A hundred years of logging threatens the Innu link to their land

• “Nutshimit,” which means “the interior of the land,” is Innu poet Joséphine Bacon’s favourite word because it is intimately linked to Innu identity.
• Atik, the woodland caribou, is the most important element that has helped foster links between the Innu and the land.
• As researchers, biologists (including one of Innu origin) and forestry engineers, we are at the interface of scientific and Indigenous knowledge.

The Nitassinan of Pessamit

• The Nitassinan of Pessamit is a vast territory within the boreal forest of eastern Québec.
• Logging operations are therefore concentrated in the southern portion of Nitassinan, an area approximately 60,000 km2, or twice the size of Belgium.

A changing forest landscape

• As a result, the pre-colonial landscape of Nitassinan was heavily dominated by old-growth forests.
• We can imagine a matrix of old-growth forests that formed the backdrop to the forest landscape, with patches of younger forests superimposed as a result of the passage of fire.
• Since the forest colonized Québec’s North Shore following the retreat of the glaciers, the proportion of old-growth forest has varied over time with climate fluctuation, while remaining the dominant component of the landscape.

Old but rich forests

• In fact, the absence of fire over very long periods allows forests to acquire characteristics that are absent from younger forests.
• For example, old-growth forests typically have a diversity of tree sizes and ages.

The forest is getting younger from south to north

• Since the early 1970s, Québec has periodically carried out an ecoforest inventory to obtain the knowledge necessary to plan sustainable forest management.
• Part of the data is obtained using aerial photographs of the entire forested area of southern Québec.
• These photographs are interpreted, and the boundaries of forest stands are drawn taking into account a number of variables.

Rate of cutting accelerating

• Unlike forest fires, cutting exclusively targets mature forest stands, including old growth forests.
• By comparing forest inventory data from the late 1980s with similar data from the current period (2019), we can see the decline of old growth forests south of the 50th parallel north.

Devastating consequences

• For example, the steady increase in moose and its main predator, the wolf, since the 1990s is a direct consequence of forestry operations and forest rejuvenation.
• The arrival of moose and wolves in the habitat of woodland caribou has had devastating consequences for the latter.
• This has also had a major impact on traditional Innu culture, given their age-old link with the woodland caribou.