Dating and interpreting pine cambium collection scars from two parts of the Nechako River drainage, British Columbia

Pine cambium is a food resource that was regularly utilized by foraging populations of the interior of British Columbia from at least AD 1790 to 1950. The scars left on living pine trees (Culturally Modified Trees, or CMTs) by cambium stripping are directly datable evidence for this subsistence activity by utilizing forestry increment borers to extract cores. Further, pine cambium is generally regarded as a marginal, or supplementary resource, with changes in the frequency of cambium collection being related to natural cycles in the abundance of staple resources. This paper discusses the dating of these subsistence features, and in comparing two areas of the Nechako River drainage of British Columbia, suggests that pine cambium was more intensively utilized in areas lacking salmon, the staple of the greater region. Copyright 2001 Academic Press