Cree students Kristopher Neeposh and Rory Henry-Felstead won first place at the 2024 Quebec Indigenous Science Fair for their project looking at natural fire retardants in the boreal forest. They turned to Cree knowledge keepers for much advice.
GATINEAU, Que.—If plants can start fires, can they also stop them?
That was the question two Cree community students started wondering about. And it was the title the two students, Kristopher Neeposh and Rory Henry-Felstead, from Nemaska, Quebec, used for the project they entered in the 2024 Quebec Indigenous Science Fair earlier this year.
And by exploring that question, their project ended up winning first place.
The project was birthed as a result of forest fires their community has faced. "We want to find a more natural and biochemical way to stop [forest fires]," 16-year-old Neeposh told...
