Seeding our Future with Sweetgrass

While forests often take the spotlight, grasslands quietly capture carbon and fight climate change. These ecosystems sequester up to three tons of carbon per hectare every year, locking it deep in the soil. Imagine the potential: vast, resilient landscapes working like natural carbon vaults.

Our journey to better understand the role that Sweetgrass can play as a natural mitigator of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and an adaptation strategy to drought, was born from a collaboration with the oldest Blackfoot community in the world, the Piikani Nation. As part of our long-term partnership coined ‘Sūṗii⸱ṗo’omaaksin,’ by Elder Big Bull, which in Blackfoot means ‘in the spirit of planting seeds,’ we are working together to explore how Sweetgrass can strengthen climate resilience.

Elder Peter Strikes with a Gun blessing Sweetgrass before passing it to a Piikani youth in a transfer ceremony. Photo Credit: ReGeneration.

Focusing on Sweetgrass, a culturally significant plant that’s been largely overlooked in land-use planning since colonization, we’re restoring biodiversity and exploring its potential to naturally sequester carbon.

The real innovation with this initiative is how we are bridging two worlds—Indigenous wisdom and cutting-edge science. Developing an understanding of Sweetgrass isn’t just about seeking solutions to climate change; it’s a model of reconciliation—showing how collaboration and community-driven projects can lead to innovative and meaningful outcomes for both people and the planet.

Over the next few years, we will facilitate engagements with Indigenous partners and surrounding communities to learn more about what Sweetgrass needs to thrive. Think of Sweetgrass as an archetype for transformative approaches to addressing climate change. This story is just starting to unfold. Through Sūṗii⸱ṗo’omaaksin, we’re cultivating knowledge, collaboration, and a future where Indigenous wisdom and Western science grow together, rooted deeply in the land.

Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.