Whether impacted by catastrophic natural disturbances, such as wildfires, or direct anthropogenic disturbances, such as road-building (or both), our public forest lands are suffering from an attention deficit. And some of our most vulnerable communities, particularly Indigenous ones, are suffering as a result.
In compromised ecosystems, Indigenous communities are affected by having less land access for traditional uses, less habitat for fish and wildlife, less economic diversity, fewer job opportunities, declines in essential social services, and an increasing urban-rural divide.
A huge opportunity exists to regenerate northern communities and our landscapes while mitigating the climate crisis through high-impact carbon sequestration at a national scale.
That is the hope, and promise, of Seed.TheNorth.
OUR WORK
Our approach aims to dramatically increase regeneration of disturbed land through seeding Canada’s north; to boost germination rates; to make a statistically significant contribution to carbon sequestration; to restore soil health; and to ensure that forest communities are the principal beneficiaries of the regeneration of lands and waters they call home.
Our core business is biochar-based seed encasement, wild-stand seed collection, and drone dissemination.
Seed, aerially and manually sown in the late fall, grows into biodiverse landscapes in the spring.
Seed The North:
+ Develops biochar-based seed encasing, which make seeds drought-resilient and predation-resistant to increase germination rates in northern landscapes.
+ Sells wild-stand biochar-coated seed to tree nurseries and ecological restoration professionals while supporting those organizations to bolster their collection capacity and business models.
+ Hires and trains seed collectors and processors in northern communities, with a focus on Indigenous practices and Indigenous knowledge.
+ Collects, develops and disseminates these seeds with a carbon removal supply-chain.
+ Reduces industry emissions through biochar made from slash pile and other waste wood.
OUR
METHODOLOGY
Innovation: We support innovation at a community level through training, hiring and creating co-ownership opportunities for First Nations and other local citizens. Our approach to seed collecting and encasing is also innovative. We are using a clean tech approach to make seeds resilient, developing a biochar-based coating to optimize germination outcomes.
Investment: We aim, literally, to share the wealth. Our investment model is designed to capitalize Indigenous co-ownership from the outset, rather than promising “benefits” at some point in the future. Our investments and any returns will front-load Indigenous participation wherever we are invited to operate.
Inspiration: We work to spread our ideas like seeds, stimulating other community-integrated enterprises that support their landscape-dependent communities. We want to scale our impact through replication. Our open source research and development, and our open platform business model, can inspire other natural resource industries to understand how benefits can be derived and shared on the lands that support us.
