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Land Restoration

One First Nation Is Taking Back Control Of Their ‘Devastated’ Lands

February 25, 2025 Zoë Yunker, The Tyee. , , , ,
Kasandra Turbide finds her footing on the dry, rocky exterior of Sinkut Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Saik’uz First Nation territory, an hour’s drive west of Prince George. The forest below looks mottled, as if it has been gouged by giant razor blades and painted in shades of yellow and green. “This is what we’ve been up against historically,” says Turbide. “And it’s what we’re trying to save.” Located in the saucer-plate indent of the Nechako Plateau, Saik’uz territory is home to one of B.C.’s few truly wide-open skies. Lumbering glaciers etched its sloping hills millions of years ago, forming fertile valleys threaded with rivers, lakes and wetlands. More recently, the territory became an easy-access buffet for the farming, mining and logging that gripped the region. And now, after a century of persistent development, many of its ecosystems risk collapse.

A Coal Mine Turned Garden Feeds 2,000 Texans Every Month

September 25, 2023 Alejandra Martinez, Next City. , , , ,
Five homeschoolers pick fist-size garlic cloves, green jalapeños, strawberries, squash and kale on a breezy Thursday morning in late June. They’re volunteering at a local food garden where bright orange marigolds attract bees from a local keeper’s hive. The 1-acre garden has yielded about 10,000 pounds of produce for six food pantries since it began harvesting in April 2022. Texan by Nature, which manages the garden and was founded by former First Lady Laura Bush, estimates it has served approximately 2,000 people per month in Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties. Located in Freestone County about 60 miles east of Waco, NRG Dewey Prairie Garden is a part of a massive effort to restore a 35,000-acre lignite coal mine.