Burn scars can still be seen on the oldest of Douglas fir trees on southern Vancouver Island, according to Tiffany Joseph, leader of the XAXE TEṈEW̱ Sacred Land Society’s Indigenous land restoration and stewardship program.

That is evidence that the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples have been conducting forest burns for generations, she said.

“Our ancestors, with their great observation skills that spanned over thousands of years, recognized that when a naturally occurring burn happened, the foods and the medicines were more abundant and of better quality.”