Building a Policy Framework for Wild Rice Restoration in the Great Lakes Region

Abstract

The communities served by the 35 Tribal nations and three treaty organizations in the Great Lakes region have goals to maintain and restore Tribal relationships with wild rice. To achieve this goal, they have developed research and education programs and engaged in policy advocacy. For each Great Lakes Tribe, including two relocation tribes, wild rice has significance, including, in the case of many Tribes, for cultural, health or ecological reasons. Each Tribe or related Tribal organization has a long history of collaborations with - but also, in some cases, resistance to - local, state, and federal governments, and organizations like universities to further research and advocacy on environmental initiatives. With few exceptions, wild rice stewardship programs and initiatives do not engage in regional coordination across the boundaries of all 35 Tribal nations and ceded territories in what is now Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. To support the development of a regional coordinated effort to steward wild rice, this report utilizes a framework consisting of a regional ecological analysis, policy advocacy and legal protections, and a repository of existing stewardship strategies. We also developed a participatory mapping application and a landscape analysis of a case study site in Munuscong Bay. This project intends to contribute, at an early stage of planning, to the base of information needed to envision a regional coordination plan. Through an ecology-based literature review, a review of policies and case law, existing restoration efforts, interviews with wild rice stewards, and an analysis of land use methodologies across the ceded territories, this project will bring together existing strategies for wild rice restoration and support regional coordination for wild rice restoration and stewardship.