Randy Johns, right, manages Boreal Heartland Herbal Products. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Non-Timber Products

Boreal Heartland changes harvest technique to ensure social distancing during pandemic

May 13, 2020 | 5:12 PM

There’s still a harvest planned for Air Ronge’s Boreal Heartland Herbal Products, but it will be done in a new way to keep people closer to home.

That’s according to Keewatin Community Development Association CEO Randy Johns, who said aspects of the harvest had to be done differently this year due to COVID-19. For instance, Boreal Heartland is partnering with Northlands College in the delivery of online training for local pickers. The training will begin in June, but registration will open soon.

“People who take the training, we’ll be able to give them purchase orders for a certain amount of harvested forest products,” Johns said. “Part of the training is they will learn how to set up a small drying shed in their own community in their yard.”

The largest crop harvested by Boreal Heartland is fireweed of which 40,000 pounds were collected in 2018. Once the product is dried, Johns noted it will be picked up by staff and it will decrease the number of people coming to the Air Ronge facility.

In 2019, Boreal Heartland employed 35 people and bought product from 215. Most of those harvesters were from the La Ronge and Pelican Narrows areas, but Johns hopes to expand collection to Île-à-la-Crosse and Hall Lake as well.

Freedom and Flexibility

How App-Based Work Creates Economic Opportunity

Dec 12, 2025

Riderville

Now for the Hard Part

Dec 10, 2025

Seniors Scene

Christmas is Coming

Dec 09, 2025

“This year our goal was to spread it out a little further,” he explained. “With the training, we want to make sure people understand sustainable and respectful harvest of the forest plants. The model will hopefully work out for us, it’s a bit of an experiment. We’re going to go ahead and see what we can get done.”

With many people pushed out of work due to COVID-19, Johns believes there could be an increased interest in harvesting. He said it’s a chance for northerners to make some money, as well as reconnect with nature at the same time.

The main harvest is six weeks and begins in July and winds down the second week in August.

“We’re a northern company and we’re an Indigenous company as well,” Johns said. “We’re giving northerners an opportunity to connect and make a little bit of income.”

–

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno