Why planting black ash trees is so important for P.E.I. and the Mi’kmaq – CBC

Jun 08, 2023

‘It gives me hope that there’s a future for our black ash here in the Atlantic region’

Charlottetown Rural High School students took a field trip behind their school Wednesday to make a mark on P.E.I.’s ecological and cultural landscape.

The students were planting black ash trees. Once prominent on P.E.I., there are likely only a few hundred left across the entire province.

“We are really replanting and reintroducing a very culturally significant species to this area,” said Aleida Tweten.

“Black ash, for many like thousands of years, has been used by Mi’kmaq people for various things, most notably the baskets. So it’s a very special kind of wood and it’s very rare.”

Tweten is of Cree ancestry and now lives on P.E.I. working on the P.E.I. Forested Landscape Priority Place project as a Mi’kmaw engagement co-ordinator.