WSÁNEĆ guidance in SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project: restoring Forest Health by reducing deer impacts and restoring native vegetation.
Background
Parks Canada, in partnership with private landowners, the province of BC, and WSÁNEĆ and Hul’q’umi’num’ Nations, intend to undertake an ecological restoration of forest ecosystems. The purpose of the SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project is to facilitate the restoration and maintenance of a globally unique forest ecosystem through effective management of hyper-abundant and invasive deer. To achieve significant ecological restoration gains, the SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project has three key objectives: the removal of invasive fallow deer, management of black-tailed deer, and forest restoration. The SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project also has the potential to demonstrate that it is possible for private landowners, federal and provincial governments, and first nations to come together to achieve shared conservation objectives.
Read more about our partnership with Parks Canada and the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve
Hunter Training & Mentorship Initiative
The purpose is to support involvement of the WSÁNEĆ nations in the SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project in order to achieve shared objectives. This includes fostering the transfer of traditional and contemporary hunting knowledge, as well as coordinating hunting activities within the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. This initiative includes facilitation of hunting trips and/or other means through which to share safe hunting practices with youth, as determined collaboratively by experienced hunters from the WSÁNEĆ nations and Parks Canada.
Successful management of deer populations within the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve will require an active Indigenous hunting community. A goal of the SḰŦÁMEN QENÁȽ,ENEȻ SĆȺ – Sidney Island Ecological Restoration Project is to promote the sharing of knowledge from elders to the younger generation of hunters by encouraging hunting within the park, and helping to foster the next generation of deer hunters.
