plants Archives - Endangered Species Coalition

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Fort Hall Native Plant Distribution Project.

Jeanne Dodds — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 16:40:00 +0000

Authors: Sidney Fellows, Christina Stucker-Gassi, Choice Vaughn, Nolan Brown

In collaboration with our member organization, Alternatives to Pesticides, Endangered Species Coalition has supported photographic documentation of the Fort Hall Native Plant Distribution Project by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Please read the following article, describing this collaborative, Tribally led project, and to see the work of Choice Vaughn, project photographer.

In the summer of 2022, I took a walk with a group of fellow Shoshone-Bannock Tribal members and other friends and colleagues in the foothills of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are made of Sosoni [Shoshone] and Panakwate [Bannock], collectively we identify ourselves as newenee, a plural term meaning human beings, or native people, and newe (pronounced with an ‘eh’ sound like the e in roses). Newe is a term used as either a noun or an adjective, such as the Shoshone word newe-dekape [native-food]. Our group visited the plants who give us our traditional newe-dekape [native foods], medicines, and fibers (figure 1). Tsiavui or Tsiambi (Rosa woodsii), Teavui or Deambi (Amelanchier spp.), Hupui or Weda’a Dekappe (Sambucus cerulea)(figure 2), and other unripe berries had our attention; we shared questions, observations, and knowledge about these plants who have been taking care of our people, and us them, for millennia. Months before the walk, the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) sought out recommendations from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to adapt existing projects, originally designed for native plant habitat installations to increase pollinator health and biodiversity, to the cultural needs of the Tribes. In doing so, the Fort Hall Native Plant Distribution Project was created as an effort to support tribal access to native plants.

Earlier that summer, four Tribal members were recruited by NCAP to help kickstart the Fort Hall Native Plant Distribution Project. In August 2022, Christina Stucker-Gassi (Euro-American; NCAP Healthy Food & Farms Program Manager), Choice Vaughn (Shoshone-Bannock), other community members, and I (Shoshone-Bannock, Chippewa-Cree; NCAP Program Specialist) organized to distribute free native plants, aka traditional newe-dekaape [native foods], medicines, and fibers, at the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ 57th Annual Indian Festival (figure 3). We held our second distribution the following year at the 58th Annual Shoshone-Bannock Festival. According to Shoshone-Bannock Creation stories, we have evolved with native plants since time immemorial. Similar understandings are found in other Indigenous communities across the world and in Western science. The plant-human connection happens through food, medicine, and fiber uses, but also through cultural practices, such as song and ceremony, that contribute greatly to the identity and health of Shoshone-Bannock Newenee.

Leading up to the 2022 Festival, the group of Tribal members and NCAP staff gathered throughout the summer to learn about plant practices and discuss elements that would enrich the Fort Hall Native Plant Project. Suggestions brought forward by Tribal members included more organized plant walks that encourage the transmission of knowledge and greater access to plants and seeds. The input from our Fort Hall community members guided our work’s focus and set new commitments around plants and the community into motion.

In spring 2023, NCAP continued building partnerships with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes around culturally significant plants. Because of previous conversations between the NCAP team and Tribal interest in the historic staple food Teva or Deva (Shoshone and Bannock name for Pinus monophylla), Nolan Brown (Shoshone-Bannock Language and Culture Preservation Department [LCPD] Original Territories and Historical Researcher Manager), Carolyn Smith (Cultural Resources Coordinator for the Tribes’ Heritage Tribal Office/Cultural Resources), Louise Dixey (LCPD Cultural Resources Director), and other Tribal members considered how Deva could become accessible to current and future generations. We considered additional, related goals of the Tribes as well. For instance, the Tribes’ responsibilities and rights to hunt and gather on unoccupied lands, as declared by the Tribes’ 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty under Article 4, requires adequate populations and resources to do so, since the stipulation goes on to say, “so long as the game may be found thereon”. (Game refers to animals, plants, and other sources of livelihood and culture). For game to be found, and in this case Deva, the Tribes efforts to preserve and protect such traditional foods must remain dynamic to ensure plants, animals, waters, and other nonhuman persons are sustained. Additionally, Deva conservation addresses threats to the tree such as black stain mold, pine beetles, extreme heat events, and increases in wildfires. Thus, the Pinyon Project was born.

Through research, conversations with tribal partners and scientists, a story of a successful Deva transplanting at Fort Hall from a Shoshone-Bannock resident, and walks across landscapes suited for the tree (Figure 4), we decided to install a grove of Deva saplings onto the reservation. The intentions of the Pinyon Project are to increase tribal access to the plant, increase food production for future generations on the reservation (trees produce pine nuts around age 25), and uplift cultural practice in the community. A community planting is scheduled for Fall 2024 and our Pinyon team is working to make the planting educational, integrating knowledges from Western science around planting logistics and from our Shoshone-Bannock cultural practices that encourage human relationality to the Earth. This project is a great investment that NCAP and the Tribes will continue to develop and care for.

The post Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Fort Hall Native Plant Distribution Project. appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

Doing Your Part: How to Protect Endangered Plants

ESC — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:14:36 +0000

Article by: Jane Marsh, Editor-in-Chief of Environment.co

Plant extinction is on the rise and showing no signs of slowing down. With the increase of our human population and technological advances, we have forgotten about the necessary support system all around us – the land. Plants help us breathe and maintain an adequate climate where humanity can thrive.

When we neglect to conserve plant life, we contribute to the endangerment of their various species. It is sometimes difficult to identify the ways we influence this endangerment because the effects are secondhand. You may be asking yourself, “How exactly am I endangering plants?”

How Do Plants Become Endangered?

Plants have difficulty growing and reproducing without access to pollination. This is how plants breed and contribute to the growth of their species. As humanity takes over virgin land, putting up cities and suburbs, we interfere with plant species’ abilities to pollinate.

Wind-traveling pollen cannot make it far enough past and through cities to reach the next rural region. This restriction is causing endangerment and extinction of certain plant species that won’t survive in urban areas.

Additionally, irregular rainfall patterns due to climate change cause challenges for water-moving pollen. When rivers become dry, they cannot carry the necessary pollen from region to region to keep plant species alive. If these rivers overproduce discharge, they can flood nearby plants, causing mortality that way as well.

Global warming is a significant contributor to plant endangerment. Scientists project that by 2050, one-third of plant species will reach extinction. This statistic proves the importance of humanity’s intervention.

How We Can Help

There are various actions we can take to reduce our behaviors contributing to plant extinction.

By financially supporting land conservation organizations and voting for protection, we can maintain an environment where plants can flourish. By reducing our contribution to global warming, we can also limit negative impacts on plant endangerment.

Develop Plant Sanctuaries

Plant sanctuaries help grow endangered plant species, support local pollination, and manage each plant’s safety through installing mason bee hotels and seed mixes for pollinators. You can volunteer your yard or garden as a local plant sanctuary to directly protect endangered species. This is an effective way to utilize your current resources to aid in conservation.

Conserve Protected Land

Protected land is diminishing in the U.S., so it is essential to vote for its preservation when you can. Supporting the Nature Conservancy and their local efforts is another way to support conservation. When we protect these natural lands, we create protected regions for plant species to breed and grow.

By visiting, donating, and volunteering at state parks, you can help preserve plant habitats’ ecology.

Support Indigenous Lands

Indigenous lands have maintained a healthy and influential connection with plant protection for centuries. These lands have higher numbers of successfully protected species than state parks, wild reserves, and other government-regulated conservation regions. Protection of indigenous land is vital to the preservation of endangered plant species.

Indigenous land stewards have a more in-depth understanding of the land and its functions due to their reliance on its resources. Modern society’s physical and social distance from this connection puts them at a land management disadvantage.

Develop Rooftop City Gardens

Creating accessible rooftop gardens in cities is a way to aid in pollen dispersal through urban areas. When properly maintained, these gardens can promote the growth of local endangered plant species. They should be accessible to the necessary insects and resources to encourage longevity and reproduction.

Reducing Global Warming Contribution

Global warming is the most considerable indirect way in which humans affect the endangerment of plants. When we reduce our environmental impact and aid in the healing of our climate, we can help protect endangered plant habitats. There are various ways that one can reduce their adverse effects on global warming.

Reduce Meat Intake

The overproduction of cows is detrimental to our planet’s health. Cows and other land-grazing animals release methane gas into the atmosphere. This gas traps heat in the atmosphere and causes temperatures to rise. By reducing your meat intake, and especially red meat, you can limit your financial support of excessive methane production.

Use Alternate Transportation

Some 93% of American households have at least one car. We rely heavily on cars over other forms of transportation. These vehicles burn large amounts of fossil fuels, creating black carbon – a greenhouse gas that restricts the atmosphere’s heat energy release.

You can reduce your contribution to fossil fuel consumption and conserve endangered plants’ habitats by using greener forms of transportation. Riding your bike and taking the bus are ways in which you can limit your engagement with global warming aids.

Buy Secondhand Items

To reduce your support of environmentally-degrading manufacturers, like fast-fashion factories, you can buy used goods. Shopping at local thrift stores limits your financial support of negatively impactful industries and saves the gas it takes to ship items. You can also utilize online swap groups to give your items a second home as well.

When It Comes to Protecting Endangered Plants, Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Now you know how to protect endangered plants. By supporting the conservation of the environment and virgin lands, you can help protect endangered species. Education and awareness are the first steps to ensuring a real impact. Staying up-to-date on scientific findings and conservation techniques can also help you maintain efficient protection of endangered plants.

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