N’Sis’ooloxw Project

2020

$159,255

$30,000

The N’sis’ooloxw Project aims to restore the N’sis’ooloxw watershed corridor to the biofiltration operating capacity of a diverse ecological sywstem that would reflect an old-growth condition. Prior projects have focused on the lower .75 km of the N’Sis’ooloxw creek, revealing scattered pockets of diverse ecosystems with high importance to the Indigenous north Okanagan, the Sqilxw, people. Time is precious, and our pilot projects suggest that we can save thousands of years by integrating Indigenous, and specifically, Sqilxw, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and forest caregiving practices with science and technology that is complimentary to Sqilxw beliefs and ethics. We aim to regenerate the N’Sis’ooloxw Creek to the pre-1820’s time period when the forest held last an old-growth forest condition, with the capacity to shield, store, and filter large quantities of water through plant bodies, mycelial mats, and soils of the holistic living system. We aim to restore Indigenous habitat alongside the eco-ethnography held in the oral history of Sqilxw People of the North Okanagan.