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Faculty of Graduate Studies

David Krug

  • BSc (Dalhousie University, 2020)

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Science

Topic

Indigenous-led restoration seed supply networks and infrastructures of meaningful socio-ecological restoration in Canada and the Yukon Territory

School of Environmental Studies

Date & location

  • Tuesday, December 2, 2025

  • 9:00 A.M.

  • David Turpin Building

  • Room B255

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Nancy Shackelford, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

  • Dr. Natalie Ban, School of Environmental Studies, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Eve Allen, Program Director, Ecological Health Network 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Kelly Aguirre, Department of Political Science, UVic

     

Abstract

Socio-ecological restoration depends on both ecological and social infrastructures that are responsive to place, culture, and climate. This thesis examines how Indigenous-led restoration seed supply networks, and the native seeds they steward, function as critical socio-ecological infrastructures that enable just, place-based, value-led restoration. The first chapter of this thesis explores how Indigenous-led restoration seed supply organizations and their associated networks, across northern and western Canada, are challenged, sustained, and mobilized. Findings show that these networks provide far more than technical or logistical seed support. They facilitate social and relational infrastructures that connect seed work to community building, stewardship, and healing. Through Indigenous jurisdiction, partnership building, and locally grounded stewardship, these networks advance pluralistic restoration outcomes that are ecologically, socially, and culturally embedded. The second chapter of this thesis investigates germination ecology and provenance-based variation among Yukon and southern Canadian seed sources of Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Yellow Dryas (Dryas drummondii) and Soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis). Germination characteristics varied significantly within and between regional provenances, highlighting the ecological importance of seed sourcing strategies that value local contexts, and the consequential value of regional seed supply networks in their role supporting seed supply. Together, these findings position seeds and the networks that steward them as foundational socio-ecological infrastructures for enabling meaningful socio ecological restoration. By linking ecological function with relational and governance dimensions of seed work, this thesis contributes to the development of restoration frameworks that are ecologically responsive, locally grounded, and guided by Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, and values.

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