Changes and impacts to aboriginal uses on the landscape: forest change and the Lake Babine Nation, northern British Columbia

This thesis examines aboriginal land uses and how they are impacted by changes in landscape patterns. The research is interdisciplinary in that it combines both social and natural science methodologies. The geographic research area is located in northern British Columbia in a sub-boreal spruce forested environment. Information on aboriginal land use was acquired through interviews and mapping exercises with land users from the Lake Babine Nation. Data collection focused on activities related to the hunting of large mammals, the trapping of furbearers and the gathering of wild foods. The interview data were combined with ecological landscape information in order to associate the uses with biological landscape criteria. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to create a digital hypothetical landscape called "Resource Use Area I". Disturbances representing the spatial and temporal patterns of conventional harvesting, natural fire and fire-mimicked harvesting, were applied to the landscape with GIS modelling. The model for fire-mimicked harvesting was based on patterns that approximated the spatial and ecological characteristics of natural fire by matching the perimeter to area ratio and by leaving island remnants of original forest within the harvested area. A forest growth model was also applied in order to examine change 120 years into the future. Available land for each aboriginal land use was calculated in the modelling at 60 and 120 years into the future. The research revealed significant variations in impact between the disturbances. Each of the land uses was affected differently by the disturbances. Examination of the results on the aboriginal use landscape as a whole further showed the landscape-level change caused by the various disturbances. The modelling showed that the conventional harvesting pattern significantly fragmented the landscape, especially in the long-term, and in turn, drastically reduced availability for aboriginal uses. The fire-mimicked harvest pattern, on the other hand, more closely approximated natural landscape evolution and allowed for continued aboriginal uses in the long term. These results are discussed and illustrated by a series of accompanying maps.