Xwaaqw’um Carbon Sequestration

Aug 28

Our 5-year Carbon Sequestration Nature Smart funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada is a ground-breaking fund that has allowed Stqeeye’ to measure a baseline of carbon being stored at Xwaaqw’um.

With Ecora, we set about designing and implementing a unique study for the 524 ha provincial park work area. The study has two goals: to measure the carbon being stored in areas that will be turned into wetlands, and to measure carbon being stored in third-growth forest. This will become the baseline for the carbon sequestration work that many folk believe will become the currency of the future. With this knowledge, we can create a model of what the current carbon storage capacity of Xwaaqw’um is today and what it could become over time. With the trees growing back and new wetlands planned, Xwaaqw’um could become a productive carbon sink once more.

Madeline, a field geologist, and Ran, a soil scientist from ECORA conducted the sampling in the agricultural fields with Stqeeye’ staff in May 2023. Geologist Tony MacLeod came out to investigate the soil layers for himself and we were excited to find lots of clay beneath the old agricultural fields indicating Xwaaqw’um may have been part of an ancient glacial lakebed.

The study used agricultural fields that will not be restored as control sites, and these will be compared to sites in the planned wetland construction areas in years to come. This will help researchers to decide how quickly new wetlands can store carbon, and in what volume.

In the forest, the team had a lot of fun doing 8 forest polygons. Each polygon was mapped and all the trees, shrubs, and small plants were listed and the percent cover estimated for each polygon. Trees over a certain Diameter were selected for a tree core analysis. These cores were sent to a dendrochronologist in Alberta for analysis. They will be looking for trends in growth that will help with modelling and prediction.

Stqeeye’ Land Stewards Tony and Tyee both got training in measuring the trees, taking the tree cores and sampling the soil for laboratory analysis.

*Madeline taught Stqeeye’ staff how to take the tree cores.*

Now that all of the samples are off to the laboratories, Stqeeye’ awaits Ecora’s analysis of the raw data. ECCC will also receive the raw data from our study and hundreds of others like us across Canada. We are excited to revisit these same sites in four years time and again in 5o years time to see if we can see changes in the sequestration data over the next several generations.

Also in May this year, we had Suzanne Simard and her Mother Tree Network visit us at Xwaaqw’um. These wonderful students are all on the cutting edge of forest and carbon science and we were so grateful that they came to visit our carbon study!