2021 Manoomin Workshop Proceedings
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Lake Michigan-Huron Manoomin/Mnomen/Mnoomin/Manomae Workshop Gimaada’oonidimin manoomini-gikendaasowin (We share wild rice knowledge) January 26-28, 2021 Objectives/Outcomes: ● Share cultural considerations for restoration, impacts from hunting practices, ● Share and discuss genetics research ● Share work on manoomin ecosystem services ● Reinforce the cultural roles/significance of manoomin in restoration and monitoring work ● Report on final geographies for data collection ● Issues and Actions - geese predation, genetics, future support from NOAA, strengthening inter-tribal knowledge sharing Slidedecks here - ftp://ftp.coast.noaa.gov/pub/manoomin/workshop2021/presentations/ Note: FTP site does not work with the latest version of Google Chrome. Day 1 - Understanding Manoomin/Mnomen Welcome and Opening Ceremony - Heather Stirratt (NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management) and Lauren Dey (Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians) Heather Stirratt - Welcome and boozhoo! Thank you for joining us. We are particularly grateful for Lauren Dey’s leadership and support as this meeting’s co-host. Lauren Dey - Chi-miigwech. Recognizing virtual format is not ideal, but glad we have this option. Would like to share a video produced by her colleague Spencer to open the workshop with a prayer and welcome all to this week’s meeting to honor and learn about this important plant. Recorded welcome featuring Renee Dillard: https://youtu.be/fQqxjZx7KRk. Heather Stirratt - Thank you to Lauren, Spencer, and especially Renee for sharing this beautiful video. We are pleased to have this option to gather during challenging times when being together in person is not possible. We are joined by participants from the four states bordering the two target lake basins - people have joined from Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Thank you to the NOAA staff helping to pull off this virtual gathering. 1 Map of workshop attendees’ locations provided in their workshop registration. Why is NOAA leading this engagement? Started in Lake Superior with FY’17 GLRI funds to work with BIA; we started by listening. Want to make sure that people have access to wild rice and can experience it, that the ecological role of wild rice is understood and preserved, but especially that the cultural context and tribal community needs are expressed. Convening - three workshops helped identify and share restoration, monitoring, and research efforts and needs. Outreach and Education - We heard that there was a persistent need for outreach - for example, landowners not respecting wild rice on their property in exchange for an unencumbered view. What does wild rice look like? What should people do to respect it? Also, how can both tribal nations and others reconnect to wild rice traditions through wild rice camps? Cultural and Ecosystem Study - what are the ecological services that wild rice provides? How do tribal nations value wild rice? We’ll share the details of this study later today to see if there is an interest in exploring something similar in the Lake Michigan-Huron basin. GIS and Remote Sensing - finally, we sought input on needs for mapping of wild rice and were able to fill some of those data gaps. Something very exciting since our last workshop is the addition of Jen Ballinger to the NOAA OCM team; we are very grateful for her leadership and engagement with all of you in the preparation for this gathering. COVID has changed our ability to meet in person, and also the level of effort. This virtual meeting has taken about three times as many staff as previous in-person meetings. We cannot commit to another such workshop remotely at this time; if we can gather in person safely, we 2 can explore that option down the road. Are we recording this week? No. There may be some conversations that come up that some folks would not be comfortable sharing or having recorded. What we will commit to is sharing results of what we learn together this week, to the extent you are comfortable with your work being shared more broadly. Break question: How do folks feel about the lack of ice on the Great Lakes this season? Are there any other climate related concerns related to wild rice that you’re noticing/concerned about? Wyatt Szpliet: the pole shift may be causing some climate change in the great lakes Peter David: In my area, we have been in a bit of a winter drought, which I think is good, but warm temps are a concern; a good hard winter seems to correlate with better crops. Allison Smart - LRBOI: warm temps and lack of ice cover are a concern not just for manoomin, but other native species. Dani Fegan: The ice has finally started to fill in on the St. Marys River, with more single digit lows expected this week. Nobody has been fishing out near our house yet, though. Kaylene Ritter: I grew up in northern Ontario, on a small lake. It was unheard of ever seeing the lake to go through thaws during the winter, in the past 5 years, this has started to happen - never ever seen the ice melt in Jan/Feb before - very unusual Panel Presentation: State of Manoomin in Lake Michigan/Huron ● Peter David, GLIFWC (Moderator) ● Jennifer Kanine, Pokagon Band (Panel) ● Lauren Dey, LTBB (Panel) ● Allison Smart, LRBOI (Panel) We have three panelists here today to share with us some of their insights and expertise they’ve gained from working with manoomin across the Lake Michigan-Huron basin. Moderating today is Peter David, a Wildlife Biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. Lauren Dey is a Water Quality Biologist who works for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians whose lands today are in the northern lower Peninsula of Michigan. Dr. Jennifer Kanine is the Director of Natural Resources for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. While the band is located near Dowagiac, Michigan, the tribe is working extensively throughout southwestern Michigan and even into the Indiana portion of the basin. Our final panelist is Allison Smart. Allison works for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians as their Environmental Division Manager. Little River is also in Michigan’s lower peninsula, south of LTBB and north of Pokagon and near where both northern and southern wild rice grow. 3 I hope this sets the stage for us to jump in and get a holistic overview of manoomin in the basin. Let’s start with a little more about our panelists from our panelists with our first question: What are some of the challenges you’ve seen in wild rice restoration and monitoring work in the Lake Michigan-Huron basin? Jennifer - Many challenges, both human and wildlife. For humans, lack of awareness and education, leading to lack of respect for manoomin. They want to cut or treat manoomin for views, drive through beds with boats, causing damage with motors or damage from wakes, climate change (storm intensity & frequency and watershed flashiness can quickly change water level - can damage the plants, particularly at vulnerable life stages. Brown spot can also increase with climate change. Wildlife can have big impacts, especially waterfowl. Flowers can get stunted from overgrazing. Muskrats and beavers can impact manoomin stands as well. Carp prevent reseeding efforts; they just eat the rice. Aquatic Invasive Species- phragmites, outcompete manoomin, especially in stands where it’s monogenetic. There are also some native plants that can outcompete manoomin as well. Allison - Jennifer has captured almost 99% of the issues. Another challenge is determining which species to plant, being on the frontier of Z. aquatica (southern rice) and Z. palustris (northern rice). Challenge getting access to manoomin seed for restoration. There are challenges of where to store manoomin where homeowners perceive manoomin as weeds and don’t want to support the work. Lauren - LTBB only has a few stands that have sizable rice stands in their service area. They struggle to figure out what conditions are the best for rice to grow. Often have to travel to get to other stands. Have been doing work on figuring out the right water quality, sedimentation. Education is a big challenge. Not many know that there is wild rice in the area so they’ve been working on getting the word out on that. Followup, what about the geese population? It can be hard for some people to understand they have a negative impact even though they’re part of the ecosystem. All - Education is needed to reestablish ricing culture. Can you share an example of a successful wild rice project in your community? Allison - Has had some success. Talked about Arcadia Lake restoration project. As they worked on the channel, not targeting wild rice, but wild rice just popped up. Likely due to lowering the water levels . Monitoring program- have been monitoring for about 9 years this field season. Collecting a lot 4 of data on bed fluctuations, locations, being able to compare year to year which is useful for seasonal impacts like storms. Lauren: Not sure if they can label anything a success yet. LTBB is establishing a monitoring program but more focused on trying to find rice/where rice could grow. Want to hire a staff person to go out and check out various waterbodies. But really looking forward to getting their long-term data set started. Jennifer - Prior to 2015, restoration in Pokagon band was using seed from N. MN, but weren’t seeing a lot of growth. Did not appear to be enough genetic plasticity for it to grow in SW MI and NE IN. They then seeded with local manoomin for three years and established 3 acres of wild rice in tribal waterbodies, up from 0.25 acres cumulatively prior to that.