The Role of Good Fire in Nourishing Boreal Berries
September 2, 2024
Summer in the Boreal Forest means an abundance of berries—blueberries, strawberries, cloudberries, raspberries, bunchberries, and more. These berries help sustain bears, moose, and other animals. People within the over 600 Indigenous communities across the boreal are also nourished by them. Gathering and eating fresh berries has been a source of nutrients and enjoyment for millennia.
Indigenous Peoples living in the boreal have long known that berries benefit from what’s known as “good fire.” Not the supercharged crown fires that have grown more destructive as a result of climate change and forest management practices. But smaller, low intensity burns sparked by lightning or placed on the ground by Indigenous fire keepers.
“Berries have evolved with fire,” said Dr. Amy Cardinal Christianson, Policy Advisor with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. “When they don’t have fire, they start getting spindly and produce fewer berries. A low-intensity fire creates plump berries and makes bushes fuller and healthier.”
After all, the boreal is a fire dependent forest, and its plants have adapted. Fires help release seeds from jack pine cones, create meadows where animals graze, and spur the growth of plants. It helps create more diverse landscapes, with trees and plants of varying age and species.
Indigenous Peoples have observed how fire shapes their traditional territories and use fire to achieve cultural goals, including berry harvests.
“Many Elders will tell you when the berries are overgrown and need fire to clean them up,” said Christianson. A low-intensity fire will burn the berry bush above the soil, leaving the roots intact and nourished by the ash. It will remove the dead branches, while healthy limbs holding moisture won’t burn. After the fire, the plants are smaller, less prone to pests and disease, and denser with nutrients. And they generate more berries.
“You don’t go and burn all your berries at the same time,” Christianson explained. “Indigenous fire management is based on intervals—knowing when patches have been burned, which patches are getting overgrown. It’s not a one-time, one-off approach. It’s ongoing stewardship.”
The timing of burns is also carefully chosen and based on indicators from the land. For instance, in the early spring when there is still some snow around, the soil is damp, but the birds haven’t nested yet, it could be the right time for an early spring burn—sometimes called a cold burn. Even with climate change, Indigenous fire keepers have adapted their practices to shifting seasonal cues.
Western science has confirmed the benefits of these approaches, especially in the face of climate change. Studies have found that thinning and burning understory can reduce severe fire risk by removing fuel and improving forest health.
Despite constraints on cultural burns imposed by colonial governments, many Indigenous Nations across the Boreal Forest are working to restore Indigenous fire stewardship within their territories.
“We call it good fire, because it has good effects on the land,” said Christianson—including sweet and plentiful boreal berries.