Notice from First Nations Wildcrafters
If you are in the Port Alberni area and harvest traditional plants, medicines or wild foods please pay attention to the locations in this press release where these mining exploration soil disturbances have taken place. There is a very real potential for heavy metal contamination that may cause a risk to people using plants harvested from these disturbed areas.
Some plants (particularly mushrooms) are what are called "bio-accumulators". That means that they take up heavy metals from the soils. Some species from which roots are harvested may also be a high risk due to the disturbances of heavy metals from these mining exploration activities.
If you are harvesting in these areas it would be advisable to look for and avoid harvesting traditional foods, medicines or wild foods where you see any soil disturbances or other indicators that would show that heavy metals were disturbed and released.
Since vegetation will potentially recover through time, it may be a good idea to document where you see the potential contaminated areas for your future reference to avoid the potentially contaminated gathering site.
This is an unfortunate but excellent example of the need to do Harvest Site Risk Assessments.
Please see this link for information http://www.equitasresources.com/exploration/49-equitas-resources-announces-three-jays-2013-field-program-results-for-nahmint-copper-gold-property-near-port-alberni-bc.html
