Project Forest Siksika Nation Community Shelterbelt Program

Nature-based Solutions and Conservation

The Project Forest Siksika Nation Community Shelterbelt Program is designed to harness the power of shelterbelts as "a proven nature-based solution" to mitigate the impacts of climate change, sequester carbon and take meaningful steps towards equitably distributing trees and their associated ecosystem services to the people living on Siksika Nation. Shelterbelts will provide Siksika Nation with long-term environmental resilience to the effects of climate change, including mitigating extreme wind, trapping moisture, regulating temperatures, reducing the loss of topsoil, cleaning the air and water, creating habitat for wildlife, decreasing noise and increasing privacy from passing highway traffic and providing spaces for traditional land-use activities.

Through the ongoing relationship with Siksika Nation, in 2024, they have created 46 km of juvenile shelterbelt to provide critical ecosystem services that the Nation was not permitted to develop with the support of the federal Prairie Shelterbelt Program, which benefitted the Nation’s private landowner neighbours. This multi-phase project is an ecological reconciliation initiative that prioritizes the goals of Siksika Nation community members, as exemplified in the giveaway of food-bearing shrubs in the Nation in June. Furthermore, in welcoming corporate volunteers for tree planting events in September, the community used the project to create opportunities for more than 200 individuals to learn about Siksika and Siksika Nation community members and continue their learning journeys regarding truth, reconciliation and environmental equity.

This project is ongoing, and additional rewilding initiatives are being developed with other Indigenous Land Partners. They are also hosting a Rewilding and Reconciliation Round Dance with Enoch Cree Nation in October 2025 to celebrate the success of rewilding partnerships centred around ecological reconciliation and further build the relationships between Project Forest and First Nations across western Canada.

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