunities like this to come together, it is a start of something more."