The Project Forest Siksika Nation Community Shelterbelt Program is a multi-year partnership between Project Forest and Siksika Nation to bring urgently needed trees to the community.
For more than 100 years, the federal government gave trees to farmers across the prairies to plant shelterbelts, protecting them from the harsh elements and improving the growing conditions for their crops. Siksika Nation, and many other First Nations, were not offered access to these trees and the many benefits they provide.
Project Forest is planting shelterbelts around the homes, communities and agricultural fields on Siksika Nation, the second largest reserve in Canada. Shelterbelts, up to five rows wide with food-bearing and medicinal plants interspersed, will benefit the members of Siksika Nation by creating privacy from the road, mitigating extreme weather, reducing wind speeds, and trapping moisture. The shelterbelts, a nature-based solution designed to reduce the effects of climate change, will also provide increased opportunities for Nation members to participate in traditional land-use activities, like medicine- and berry-picking.
Phase One of the project will begin in 2023. We will plant more than 130,000 trees and shrubs, creating almost 50 kilometres of new shelterbelts on Siksika Nation.
