Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) Chief Garry Feschuk and other Band members celebrated the launch of their new agricultural training program with a traditional blessing on Thursday, July 7.
The SIB, in conjunction with Lehigh Northwest Materials, First Nations Employment Society and Salish Soils, were on hand to launch their community demonstration garden and agricultural training program. The program is designed to help develop Sechelt First Nations expertise in the area of garden development and vegetable production.
Because of his extensive experience at running garden training projects for other First Nations communities, Dave Ryan has been contracted as manager and instructor for the program.
Ryan has extensive experience in this area and through his training has encouraged a number of his former students to actively pursue careers in the agricultural field.
The demonstration garden is located on a two-hectare plot at the entrance to the Lehigh site. The program includes both classroom and hands-on training to teach the basics of community and commercial garden production utilizing agricultural techniques based on the use of natural organic-based soils. The project, including the educational component, will run for a six-month period.
"The program will provide students with the basics for vegetable production at both the theoretical and practical level as well as provide a good understanding of natural agricultural techniques utilizing organic soils," Ryan said. "The soils are produced by Salish Soils at their new composting facility located adjacent to the gardens."
As part of the initial program, local expertise will be contracted to provide trainees with an introduction to the development of special blends of different soils that support the growing conditions of specific vegetable crops. This is an important component of the training as it emphasizes the importance of soils in maximizing the natural growth of strong healthy-organically cultivated crops, without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
"This project is all about community - the entire community on the Sunshine Coast," said Aaron Joe, president and CEO of Salish Soils. "Sustainability of our lands and our food supply is all our concern. Through this training program and through the support of sustainable enterprises such as our state of the art Gore Cover composting facility, we hope to play a small role in contributing to the future growth and sustainability of the entire Coast."
Feschuk expressed his thanks to Lehigh and the First Nations Agricultural Training fund for their generous contributions.
"The garden training program is another step in helping the SIB reposition our economy to focus on sound environmental stewardship and long-term sustainable development for the youth of our community," Feschuk said. "We invite all the communities of the Sunshine Coast Regional District to join with us as we lay the foundation for a new economy."
-Submitted
