Black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) and buffaloberry/soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis) are among the most important food sources for grizzly bears in British Columbia's interior forests, and they carry deep cultural and nutritional significance for Indigenous communities. This government grant–funded project, completed in November 2025, modeled how forest structure, logging practices, site conditions, and climate influence the cover and berry abundance of these shrubs — and what that means for wildlife habitat and ecosystem function.
The work applied statistical modeling and geospatial analysis to ecological datasets, producing management-relevant guidance and two manuscripts currently in press.
The research was commissioned by the Province of British Columbia (Ministry of Forests — Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development), with Dr. Garth Mowat, the Province's Large Carnivore Specialist, as Ministry Representative. The contracts were awarded to Hamilton Ecological Consulting (Evelyn Hamilton). Dr. Julia Chandler was the quantitative ecologist subcontracted to compile the underlying data from government records, conduct the analyses, and write the reports and extension notes.
Hamilton Ecological Consulting →
Black huckleberry: implications of logging, site and climatic factors on plant cover and berry abundance in British Columbia.
Buffaloberry: implications of logging, site and climatic factors on plant cover and berry abundance in British Columbia.
Selected publicly available research on these berries — their composition, ecology, traditional uses by First Peoples, and importance to wildlife. These works are by other authors, included here as background.
Compositional analysis and characterization of black huckleberry and soapberry: two culturally significant berries for Indigenous communities of the Pacific Northwest.
Food Chemistry: X.
Synthesizing current knowledge on the ecology, phenology, and cultivation of Vaccinium membranaceum (black huckleberry).
Plants, People, Planet.
Effects of bear endozoochory on germination and dispersal of huckleberry in the Canadian Rocky Mountains — how grizzly bears act as long-distance seed dispersers.
PLOS ONE, 19(11): e0311809.
Soapberry — Foods Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere: traditional preparation and use (including “Indian ice-cream”).
University of Kansas (educational resource).