By KELLY LOUISEIZE
Sometimes the solution is just beyond the front door.
In Bearskin Lake First Nation’s case, the quest to build new homes within the community that is only accessible by ice or air was answered when a report suggested the residents harvest lumber from their traditional forest.
Bearskin Lake First Nation, located 425 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout, had to find alternative ways to build 50 single-storey, three-bedroom houses when the government and community realized the cost of transporting the material to the remote reserve would be too expensive. That was when Lakehead University’s Dr. Mathew Leitch, assistant professor in wood science and operator of the Lakehead University Wood Science & Testing Facility, decided to take this project on.
With approximately $12,000 from FedNor, Leitch examined the possibility of using trees on the reserve to actually build the houses.
He flew to the community and extracted wood samples to be tested at the university laboratory. His specialty is in wood quality and mechanical property testing.
“We tested the wood to see if it was suitable for building houses under construction grade lumber,” Leitch says.
From there, strategies were established on how the community would produce the material needed from the raw fibre. One of the report’s recommendations was to utilize portable equipment. For instance, portable band saw mills with high output and portable kilns heated and fired by outdoor boilers were suggested. Users could hook it up to the back of the vehicle and transport it where needed.
“All the scraps from the milling, feed the boiler, which heats your kiln as well as your production.”
Inevitably, some material would still need to be brought up, but the bulk of the framing lumber, flooring and tongue and groove paneling can be finished within the community.
“For possibly $100,000 or a bit more Bearskin could have a portable kiln, portable mills and the ability to produce their own houses.”
People living on the reserve will be involved in the harvesting, transporting, milling and manufacturing of products. Therefore, there is a potential for many of them to learn a trade and to actually stay on the reserve, Leitch says. Moreover, Bearskin First Nation could be the leader and a model for other Far North communities.
“They could set up shop for a couple of months, do work for them and then pick it up and move on.”
Obviously, there is an investment to get the project started, but the cost of the equipment would be far less than sending lumber up, Leitch says.
Joe Nothing, developer, and other residents from the community are reading the final report now.
Bearskin First Nation traditional lands overlap the new Provincial Opasquia Park. North of the 50th parallel communities want high-value products coming from the untapped portions of the Boreal Forest. Because it is one of the slowest growing forests in Ontario, it has one of the highest quality grades in the world.
