By Jane Valencia
Vashon-born and raised and a 2024 University of British Columbia graduate, Mabel Moses, has worked with “The Mother Tree Project.” With a mission to practice forestry in a way that better preserves biodiversity and carbon storage, MTP was started by Dr. Suzanne Simard who many forest-loving Vashonites know for her work with tree communications.
Mabel now lives in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago briefly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Haida Gwaii has a population of 4,500.
Mabel first came to Haida Gwaii by way of an intensive semester program with the Haida Gwaii Institute, from which you could receive university credit. She came to learn forestry and forestry science, but within the context of a small community located on the territory of the Haida Nation.
“Canada has now acknowledged that the Haida Nation has title over Haida Gwaii,” Mabel shares, “the legal implications of which I do not entirely understand. But basically from what I do understand, it’s a historic moment of Canada acknowledging that they had claimed what wasn’t theirs, and beginning the process of giving land back to an Indigenous Nation. Hopefully paving the way for more of this elsewhere in Canada and the world.”
Mabel says she doesn’t understand the government and legal processes to explain title more, but encourages readers to look at the Council of the Haida Nation website for more information.
The course has 15-20 students. Students are hosted by community members or can live on their own. “You learn science from professors, but also you get to hear from a lot of guest speakers and people in the community, many of whom are fairly cutting-edge for the work they’ve done to push the community forward.”
Classes are taught in three-week blocks, and include one on the forest, others on beaches and rivers, and on wildlife. A seminar focuses on students’ personal experiences with all they are learning.
Mabel continues, “It’s a lot of field trips, a lot of ecology and forest sciences, and a focus on Haida values, such as a deep respect for all beings, and the Haida Nation’s legal authority surrounding forestry.”
“You learn a lot. Everyone who I know who has done that program falls in love with the place and community.”
Which is why, upon graduating from UBC, Mabel returned to Haida Gwaii.
But before then, Mabel was an undergraduate with the UBC Faculty of Forestry, considered the leading forestry school in Canada. Majors range from Wood Products, Conservation, Forest Sciences, Urban Forestry, and more. Mabel chose a more classic Forestry major, meant for people who want to work in the forestry industry or as a professional forester. “It looked fun, and I wanted to learn more out in the woods.”
A mix of a professional certificate and a Bachelors of Science in Forestry, Mabel degree sets her up to become a professional forester. With it, “I can do planning in the logging industry, consulting, and science. I feel like with all the degrees, you can go anywhere with them. People end up doing all kinds things.”
Dr. Suzanne Simard was one of Mabel’s professors. In 2023 and 2024, Mabel was a crew member on The Mother Tree Project.
Mabel explains, “We were looking at how logging impacts carbon in the soil, at the biodiversity of above-ground plants, and also how trees from a single species but different climatic regions in BC do outside their historically climatically adapted area in different kinds of harvests, and more. The Mother Tree Project is a huge one.
“My opinion after traveling to so many harvest sites throughout my degree is that a one-size-fits-all strategy of logging doesn’t work because BC is so diverse ecologically.
“Different strategies can enhance tree survival and carbon storage. Data is gathered to show the complexities of forests and how logging effects them in different ways.
“I also got to work for Dr. Lori Daniels, another of my professors, who studies wildfire. The projects that I was on use western science to back up knowledge of Indigenous fire stewardship practices. It was really cool to get to work with communities and learn more about how people had a relationship with fire before colonization that was very, very different than what we have now.”
Mabel shares further, “We were in the grasslands where people had used fire to keep those ecosystems healthy before Canada and the U.S. banned and suppressed burning practices. A lot of plants there are important for food for people, bears, and all kinds of other animals that respond really well to fire. By regularly burning, the land didn’t have the infill of trees that we have now, which is just a lot of fuel that creates really intense fires when they do go up.”
Another job Mabel had was working in Washington one year for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). There, she learned more about how forestry works on the ground, including how to work with foresters, to set up cut blocks, and see how DNR enforces or oversees logging and roads. “I got to see the government and industry side of forestry, so now my opinions of what logging is are.rooted in my personal experience, rather than in stereotypes.”
Mabel elaborates: “I’ve gotten to see a lot of different sides of forestry, and to work with a lot of different people like foresters and loggers, and they do genuinely care about the forest. And the scientists do too, obviously. In the Faculty of Forestry, sometimes there’s tension because you have a bunch of people who went into those programs to study Conservation and to study science, and they see how the logging industry is really harming biodiversity and food systems in a lot of ways.
“And then there are a lot of people in the program who come from logging families, and that is their community’s livelihood, and they’ve also been a part of it, so they can see what it actually is. They know that the people working in logging do care. And sometimes there is tension.
“The issue is complicated and seems to me to come down to different value systems, capitalist and extractive, versus more holistic. And also a disagreement on the definition of what a forest is, what sustainable means, and what science we should listen to.”
Some cherry-pick science to support their logging practice.
Mabel continues: “But you learn from everyone. Towards the end of my degree, we had a guest speaker who put a slide up of all the values of the forest. It listed a bunch of ways that you can use timber, like this or that kind of board, paper, and so on. And then other values were listed, such as spirituality, magic, and happiness. And people were just snickering and saying, what the f*** is magic? Me and my friend were like, that’s what we find in the forest. It is magic. That’s where I go to reenergize myself when I’m feeling badly. It’s one of those things that I have very strong feelings on.”
The different perspectives toward the forest mean that Mabel adjusts her language.
“I feel like I switch up how I talk about forestry, depending on who I talk to. Because I feel everyone cares about the forest in some way.”
“My opinion is that the issues are bigger. I learned that a lot of the wood in Canada is going to the U.S. to make single-family homes. Maybe the issue isn’t just that we’re cutting and selling all this wood in BC because of capitalism. Maybe people shouldn’t be building such big fricking homes. We need to figure out more ways to recycle wood, too. Some of the wood science students at UBC are on the cutting edge of that, learning how to recycle wood.
“The issues are part of a bigger story of how we choose to live, our connection, or lack of connection to the resources we use, and modern American culture.”
To be continued.
For links to find out more, view this article on vashonloop.com
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Find out more:
Council of The Haida Nation – haidanation.ca/
Haida ways of being – haidanation.ca/haida-ways-of-being/
Haida Nation ethics and values – chnmarineplanning.ca/tabs-culture/ethics-and-values
The mission of Washington State’s DNR is to “Manage, sustain, and protect the health and productivity of Washington’s lands and waters to meet the needs of present and future generations.” – dnr.wa.gov/about-washington-department-natural-resources
The Mother Tree Project – mothertreeproject.org
Dr. Suzanne Simard – suzannesimard.com/
Dr. Lori Daniels – ubctreeringlab.ca/lori-daniels
The Mother Tree Project – https://mothertreeproject.org
Dr. Suzanne Simard – https://suzannesimard.com/
Dr. Lori Daniels – https://www.ubctreeringlab.ca/lori-daniels
