Land & Resources 3

2.4 Forest Resources: Red and Yellow Cedar

Red and yellow cedar are of particular importance to the Hupacasath as red cedar was widely used for house construction, canoes, welcome figures, furniture, clothing, utensils and a wide variety of ceremonial masks, etc. Yellow cedar is used for a variety of ceremonial masks, utensils, etc. These species are identified as needing special protection and management as the Hupacasath need very old trees for canoes and other uses, but old growth cedar is valuable in the modern market place and is targeted for harvest.

Tables 6 and 7 show where red and yellow cedar occurs as either a major or minor species in the forest inventories. Note that these areas are substantially different than the numbers in table 5 because there are many forests where red and yellow cedar are not the main stand component but are present as minor species.

Table 6: Hupacasath Use Areas with Red Cedar Occurrence

Table 7: Hupacasath Use Areas with Yellow Cedar Occurrence

2.4 Forest resrources: Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)

The Hupacasath have used the NTFPs from their territory for thousands of years. They use berries, mushrooms, roots and a variety of plants for food, many plants for medicines, grasses, roots, etc. for arts, crafts, tools and utensils.

The report “Hupacasath Plants” by Catherine Jacobsen states,

“The use and stewardship of plant resources was an important component of the traditional Hupacasath livelihood. Plants and plant products contributed in numerous ways to Hupacasath nutrition, medicine and material technology.”

Salal and mushrooms have been picked commercially in the past and there has been an increasing use and value of many other plant products as natural foods and medicines, floral materials, and other products. The Hupacasath are concerned with this unregulated use of their traditional plants and are in the process of developing governance structures to regulate NTFP use in a sustainable way.