By Brett Fessell
Brett is River Restoration Ecologist for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and a member of FLOW’s Board of Directors.
Modern forest management practices and policies, such as wildfire control, have had significant impacts on the diversity, resiliency, and productivity of forest communities in the Great Lakes region when compared to pre-settlement forest conditions. Some of the impacts include:
Brett Fessell
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Reduction in species diversity
Prior to European settlement, the Great Lakes region displayed a highly diverse mix of tree species reflecting local climate, geologic and hydrologic conditions. However, modern forest management practices, such as fire suppression and clear-cutting, have led to a reduction in species diversity. For example, in some areas, oak and hickory forests have been replaced by monoculture stands of pine or other fast-growing and often invasive species.
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Decreased resilience to disturbances
Long before Europeans arrived, fire was a natural part of the Great Lakes forest ecosystem. Indigenous peoples used fire to manage the landscape, and lightning-caused fires were also common. This frequent burning helped to create a mosaic of habitats and maintain a diverse and resilient forest ecosystem. However, modern forest management practices, such as fire suppression, have led to an accumulation of fuel and increased risk of catastrophic wildfires. Additionally, monoculture stands of trees are less resilient to pests and disease outbreaks, which can lead to large-scale tree mortality
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Reduced productivity
Historically, the Great Lakes region supported highly productive forest ecosystems that provided a wide range of resources for Indigenous peoples, including timber, food, and medicine. However, modern forest management practices, such as clear-cutting and high-grading, have led to a reduction in forest productivity. In addition, the loss of diverse habitats has led to imbalances in wildlife diversity and abundance, which can have cascading effects on the productivity of the ecosystem.
In sum, modern forest management practices and policies have had significant impacts on the diversity, resiliency, and productivity of forest communities in the Great Lakes region when compared to pre-settlement forest conditions. While many contemporary forest management practices, such as selective logging and prescribed fire, can help to restore forest health and diversity, there is a need for greater consideration and application of the knowledge found in the deep history of traditional tribal forest management practices and policies.
Learning to Listen
On a beautiful spring morning, I had the honor and pleasure to spend a bit of time thumbing through the pages of time in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with Damon Gizhiibide Aanakwad Panek of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Interlochen Public Radio reporter Patrick Shea, seeing for myself what secrets might be revealed in the northern hardwood and pine communities found near the precious waters of Lake Michigan. What was shared with me was compelling, telling, and plainly intuitive to an ecologist of any flavor.
Relying on little more than the power of observation, attention to detail, and basic modes of deduction it was easy to see and comprehend the logic and reasoning behind “pre” historic forestry practices based on Indigenous intuition and knowledge informed by eons of first-hand field experience. Knowledge that would contribute positively to Western science modes of answering questions and solving environmental problems.
Like pages in time, even trees not rendered to paper can tell stories from deep time.
In the coastal forests of the Great Lakes there are ancient stories crafted long ago and held by corresponding Indigenous knowledge keepers of the Great Lakes over how fire was used traditionally and regularly to manage and promote important habitats for plant and animal species like miinan (blueberry), miskomin (raspberries), ode’min (strawberry), wahwashkesh (deer), bine (ruffed grouse), and countless other beings of cultural, medicinal and subsistence importance to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
The stories told in these trees even tell of times when variations of climate and weather shaped the ecological landscape we so enjoy and appreciate today. Reading deeper, the bookmarks of fire scars among the growth rings of trees and ancient stumps share their ‘data’ supporting stories told both by the land itself as well as living elders like berry chiefs who have the honorable responsibility of holding and sharing knowledge of countless ancestors before. Knowledge including important matters like the timing of harvest and reciprocal care (management) of that land through the ancient judicious application of fire in a prescribed fashion.
Such prescriptions may be called “cultural burns” in that they are planned and implemented based on the collective knowledge gained through “two-eyed seeing” which considers both observations and data collected by scientists like Damon studying dendrochronology (the study of tree rings and time) and forest ecology coupled with knowledge held and passed down for generations by tribal elders bestowed with such observational ‘data’ from deep time. In some cases, first-hand knowledge of exactly when, where, why, and how fire was set upon the landscape in relatively recent time (within a generation or two) can be cross-referenced and validated with the burn scars observed on both living trees and the remains (stumps) of their ancestors.
“There is a need for greater consideration and application of the knowledge found in the deep history of traditional tribal forest management practices and policies.”
Such Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) or Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has long been a challenge for typical Western-trained scientists to meaningfully integrate with their reductionist ways of thinking and understanding the natural world. Lately, within the last half-decade or so, the scientific community has begun coming to grips with the compelling value of such stories despite their challenges with assigning rigorous scientific tests of validation and credibility. These tests have tended to dismiss the value and credentials of storytellers informed by ancient knowledge passed down in oral ‘manuscripts and articles’ peer-reviewed by centuries or eons of time spent in deep observation of the natural world and its inner workings
Now there seems a revolution in scientific thinking and discourse is evolving. As a ‘degreed’ scientist steeped in tribal culture and experience over the last two and a half decades I often find myself assigning more gratitude and honor to the experiences gifted me in working with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians as an ecologist, than I do of my degrees gained in universities. In this way, I am delighted to finally see and realize the scientific community’s willingness to open its other eye in a deliberate effort to see the world more clearly and completely. I can only hope my non-native peers, collaborators, colleagues, friends, and family see similar significance and value of such environmental enlightenment.
Thank you, Damon, for helping me slow down, walk quietly, listen carefully, and observe deeply with broader and sharper vision.
