Appendix 3
trust by the US government. The resulting elimination of access to historically abundant and diverse natural resources within historic homelands and additional disturbances by European settlers had substantial long term impacts to traditional Cherokee ways of life (Cooley 2002, Vick 2011). Although today’s EBCI land base is extremely diminished in size, comprised of approximately 56,000 acres in western North Carolina, these lands and waters continue to support diverse communities of fish, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. This biological diversity continues to shape Cherokee identity with many species playing critical roles in recreation, arts, medicine, ceremonies, and stories. Fully functioning ecosystems supported by diverse wildlife also provide many tangible and lucrative benefits to the Cherokee community collectively known as “ecosystem services”. These services include processes such as the production of food, maintenance of clean drinking water, decomposition of wastes and pollutants, nutrient cycling and soil formation, pest and disease control, and crop pollination (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). When natural systems are not functioning properly due to degraded wildlife populations and their habitats, they lose the ability to provide these benefits, which can be very costly to Cherokee society. Therefore, sustaining fish and wildlife populations and their interrelationships with the environment in a changing world, both within and outside of modern political boundaries, is an integral part of sustaining the welfare of the Cherokee community. The continued preservation of ecosystem integrity is increasingly challenging as human populations grow and associated pressures on fish and wildlife resources expand. Major threats to fish and wildlife include habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species and disease, pollution, over-exploitation, and climate change (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, Yang et al. 2015). Collectively, these conservation challenges not only continue to pose risks to EBCI fish and wildlife populations, but increasingly jeopardize the ecological, cultural, and economic benefits they provide to the EBCI community. Meeting these modern challenges through the implementation of strategic planning initiatives, informed by science and traditional ecological knowledge, will be critical to sustaining the benefits fish and wildlife resources provide to the people of Cherokee.
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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