UBC Forest Program and Klahoose First Nation
Klahoose First Nation and the Quathen Xwegus Management Corporation are working on a new relationship with the University of British Columbia’s Department of Forest Resources Management.

A student team of 4 to 5 students will prepare a forest management plan and business report for Klahoose reserve lands. The plan will summarize the current state of the reserves and identify strategies to maximize revenue, including carbon offset sales. It will identify silviculture systems and model forest growth and management over the long-term. The business report will identify potential carbon revenues for future Klahoose financial benefits.

A second phase of the project will take place in the traditional Klahoose Lands of Toba Inlet at IR # 1. The focus will be on the new Community Forest Licence for Klahoose.
The plan will have approximately three management scenarios that represent feasible alternatives for the Klahoose people. Harvest levels, growing stock, carbon stocks and other resource indicators such as habitat abundance will be forecast for each scenario.

The work has begun with a tour of the Klahoose lands at IR# 7 in Squirrel Cove, B.C.

Professor and BSF Program Director, John Nelson of the U.B.C. Department of Forest Resources Management and Associate Professor, Gary Bull have been in contact with Q.X.M.C. Manager Chris Roddan to work out the details. The first phase of the project begins this month and the second phase in Toba Inlet in November 2010.

Geoduck Aquaculture
Klahoose First Nation has recently signed a collaborative research and development agreement with the research science centre of U.B.C. in regards to Geoduck Aquaculture. As a result of this agreement, we will have direct access to new formulas and feeding models that will increase the grow out rate and lower mortality rates in the transplanting of seed to our Geoduck tenure.

Chief Ken Brown see’s the benefits of these relationships clearly,
“It is one of several exciting new relationships we are developing with the University of British Columbia. It is our hope that one day soon our Klahoose youth will be able to enrol and participate in the myriad of programs offered by UBC.
By building these relationships with advanced education, it is our hope that we can break down road blocks and barriers from our community making the link to a higher education seem less foreign. In the near future we would like to have field trips with our youth to the campus.”