Start with the rising sun…and the trees will last forever
Jim Petersen , Founder and President of the non-profit Evergreen Foundation, has been a strong advocate for Indian forestry for more than 30 years. The Foundation has published in-depth reports concerning all four IFMAT reports.
Forest Stewardship Council certificate affirming the sus- tainability of its forest prac- tices. But nothing describes the tribe’s forestry brand more aptly than a Wisdom expressed by Menominee Chief Oshkosh sometime between 1827 and 1858. “Start with the rising sun, and work toward the setting sun, but take only the mature trees, the sick trees, and the trees that have fallen. When you reach the end of the reser vation, turn and cut from the setting sun to the rising sun and the trees will last forever.” Menominee’s honor this
O
ne of the most significant findings in the IFMAT IV report concerns the
long simmering tribal transition from fo- cusing solely on harvesting and manufac- turing timber to a more holistic approach that yields a wide variety of non-timber products that grow in tribal forests. The product mix varies from ber- ries to herbaceous plants, roots, moss, firewood, minerals, fungi, tree bark, sap, leaves, needles, seeds and nuts. They are variously used in foods and medicines – and to maintain cultural traditions and ceremonies and the timeless tribal connection to land and place. Most tribes that own and manage timberland sell their logs on open mar- kets maintained by non-tribal owners. Only two tribes – the Yakama in Wash- ington and the Menominee in Wisconsin – continue to operate large and diverse wood product manufacturing facilities. The Menominee mill at Neopit, Wisconsin employs about 160 tribal members and manufactures lumber, ve- neer, several wood byproducts, including pulpwood, and a long list of value-added products that it sells on both domestic and international markets. It markets to flooring manufacturers, wood brokers, exporters, lumber yards and window, door, cabinet, furniture and pallet makers. The tribe’s 217,000-acre commer- cial forest features 13 forest types and includes ten hardwood and softwood tree species. Among them: sugar maple, yel- low birch, red oak, basswood, beech, and aspen, hemlock, red pine, swamp pine, and an abundance of eastern white pine. Although the Menominee tribe’s milling operations are very impressive, its beautiful forests are the tribe’s cultur- al and economic anchors. We toured them several years ago as guests of the Menominee’s and the Intertribal Council. You will find no visible evidence that these forests serve any commercial pur- pose. Such are the subtleties of forestry in Indian Country. The tribe’s website www.mtewood. com goes to great lengths to explain its approach to forestry – including its prized
wisdom today by integrating advanced science, technology and business practices with the tribe’s cultural, spiritual and historic roots. The tribe’s land ethic is so different from that of other forest landowners in Wisconsin that their forest boundaries can easily be seen from space in satellite imagery. Some 1,800 miles west in central Washington lies the 1.2-million-acre Yakama Nation. It includes 650,000 acres of forest and wood- lands that tribal members believe were given to them by their Creator for their perpetual use. The Yakama tribe’s website – see QR code – itemizes 15 interlocking goals that form the spiritual, cultural, and economic cornerstones of the tribe’s way of life: • Provide and protect critical habitat for salmon • Create habitat and opportunities for big game • Enhance medicines and provide healing stories • Build cultural resilience, strong lead ers, identity though stewardship, ac tive management, and the shared lessons of multiple generations • Reconnect with Mother Earth and traditions • Offer a foundational knowledge of natural foods • Exemplify giving between the earth and people • Improve Yakama spiritual health and tranquility
Tribal logger felling hardwood, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
Yakama tribal leaders believe their for- est planning process, which began in 1942, must be rooted in solid forest science and that its economic investments in land, timber and wood processing must also rec- ognize the cultural, spiritual and medicinal needs of tribal generations unborn. The tribe completed its first commer- cial harvest in 1948, four years after the planning process began. Harvesting rose steadily until the 1970s, then gradually fell back to its present day level. Today, standing timber volume in Ya- kama forests totals eight billion board feet, nearly three times what it was in the 1890s, a tribute to tribal tenacity in the face of nu- merous setbacks including the disastrous 1994 wildfire season. So much timber was burnt that the tribe decided to build its small log mill to salvage its losses. It opened at White Salm- on in 1998. Three years later, they bought 30,000 acres of timberland from Interna- tional Paper Company, paid off their small log mill debt, began construction of a large log mill and bought another 8,000 acres of timberland.
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