Lands

“Our goal is to have zero impact on the environment, and we will strive to ensure all our workers, contractors, and sub-contractors have the same high standard of environmental awareness.” 

Blueberry River First Nations Territory – A Changing Landscape

Within our current Elders’ lifetimes, the territory has transformed from a pristine land full of natural resources to a landscape now filled with unchecked anthropogenic impacts. These lands have been relied upon by our people for sustenance and trade as far back as the ice age but within the last 40 years the land has transformed to become a foreign place, where we no longer recognize it.

Restoring ecological integrity and protecting what land is left is integral to maintaining who Blueberry is as a people, including the complex relationships with the land and the continuance of livelihoods and treaty rights.

Our dreamers prophesied that there would be changes ahead. The last Dreamer, the late Charlie Yahey, once said the ‘world made too small’ and the late Tommy Attachie, head drummer and song keeper from our sister nation Doig River once said, ‘the world is upside down.’

Lands Resources Department

The Lands Resources Department has a role to play in documenting and defining who our people once were, where we are today, and what our future may look like. It is well understood that healthy lands are required to support diverse and plentiful wildlife populations and that good water quality and quantity is also key to the continuance of our culture, traditions, and spiritual practices.

Interim Lands Manager, John Bueckert:
jbueckert@blueberryfn.ca 250-224-3272

Divisions

"Established in 2014, the Aboriginal Liaison Program (ALP) is a partnership between Indigenous communities, the BC Oil and Gas Commission, and natural resource agencies." - bcogc.ca

ALP Liaison, Samantha Apsassin: alp@blueberryfn.ca 250-630-2826

This is our second position working in the ALP with the late Dan and Ed Apsassin families. In addition to weekly oil and gas site inspections, Sam also works closely with the Compliance Project Officer on the implementation of weekly construction monitor site visits. During these field reviews, both Sam and Joanna have an opportunity to check in with site supervisors and our Members working on oil and gas construction sites. Sam also offers casual employment opportunities to Members, including real-time referral assessments for forestry and oil and gas. 

Compliance Project Officer, Joanna Chipesia: compliance@blueberryfn.ca 250-630-2819

Joanna is part of the Aboriginal Liaison Program (ALP) which works closely with the provincial government to both identify compliance based community concerns and to conduct weekly oil and gas inspections with our Aboriginal Liaison Project Officer. Joanna works closely with the Davis, Wolf and Yahey family groups. Joanna also works as a liaison connecting our Members with cultural or construction monitor employment opportunities. Other casual employment opportunities include biophysical studies or archeology support.

Restoring and sustaining our cultural heritage for perpetuity

Cultural Protection Manager, Jared Davis: jdavis@blueberryfn.ca 250-262-9980
Jared Davis is a Member of Blueberry River First Nation and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta. Jared has experience with the Conservation Officer Service, BC Public Service and BC Assembly of First Nations. Passing on culture and tradition to the next generation is very important to his approach. His work focused on strengthening the cultural practices and connection to the land. He looks forward to continuing his journey as the Cultural Protection Manager and building capacity for Members to practice their treaty rights to hunt, fish, and trap.

Wildlife Project Officer, Bryan Pyle: bpyle@blueberryfn.ca 250-261-4137

Dane-zaa Project Officer, TBD
Cree Project Officer, TBD
Cultural Resource Project Officer, TBD
Guardians Program, TBD

Leading co-management of natural resources.

Regulatory and Policy Manager, Kelly deCaux:
Kelly has over 25 years' experience working in the Oil & Gas sector as a regulatory professional and project manager for major upstream and downstream projects. As BRFN's Regulatory and Policy Manager, he develops, implements, and supervises review processes for new development applications as well as resource-related policies and procedures to ensure Blueberry continues to lead stewardship of the territory. Kelly also leads the Regulatory and Policy team to ensure Lands Department objectives are achieved by front-line staff.

kdecaux@blueberryfn.ca - 250-224-3273

BC Hydro Project Officer, Patricia Appanah: bchydro@blueberryfn.ca 250-630-2829

Oil and Gas Project Officer, John Bueckert: jbueckert@blueberryfn.ca 250-224-3272
John has lived in the Buick area for over 30 years, comes from an agricultural back ground, with experience in both Oil & Gas and logging industries. John has 10 years’ experience as a Land Agent in the Peace River area of BC, the goal moving forward is to build strong, sustainable relationships with producers in the Treaty 8 territory, and to hold producers accountable to good land management and restoration practices.

Forestry Project Officer, TBD

Junior Forestry Project Officer, TBD

GIS Project Officer, TBD

Junior GIS Project Officer, TBD

Junior Oil and Gas Project Officer, TBD

The Importance of Lands Stewardship

Blueberry River First Nations understands that for good resource decisions to occur that there must be co-management of the natural resources. Without consensus based decision-making and policy development, our Nation can never be certain that our treaty rights interests will be protected. Only our Nation can be land stewards of our territory because only we can define what is required to sustain our cultural heritage for perpetuity.

Our Lands Stewardship Goal

is to sustain Treaty Rights, culture, community, and economies within the context of healthy ecosystems

Two key principles are integral in order for our Nation to reach our land stewardship goal:

Maintain Ecological Integrity

by sustaining the biological richness and services provided by natural terrestrial processes, including the structure, function, and composition of terrestrial, and freshwater aquatic ecosystems at all scales and through time.

Maintain the Integrity of Treaty Right Practices

The ability to practice these rights has been impacted as development has proceeded without direct recognition of this principle. Practical support means that the rights are not infringed but rather that the landscape is managed to maintain or restore respect for treaty rights for hunting, fishing, gathering, ands access to the land and water. 

Plans for Lands and Treaty Rights

Land and Treaty Rights refer to the priorities and actions that strengthen our jurisdictions over our own lands, including traditional territory, reserves lands, fee-simple lands and lands acquired through our Treaty Land Entitlement claim. Our fundamental relationship with the land, tenures, and property rights within our reserves lands and traditional territory are critical to our self-determination and economic development aspirations.

It is Blueberry River First Nations’ priority to manage our traditional territory to balance our community’s cultural and economic values. Development and conservation activities in our territory will meet our community’s values through the following actions: