The Birch Bark Canoe Step 2

The Birch Bark Canoe Step 2

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday September 26, 2011

By Kevin Brownlee, past Curator of Archaeology

 

I woke up at 6:00 am to get a good start on the day. Grant was already up and we decided to get out to the spruce bog early to gather roots. We needed to gather 250 feet of roots to make 500 feet of finished split roots. The estimate was 5 feet of roots for each rib, 40 ribs require 200 feet and the seams to be sewn would require the other 50 feet.

The bog was relatively dry and the moss was like a thick mattress over the spruce roots. Digging spruce roots does not hurt the trees.  The bog where we gathered the roots has been used by Grant for many years and the trees are very healthy. After a few hours we gathered 250 feet of roots and we headed back to Grant and Christy’s place to prepare the roots.

All photographs from this entry are the property of Kevin Brownlee (personal collection)

An individual in the brush and bog at the base of a grove of spruce trees.

Grant digging roots.

 

Three individuals working together to wrap and roll a large bundle of red-brown roots.

Grant Jim and Kevin rolling up 250 feet of roots.

A smiling bearded man wearing a flat cap holding a bushel of wrapped red-brown roots.

Grant with full roll of roots 250 feet in length.

The roots were boiled to speed up the peeling process, once they boiled for an hour Myra and I began to peal and split the roots.

A smiling individual in a baseball cap holding a coil of red-brown roots in a metal tub of steaming water.

Kevin with pot of boiling spruce roots.

Two smiling individuals seated in folding chairs in a clearing surrounded by trees. Both hold coils of roots.

Kevin and Myra pealing spruce roots.

Jim and Grant made the building frame and started to prepare the bark. Only two sheets of birch bark were used to make the canoe. Once the sheets were cut to match each other and the building frame was placed over top weighted down with cinder blocks. The bark was cut from the outer edge to the building frame (called gores) to allow the bark to form fit the canoe shape. The bark was then folded up and held in place by wooden stakes.

Two individuals under an open-sided tent, laying out stretches of birchbark on makeshift tables of plywood across saw horses.

The wooden frame of a canoe laid on a sheet of birch bark beneath and open-sided tent in a wooden area.

Grant with canoe building frame on top of bark.

A group of coiled beige roots in a metal bucket.

Pealed and split spruce roots ready for sewing.

We finished pealing the roots and splitting them before the end of the day and Grant started making the inner gunwales, outer gunwales and gunwale caps. While we made great progress on the canoe in one day of work it was far from looking like a canoe.

Museum Stories: Archaeology

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When is a Human Like a Bison?

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Monday September 12, 2011

A lot of conservation initiatives around the world involve fencing off areas to “protect” the wild species contained within. Although that strategy can work well in ecosystems that are rarely disturbed, like tropical rainforests, it doesn’t work as well in ecosystems that evolved with natural disturbances. North American prairies used to contain migratory herbivores (e.g. bison, antelope) that consumed large quantities of the vegetation. Bison are unique in that they also engaged in extensive wallowing activities, creating permanent bowl-shaped depressions on the landscape. Old journal entries from some of the first European explorers describe bison herds as taking days to pass and leaving huge swaths of trampled and disturbed soil in their wake. Wild fires following drought and lightning strikes were also common. Native annual plants like ragweed, goosefoot, and bugseeds were likely adapted to colonize these disturbed areas.

A bison among a herd in prairie landscape.

Some human activities mimic those of bison.

Close up of a low-growing patch of buffalograss.

Buffalograss benefits from heavy grazing.

Nowadays certain human-related disturbances mimic those of the bison. Cattle grazing is somewhat similar to bison grazing and is likely responsible for the continued persistent of the rare Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides) in the Souris River valley. Without grazing, Buffalograss would likely be outcompeted by taller grasses and exotic weeds.

In sand dune habitats, where I was doing field work last week, I found rare plants like Bugseeds (Corispermum sp.), Hairy Prairie Clover (Dalea villosa), Winged Pigweed (Cycloloma atriplicifolium) and Bearded Nut-sedge (Cyperus squarrosus) growing on the sandy edges of gravel roads, on fire guards, in sand pits, and on beach dunes where the feet of many a bikini-clad pedestrian had trodden. Clearly certain human activities can help provide habitat for these rare annuals, acting if you will as substitutes for wild bison.

 

Image: Trampling by humans may help create habitat for rare bugseed plants at Grand Beach.

Although a moderate amount of disturbance is necessary to create the habitat these rare plants need, too much disturbance is a bad thing. I was unable to relocate some of the historical populations of bugseeds because the areas where they had grown in the past were now heavily impacted by humans and our machinery, being dominated by weeds introduced to Canada from Europe and Asia. Clearly, finding the right balance of disturbance, not too much and not too little, is important for the conservation of certain rare plants.

Sand dunes, edged by trees, next to a gravel road on the lower right corner of the frame.

Dune cutaways along roadsides in sandy areas provide habitat for rare bugseed plants.

A small spikey plant growing in sandy ground.

Bearded nutsedge grows on bare sand.

The observation that disturbances are sometimes beneficial has led many scientists to conclude that both controlled burns and the re-introduction of bison (or the tolerance of cattle grazing) is essential for the conservation of prairie habitats. Sand dunes are in particular need of disturbance as nearly a quarter of the rare species on Canada’s endangered species list are restricted to open or lightly vegetated sand dunes. Less than 1% of the sand dune ecosystems in the prairies consist of open dunes. So ironically, protecting a species may mean tolerating and even facilitating a little bit of what appears to be destruction.

 

Image: Winged pigweed grows on natural sand dunes and on fireguards at CFB Shilo.

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson

Museum Stories: Botany

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