The forest in front of shíshálh Nation longhouse was alive with volunteers Friday morning, as they hauled out fallen foliage and debris, and trimmed dried branches from the bottom of the trees.
Everett August, marketing and communications coordinator for tsain-ko Corporation, said the massive effort was part of a fire mitigation cleanup on the longhouse grounds.
“What we're doing is just fire smarting the longhouse grounds to ensure its safety in the events of a wildfire,” August told Coast Reporter. “So, we're picking up any fallen debris that would act as a fuel source in the events of a fire, and limbing up the trees to stop the vertical spread. This is one of our sacred spaces within the shíshálh culture. It's the only one that we have, so we want to protect it as much as possible.”
Volunteer Ian McDonald explained the cleanup was part of tsain-ko Corporation’s “Serve Your swiya” initiative. tsain-ko represents the business sector of the shíshálh Nation. Founded in 2010, the corporation comprises 11 companies including commercial and residential real estate, forestry, fishing, trucking, concrete, clean energy and land development.
“As we know, Squamish is on fire and that’s not that far from here,” said McDonald. “So, we're really trying to focus on protecting the longhouse, because it is obviously a fairly sacred heritage site.”
August said the group of volunteers was made up from members of shíshálh Nation, tsain-ko Corporation, Sunshine Coast Community Forest, Salish Soils, Sunshine Coast Elder College, Restorative Justice Program of the Sunshine Coast, and FireSmart coordinator for the Sunshine Coast Regional District, David McIlwraith. Coast Bin Rentals donated the use of a half-dozen large containers, most of which had already been filled in less than two-hours, Friday morning.
“These are all people of the community, people who value the community they live in,” said August. “So, they're all looking for a way to contribute for the betterment of the community that we all share. And these are all businesses within the community that want to see the community thrive. So, it's amazing to see everybody out here.”
August noted the cleanup was only scheduled to continue until noon, but he and many others were prepared to stay as long as it took to get the job finished. He added, while the focus of the event was fire mitigation, another goal was to bring people together.
“It was designed it to bring community together, specifically the greater community within tsain-ko and shíshálh Nation, bringing everybody together to do something for the betterment of the community,” said August. “And we chose FireSmart because it’s so relevant.”
