Carla Burton

• MSc. PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Northern British Columbia

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but wit...

A full list of affiliations appears at the end of the paper. R estoration ecology is rapidly advancing in response to the ever-expanding global decline in ecosystem integrity and its associated socioeconomic repercussions 1-4. Nowhere are these dynamics more evident than in drylands, which help sustain 39% of the world's human population 5 but rema...

Trade in plant products has been and continues to be an important part of First Nations cultures in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Today a cash economy often replaces the traditional exchange of goods, but trade in culturally important plant products is still prominent. The trade of selected plant products between the Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Tsim...

Timber harvesting is one of the dominant agents of forest change on public lands, and is often in conflict with non-timber resource use. Across northern British Columbia, Canada, there is widespread foraging for berries, mushrooms, medicinal plants, furs and potable water by both Aboriginal and Settler communities. The boundaries of traditional ter...

The persistence and recovery of devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus (Sm.) Miq., Araliaceae) after clearcut logging in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, is investigated through a series of retrospective surveys. This species remains important to the traditional culture of many First Peoples of western North America and is being studied for its bio...

The persistence and recovery of devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus (Sm.) Miq., Araliaceae) after clearcut logging in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, is investigated through a series of retrospective surveys. This species remains important to the traditional culture of many First Peoples of western North America and is being studied for its bio...

Devil’s club was (and still is) widely used by First Nations in British Columbia for many medicinal purposes (Table 1). The outer bark and spines of stems, and/or the bark of roots, is scraped off to access the inner bark. The inner bark is cut in pieces, steeped in water and taken as a drink. Some people are concerned that suitably large stems of...

This article provides an overview of systems of naming and organizing categories of plants among Indigenous languages and cultures of British Columbia, using tools provided through the fields of ethnobotany, linguistics, and anthropology.

Background/Question/Methods Oplopanax horridus (Sm.) Miq. (devil’s club) is an important plant to First Nations of British Columbia, Canada. More than 34 broad categories of medicinal use and eight categories of spiritual use of devil’s club have been listed by researchers for 38 linguistic groups from across western North America. In northwestern...

No standardized, objective methodology exists for optimizing seeding rates when establishing herbaceous plant cover for pastures, hay fields, ecological restoration, or other revegetation activities. Seeding densities, fertilizer use, season of seeding, and the interaction of these treatments were tested using native plants on degraded sites in nor...

The current level of activity in the non-timber forest product (NTFP) sector is explored for the greater Prince George area in central British Columbia. This regional profile encompasses the eastern portion of the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District and the entire Fraser Fort George Regional District as designated in the Community Profiles compiled b...

Establishment Report to Industrial Forestry Service Ltd. (IFS) and Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP)

It is expected that native plant materials will see increasing use for revegetating disturbed and degraded lands in northern British Columbia and elsewhere. Mixtures of grasses and legumes (and sometimes other graminoid and forb species) are sown for roadside erosion control, the rehabilitation of compacted soils, the reclamation of minespoils, and...

Adaptive genotype strategy promoted and tested in nursery field plots, studies and plantings in British Columbia.

The case studies included in this publication were originally published in a report entitled Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada, Current Situation and Potential for Growth , which was prepared for the Canadian Co-operative Association and Le Conseil Canadien de la Cooperation. The report was published by the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, U...

Wild berries are a non-timber forest resource with a long history of use and management. First Nations People in northwestern British Columbia have identified historic berry patches that were important elements of their subsistence economy. Those historic berry gathering areas were often named, controlled, managed and handed down from generation to...

The Wilp Sa Maa'y Harvesting Co-operative is a new community-based co-operative located in north-western British Columbia. This enterprise is designed to support the sustainable harvesting, processing and marketing of wild berries and other forest products indigenous to the region.

This dissertation was undertaken in collaboration with the Nisga'a First Nation of northwestern British Columbia to document their traditional plant use. This information was gathered through collaborative audio recorded open-ended discussion with 21 Nisga'a elders, supplemented with material from the published literature and archival sources. Back...

Survival results are presented for cultivated plots of 13 herbaceous native plant species grown in cultivation since 1997 or 1998. After 6 years, most grass species evaluated exhibit 20% to 90% survival, sedges have shown 10% to 40% survival, most forbs have shown 70% to 85% survival, although Lupinus spp. have had only 5% to 15% survival. These ob...

Establishing vegetation to control erosion, rebuild the soil and improve the visual appearance of degraded sites is an important aspect of ecosystem restoration. However, the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function, wildlife management and aesthetic appeal are also important factors. The use of native species for purposes of revegetation...