Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  The entire region is part of the North Saskatchewan River catchment basin, an area crossed by three smaller river systems. The first is the Sturgeon River, at the outer western edge of the area. At the mouth of the Sturgeon (known on fur-trade maps as the Net-Setting or Setting River), where it empties into the North Saskatchewan, Peter Pond once operated a fur-trading post.

  The second drainage body is the Spruce River system, now known as the Little Red River, which originates in Prince Albert National Park and moves south to empty into the North Saskatchewan River near Prince Albert. These two rivers, Sturgeon and Little Red, have been important historically for their access to prime lumber forests, and they were used and developed extensively to run logs to the mills at Prince Albert.

  Map 3. The forks of the Saskatchewan.

  Source: SAB, Morton Manuscript Collection (files of Professor A.S. Morton), S-A32, Vol. 9.

  The third river is the Garden River, once known as Sucker or Carp Creek prior to agricultural settlement. This river drains from the swamp and muskeg land north of Paddockwood and passes almost straight south before curving east to enter the North Saskatchewan east of Prince Albert near the forks. Its drainage, far upstream from Prince Albert and separated from the city by a series of shoals and rapids, hampered its potential use for the timber drive. The catchment of the Garden River, however, drains some of the best agricultural land on the north side of the Saskatchewan River, hence its name. All three rivers are south of the Continental Divide and flow into the North Saskatchewan and out through Hudson Bay.31

  The river systems are tied to the regional lakes. Recreational lakes in “Lakeland” developed for commercial purposes include Round, Sturgeon, Christopher, Emma, Anglin, and Candle Lakes, as well as those found within the borders of Prince Albert National Park. Other local lakes of importance, known for their good fishing, include Bittern and Montreal Lakes. Smaller lakes, with no commercial development and difficult access, include Oscar Lake (a large slough between Christopher and Anglin Lakes), McConechy Lake, and Clearsand Lake. Several other large water bodies, essentially large sloughs, abound throughout the region, including Egg Lake, near Spruce Home and Henribourg (see Map 2). These large sloughs contribute to local hydrology and provide important habitat for waterfowl. Summer temperatures and evapo-transpiration rates affect considerable seasonal and annual changes in water level. In some years, these lakes and water bodies are very low; in other years, they overflow onto surrounding lands.32

  The number and extent of water bodies increase sharply going north from Prince Albert, from small rivers and sloughs to lakes, then to extensive muskegs deeper into the forest, such as Boundary Bog in Prince Albert National Park. Bogs develop on low-lying land over thousands of years, and their presence is considered an indication of the age of a boreal forest. The northern part of the research region is also within or near the southern limit of permafrost—small pockets of permafrost can be found as far south as Prince Albert National Park and might well be present at or near what became the northern limit of agriculture. The presence of permafrost is the standard by which many scientific groups classify the beginning of the Canadian “north.”33 Permafrost presents a significant limitation on agricultural capability but is hard to detect by inexperienced homesteaders with no botanical training. The isotherm of 0°C, marking the southern boundary of discontinuous soil permafrost and the northern extent of agriculture, dissects the research region.34

  Flora and Fauna

  Trees and water have been the primary defining characteristics of the boreal forest, but First Nations bands also exploited boreal flora and fauna. Perhaps the most important non-human inhabitant of the boreal forest—in terms of its ability to re-create its surroundings—is the beaver. With an insatiable appetite for young aspen and poplar trees and a penchant for building dams that flood acres of forest, the beaver is second only to humans for environmental manipulation. Bison were once a major component of the region, particularly (according to historical documents) in the winter months when the beasts would break into smaller groups and spread throughout the southern edge of the forest, taking shelter from the bitter blizzards on the prairie.35 Farmers who moved into the region often found bison skulls while plowing the land. Extermination of the plains bison led to several ecological changes in both the prairie and the boreal forest, where bison were known to graze heavily on both grasses and shrubs and to damage and kill fully grown trees. Their disappearance led to gradual but pervasive forest regrowth.

  Other key boreal species include large ungulates, from moose, elk, and deer to the occasional caribou. Large carnivores, such as the timber wolf, black or brown bear, fox, wolverine, marten, and lynx, thrive. Aquatic animals such as otter, beaver, and muskrat make their homes in streams and ponds, and small land animals, including mice and rabbits, abound. Birds are also abundant, particularly at the forest edge or lake edge where insect populations are at their largest. Woodpeckers, grey jays, chickadees, spruce grouse, hawks and eagles are common, as are aquatic birds such as herons, cranes, Canada geese, ducks, loons, and pelicans. Water bodies have their own vegetation, from cattails to bulrushes, reed grasses, sedges, and mosses, and support a plethora of tiny aquatic animals. Minnows and fish species are abundant, and in some of the larger lakes fish can grow to a tremendous size. Northern pike (commonly called jackfish), walleye (pickerel), perch, whitefish, and trout (brook, rainbow, and lake) can all be found, as well as a type of ugly catfish commonly called mariah. In the woods, aside from the trees, can be found many plant varieties, including dogwood, low-bush cranberry, ostrich fern, horsetail, fireweed, blueberry, and Labrador tea. All of these animal, plant, bird, and fish species have, at one time or another, been harvested for food, shelter, clothing, utensils, or medicine by humans.

  Climate

  Saskatchewan has a continental climate with long, cold winters and short, relatively hot summers. It is a dry climate, with the southern prairie classed as semi-arid and the northern region as sub-humid. There are considerable climatic differences between southern and northern Saskatchewan that contribute to its two main ecosystems of boreal forest and prairie. The mixedwood forest at the ecological edge is typical of the sub-humid, or more northern, boreal environment. Although rainfall is not extensive—the yearly average is about forty centimetres, some of which is from winter snowfall—it does not evaporate as quickly as that in the semi-arid regions of the prairie.36 The growing season for all plants is about 160 days, though there is a higher possibility of late spring or early fall frosts at the forest edge, which can hamper plant growth.37 The area receives on average 2,100 hours of bright sunshine but is protected from major surface winds by its extensive tree cover. Extreme variations, as on the open plains, can occur but with less frequency. A tornado and accompanying plow winds, with hail and rain, ripped through the research region in the fall of 2008, pulling up trees by the roots, flattening crops, and smashing buildings.38 Older residents of the area claimed that these kinds of storms were non-existent when the region was first settled and have become more frequent as the land has been opened for agriculture.39 Opening forest land for agricultural purposes has been proven to have effects on local climate, temperature, and soil organic content.40

  Conclusion

  The north Prince Albert region sits on the ecological edge between the boreal forest and the open plains. Before extensive human interference through logging and farming, the research region most resembled a classic mixedwood boreal forest, but through fire succession, soil composition, and climate it also showed some prairie characteristics. As an ecotone between two dominant landscapes, the area promoted species richness and diversity. The mixedwood boreal forest hosted a wide variety of flora and fauna on a transitional land base that offered both poor and good soil, extensive water resources, and timber. Climate variations and weather events, as well as forest cover change from mixedwood boreal to almost exclusively aspen, have contributed to the sometimes err
oneous assertion that the north Prince Albert region is a parkland environment. I agree with the scientific researchers, ecologists, and archaeologists who have argued that the north Prince Albert region straddles the ecotone, the place where the two parent ecological systems of forest and prairie meet. But I also recognize that, at the edge, change is the only constant. The long-term history of this particular landscape is one of flux. Nonetheless, over the past few hundred years, this landscape has witnessed a history of ecological and cultural exchange that reinforces my ecotone/edge interpretation. A similar edge can be found at the boreal forest fringe across Canada—both a line and a place of flux and transition.

  Chapter Two

  The Good Wintering Place

  It was “the Good Wintering Place.”1 Scientist and explorer Captain John Palliser recorded in 1863 that the Plains Cree customarily spent the winter at or near traditional wintering grounds on the North Saskatchewan River. Today “the Good Wintering Place” hosts the city of Prince Albert. There, Palliser claimed, “the buffalo in winter approach the edge of the woods, and so also do the Indians, seeking fuel and thick-wood animals, in case of the buffalo failing them during the winter.”2 Clearly, that tradition had a long history. Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) employee Matthew Cocking went into the western interior in the fall of 1772 to convince the Blackfoot Nation to travel to the forts at Hudson Bay to trade with the English. He commented on the Saskatchewan valley region: “Indians tell me that in Winter buffalo are plenty here, which is confirmed by the quantity of Dung on the ground.”3 The north Prince Albert region was a refuge for the Cree from a brutal prairie winter, offering shelter from storms and game to tide bands through until spring should come again.

  The Prince Albert region also had a slightly different name, noted by long-time Prince Albert resident John Smith. He claimed that “the Indian tribes, both the Plains Indians and those from the Bush … called it ‘The Meeting Place,’ which in Indian was ‘Kestapinik.’”4 Smith explained that here the northern bands would meet the southern bands to exchange goods, engage in ritual dances and religious rites, make treaties and war pacts. These meetings were typically held in summer, allowing access overland or via canoe. Where Palliser described a place of winter refuge and resilience, Smith identified a summer cultural exchange. Both interpretations acknowledged the region as an edge place, where fundamentally different cultures based on unique ecosystems came together. Seasonality, however, is less well understood.

  Winter’s Edge

  Traditional interpretations of human use of the parkland and boreal forest edge argue that it was a winter environment: “One thing was certain; the yearly cycle of humans following bison herds from the grasslands in summer to sheltered areas in the parklands or wooded areas from the fall to the spring was essentially an unchanging and unchangeable phenomenon.”5 In this “Parkland Convergence” model, presented most eloquently by Arthur J. Ray in his seminal work Indians in the Fur Trade, the bison would retreat from the plains to the forest edge in winter. First Nations groups from both the plains and the forest would converge at the forest edge, following the bison, and spend winters in the relative shelter of the forest.6 The Parkland Convergence model suggests that between December and February of each year the bison would break into smaller groups and migrate to take shelter along the edge of the trees during the coldest and stormiest winter months. First Nations bands would mimic the bison pattern, breaking into smaller and more mobile units to winter at the forest edge, within reach of the bison. The earliest part of this season, from November into December, was the time of bison pounding. Pounding, or building “pounds” into which bison were herded before being killed, required trees, found at the forest edge, parkland, and on the open plains in isolated groves or near rivers. The meat was then frozen or dried for use during the rest of the winter.

  The forest edge as winter refuge anchored the Aboriginal seasonal cycle. Most researchers, including Ray, have operated from the assumption that the parkland is a relatively stable zone that has been in its current position back through the historic and prehistoric past. Modern maps showing the current extent of the parkland are used. Researchers trace the travels of First Nations, voyageurs, fur traders, explorers, and scientists, “mapping” their location relative to the current position of prairie, parkland, or forest. This leads to controversy, for historic records do not coincide well with current conditions; nor do the arguments account for year-to-year variations in severity—a mild winter might mean neither the bison nor the bands would migrate north. Ceasing First Nations anthropogenic burning practices, demise of the bison, logging, and the introduction of large-scale farming methods have substantially altered or possibly created the so-called parkland landscape and certainly moved the edge of the forest.7

  Geographers and historians have accepted, for the most part, the Parkland Convergence model.8 But anthropologists M. Malainey and B. Sherriff suggest that the model is wrong.9 Historical documents and archaeological findings offer ample evidence suggesting that plains tribes lived on the open prairie year round. Bison stayed on the prairie when snow cover was minimal and warm Chinook winds kept temperatures moderate; in the parkland, deep snow covered the grass, and the animals had trouble finding food.10 Malainey and Sherriff document a prairie-adapted seasonal round in which the Cree entered the forest only to travel north and east to Hudson Bay by canoe when the ice broke up on the rivers. They would travel back (an arduous trip involving tracking and portaging) to meet their families who waited for the trippers at or near the rivers and streams. By then, it would be middle summer to early fall. From there, they would abandon their canoes and travel overland, generally in a southerly and westerly direction, heading for bison country. Winter was spent on the prairie, trapping wolves and taking bison (often using pounds) until it was time to move once again north and east, toward stands of birch to make canoes, when the cycle would begin again. Malainey and Sherriff argue that bison hunting—and, therefore, the Plains Cree culture—were prairie phenomena.11

  Yet the use of pounds indicated at least a partial forested setting—extensive bluffs or possibly the forest edge. Malainey and Sherriff suggest that the outlines of the “fertile belt” provided by Palliser and Hind in the late 1850s serve as the best contemporary outline of the parkland zone. What none of these archaeological researchers has noted is that the parkland zone, as noted by ecologists, is difficult to define or proscribe on a map for the simple reason that it blends so easily into the prairie. Ralph Bird insisted that “in the northern part of the parkland the forest cover is broken by only occasional patches of grassland on the drier locations. As one approaches the great plains, the percentage of forest cover diminishes until it occupies only small, isolated groves and is finally restricted.”12 If bison moved to the more southern portions of the parkland zone, then it would become a matter of debate and interpretation to a casual observer (such as fur traders or other itinerants) as to whether it was indeed “forest,” “parkland,” or “prairie.” A second piece of this puzzle is semantics: both prairie and parkland, when flat, were often termed “prairie” until the turn of the twentieth century.

  Archaeologists J. Rod Vickers and Trevor Peck agree with Malainey and Sherriff’s statement that there has been a wide variety of interpretations regarding plains bison movements. All have been supported to a greater or lesser extent by both historical and archaeological findings and scientific evaluation.13 Knowing that bison movements varied so greatly from year to year (depending on snow cover, vegetation, and climate), Vickers and Peck contend that it is impossible to construct a single model that accounts for all variables. Researchers are unable to forge a consensus. Instead, counter Vickers and Peck, winter occupation should be approached “through a consideration of the limited distribution of non-mobile critical resources such as water and wood.”14 Wood was the one resource that the plains lacked in any large capacity except in particular locations (along riverbeds or in certain upland
regions, such as the Cypress Hills). Bison dung, though adequate for cooking fires in the summer, could not produce sufficient heat in the winter—moreover, it was hard to find under snow.15 Coal and wood were the only two fuels that could produce sufficient heat in the winter, and of the two coal was rarely mentioned as a fuel source by anthropologists or archaeologists of North America.

  It is possible that coal was taboo for some First Nations. Peter Fidler, during his journey from Buckingham House west across the plains, added some coal that he had found to the fire in the tent that he shared with his local hosts. This, apparently, was a “heinous offence” for which the chief, “much affronted,” punished Fidler by not visiting the tent for two nights. Was it the coal smell? Perhaps the quality of the smoke? Fidler was unsure. Wood was the primary fuel, particularly in winter, for domestic use. If wood, rather than bison, was the critical resource, then the forest edge remained a strategically important place of shelter and refuge for Plains Cree. Travellers tended to plan their winter movements “from island to island” of bush and forest throughout the “sea” of grass or snow.16

  Debate regarding bison migration patterns focusses on Plains Native experiences and perceptions. Forest-adapted bands followed a different model. Traders Joseph Waggoner and Joseph Smith journeyed inland from York Factory in 1756 to winter in the homeland of the Cree Indians who occupied the region surrounding Cedar Lake and the north end of Lake Winnipeg. Their journals explained the boreal forest cycle. The Cree band moved slowly through the region, fishing and hunting moose.17 By December, they reached the most southern point of their journey, still well within wooded lands. There they found and killed “buffeloo.”18 From this point, they journeyed back north and east, living once again on moose meat until they camped at Swan River, where there was a stand of birch trees. They camped for two months, making canoes and waiting for spring breakup, when the men travelled upriver to Hudson Bay to trade. The women and children spent the spring and summer fishing and hunting small game and waterfowl along the shores of the lakes and rivers until the men returned.19