The Wildland Foundations project kicked off last year. This multi-year project is focused on the impacts of extreme wildfire on Indigenous use of land and on efforts to prevent extreme wildfire by returning prescribed burns to the landscape. It tracks the impacts of extreme wildfire and habitat restoration treatments on wildlife and plant presence and abundance, and forest structure overall.
The project team, spanning four Indigenous communities and two non-profit organizations across two provinces and one territory, has spent the past year testing and running field programs; building relationships and holding knowledge exchange events; completing habitat restoration treatments; and identifying priority questions and outcomes for the project.
First steps in the Foxholes
Fort Smith Métis Council is motivated to bring together Indigenous knowledge and western science through the Wildland Foundations project to better understand forest fires, particularly the impacts of the 2023 Wood Buffalo Complex fire on wildlife and cultural practices.
Over the summer solstice, project members from the ABMI and Biodiversity Pathways spent a week in Fort Smith. A community event was co-organized with Fort Smith Métis Council and a representative from the Town of Fort Smith Protective Services to share information about the project and discuss the impacts of wildfire and fire mitigation practices. Project members returned to Fort Smith in the fall to continue conversations with community members about research priorities and the impacts of wildfire, and chart a course for working together in the next field season.
The solstice also saw field crews from the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) spend six days in the Foxholes area collecting information on the effects of wildfire on forest species and habitats. June is a beautiful time in Fort Smith, when the light lingers and gets up early. The crews installed wildlife cameras and autonomous recording units (ARUs) and collected information on habitat structure (such as soil samples and measurements of downed woody debris).
The fall engagement revealed a profound reservoir of knowledge regarding culturally significant species, particularly in relation to fire, land use, and ecological change in Fort Smith. Over the three days, staff from the ABMI engaged with the community by sharing meals and engaging in meaningful discussions about the priorities that influence the project. Community members expressed concerns about the rapid pace of environmental change and the adequacy of current fire management systems, while also demonstrating a strong commitment to land protection, monitoring of key cultural and ecological indicators, and revitalizing cultural practices.
This experience provided the opportunity to collaboratively develop monitoring methodologies, ensure community ownership of data, and ensure local knowledge is fundamentally incorporated into the design and interpretation of the project.
Building a foundation in the Foothills
The Wildland Foundations project is one way that Foothills Ojibway First Nation (FOFN) is developing their research capacity through partnerships and relationship building.
The first year of the project has focused on relationship building and planning for data collection. The Wildland Foundations project ties into a second collaboration between FOFN, the ABMI, and other partners around the development of geospatial capacity and map making that addresses planning and monitoring needs.
A representative from FOFN joined a field day in October with ABMI staff to pilot field methods for the coming summer and ABMI staff joined an FOFN ceremony on the land to better understand community priorities and perspectives. Spending time together helps build trust that we are working towards a common goal and understand each other’s hopes for the project.
Field and lidar data will be collected in the Foothills Demonstration Site throughout 2026. This information will be used to answer common questions across the Foxholes, Foothills, and Horse River Demonstration Sites as well as report on biocultural indicators of interest to FOFN.
Emerging priorities in northeastern Alberta
Lakeland Métis Nation is a part of multiple research and monitoring projects in northeastern Alberta to understand the impacts of a changing world on wildlife and the land.
Lakeland Métis Nation engaged with project team members throughout the year to discuss research priorities and field planning for the Wildland Foundations project. For instance, there is interest in understanding the impacts of extreme wildfire on culturally important plants in the region, and how field and geospatial data could be used to support community members in adapting harvesting to a changing wildfire regime.
Field crews from the ABMI visited the Horse River Demonstration Site in the summer of 2025 to set up environmental sensors and collect habitat information in both burned and unburned spruce forest. These sites will be revisited in future years to refresh the equipment and collect more information on birds, mammals, and plants in the area.
One dimension of the Wildland Foundations project is the use of aerial and satellite data to create high-resolution maps of habitats, wildfire risk, and more. The Horse River Demonstration Site was the first area from the project targeted for lidar data collection, with the entirety of the 2,400 km2 site flown in the summer of 2025.
A mosaic of work in southeastern British Columbia
For thousands of years, Yaqit ʔa·knuqli‘it First Nation (YFN) stewarded their territory with frequent low-severity wildfires to improve habitat for ungulates, improve growing conditions for culturally important species, assist hunting, and reduce the risk of high-severity wildfires for the Community. A century of suppressing wildfire and the forced discontinuation of cultural burning practices has led to dense, uniform forests with increased risk of high-severity wildfire and habitat loss for species of high cultural and ecological value, including bighorn sheep, mule deer, and Rocky Mountain elk.
YFN is leading restoration projects to counteract these effects, including slashing, selective retention harvest, and prescribed burn efforts to reduce fuel loads, increase quality and quantity of wildlife forage, and improve sightlines to decrease predation risk. Biodiversity Pathways is honoured to partner with YFN supporting these efforts with research and project management/coordination support.
This past year, YFN and Biodiversity Pathways deployed 194 wildlife cameras, completed 27 thorough vegetation, fuel, and sightability plots, deployed and tracked dozens of animal collars, and collected hundreds of fecal samples to better understand how wildlife respond to restoration activities. Collar data and direct sightings of animals already show animals are using recently restored areas. Additional treatments were completed to support ungulate habitat, and help prepare an area for a future prescribed burn treatment. We also co-hosted an open house with YFN and the BC Government to share information about the wildlife research and ecosystem restoration activities taking place in the region.
The Wildland Foundations project is one piece of a mosaic of work led by YFN and the Government of BC to restore ecosystems and reduce wildfire risk in the traditional territory of YFN. Additional partners and funders in the region include Columbia Basin Trust, East Kootenay Invasive Species Council, Fernie Rod and Gun Club, and the Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources Society.
Putting it all together
All together, the information gathered through the Wildland Foundations project provides the “foundation” for identifying recommendations to reduce the impacts of wildfire on people, places, and wildlife and support the return of Indigenous stewardship practices.