Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski College of Menominee Nation President Verna Fowler, left, joins Kathleen Atkinson, a forester with the U.S. Forest Service, in signing a memorandum of understanding Tuesday at CMN regarding the tribal forest. This is the third consecutive MOU the two entities have signed.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Fourth-grade students at Menominee Tribal School stand in the back of the auditorium at the College of Menominee Nation Cultural Learning Center during Tuesday’s signing ceremony between CMN and the U.S. Forest Service. Behind the students are posters showing what they’ve learned about the forest through the partnership.
College of Menominee Nation officials joined with U.S. Forest Service representatives Tuesday in signing a memorandum of understanding that will keep a long-standing partnership between the two going at least through 2020.
CMN and federal officials first signed an MOU in 2003, establishing a partnership that has helped to ensure the tribe’s 235,000 acres of forest will continue to be managed by educated people who will blend western science with the knowledge of indigenous people.
Joan Delabreau, Menominee tribal chairwoman, noted at a presentation at CMN that her tribe’s ancestral land once encompassed five states, including Wisconsin, but was reduced to what it is today through federal treaties.
“It’s a wonder sometimes, as you look at our lands, that non-Menominees thought the land they were giving us was worthless,” Delabreau said. “Sometimes we fool them.”
The work of protecting the Menominee forest land is a “prescribed balance,” according to Delabreau, as tribal foresters deal with regular harvesting of the trees, storms that sometimes damage the forests, and, recently, invasive species causing harm and spreading disease.
“To the untrained eye, our forests may seem pristine as you drive through our land,” Delabreau said. “To the trained eye, it is a managed, tracked forest that has been managed almost 2 1/2 times over, but yet today we have more volume in our forest than we did in 1854 when harvesting started.”
CMN President Verna Fowler noted the college is very careful about entering into partnerships with other entities, but its partnership with the Forest Service is one that has paid off for the college and students.
“In the early years of the college, we had the partnerships, but not so much anymore because our reputation speaks for itself,” Fowler said. “We do not enter into partnerships easily.”
The partnership includes a variety of opportunities for students who pursue internships in sustainable development arenas. CMN has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture on 26 internships over the last three years to collect ecological data related to forestry, forest products and forest management.
The partnership has also allowed the college to work with Menominee Tribal School and other K-12 schools to work on environmental problem solving. A fourth-grade class from the tribal school was present at the signing ceremony, presenting posters on what they’ve learned about forests and the environment.
Fowler noted that Menominee County is a forest island in Wisconsin, but today’s culture demands that it should not be an island unto itself.
“Our learning here does not occur in a vacuum,” Fowler said. “Our students pretty much have tackled issues all over the world, learning from farmers, foresters, rangers and all types of scientists so that, in the future, the Menominee forest is sustained and continues to be the backbone of the Menominee economic development.”
Arthur Blazer, deputy undersecretary for natural resources and environment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said he hopes the continued partnership will continue to develop, not just locally but throughout Indian Country.
“You’re really starting to set up a model for the rest of Indian Country to look at,” Blazer said.