Lower nutritional value in oilsands berries: study – Northern Journal

December 14, 2015

A five-year project twinning traditional knowledge and Western science has found berries growing near the oilsands industrial sites in northern Alberta have, at the very least, lower nutritional value than berries found in more remote locations.

Since the fall of 2010, elders from Fort McKay First Nation have been using one of their most dependable resources – their traditional knowledge – to monitor the impacts of regional oilsands on cranberries and blueberries in the area, a study in conjunction with the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association’s (WBEA) Terrestrial Environmental Effects Monitoring (TEEM) program.

“The value of having the community monitor the health of berry patches is that they’ve spent their whole lives going to the patches,” said Janelle Baker, an anthropologist and PhD Candidate at McGill University, who has been involved with the project from the beginning. “They have a lifetime of already existing observations and knowing how the patches should be.”