SAVING TRADITION

Emerald ash borer devastated the famed Menominee Forest

Could seeds save the ash tree for future generations?

Frank Vaisvilas Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY NETWORK – WISCONSIN

For years, the famed tribal foresters of the Menominee Tribe thought they might succeed where all others had failed. ● The emerald ash borer, first detected near Detroit in 2002, had spread to surrounding states, like the insect equivalent of a wildfire. ● By 2010, millions of trees – white ash, green ash, blue ash – had succumbed. The invasive beetles from Asia would burrow through bark, the females laying eggs in crevices. Their larvae would tunnel in, feeding underneath the bark, destroying the circulatory systems of trees.

By 2017, several U.S. ash species were on the critically endangered list, one step away from extinction.

Still, the Menominee held out hope.

For more than 150 years, the tribe’s forest in northeast Wisconsin has been an environmental jewel, a diverse, productive and healthy forest ecosystem covering 220,000 acres. The tribe’s sustainable forestry practices align with generations of Indigenous knowledge about environmental stewardship.

The techniques used by the Menominee are revered by researchers, scientists and foresters around the world. The tribally owned and operated Menominee Tribal Enterprises runs the tribe’s sawmill operation, which uses selective and thoughtful harvesting of timber to sustain the health of the forest and support living wages for dozens of Menominee families.

The forest showcases 13 different forest cover types, supporting many tree species. But ash trees hold a special place in the tribe’s culture.

Ash wood is the most suitable to be made into pliable, resilient strips, perfect for weaving into baskets. The Menominee have been making baskets for thousands of years in Wisconsin.

Jennifer Gauthier, director of the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation, explained that Menominee have always been a woodland people and the baskets were, and are, used to gather berries and other food and medicine from the forest, and to store belongings.

Beyond that, basketmaking is a considered a cherished art form, passed down through generations. The patterns tell stories and connect weavers to their families.

“Basket makers pound strips all summer,” she said.

Losing that cultural link would be devastating.

As of 2018, about 25,000 black and white ash trees stood tall in the Menominee Forest.

But they were surrounded by insects that wanted to literally eat them alive.

x A black ash tree afflicted by emerald ash borers in a black ash tree swamp on the Menominee Reservation in Neopit.

y John Awonohopay, sales manager for Menominee Tribal Enterprises, sits on a pile of ash tree trunks in Neopit.

PHOTOS BY HANNAH SCHROEDER/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

Tactics to keep emerald ash borers at bay seemed to work

The emerald ash borer was first detected in Wisconsin in 2008, in the Village of Newburg, Ozaukee County. It reached the Green Bay area in 2009. That brought it within 50 miles of the Menominee Forest.

Menominee tribal foresters scrambled to protect their ash trees. One practice, according to Nels Huse, marketing specialist for Menominee Tribal Enterprises, was to cut down trees around the perimeter of the tribe’s forest. The idea was to create a border to mitigate – or possibly stop – the infestation’s spread into the heart of the forest.

The tactic seemed to work. The ash borer continued its spread elsewhere, but the forest remained clean.

Tribal officials also launched an extensive education campaign urging people not to transport firewood into or near the reservation. Transported firewood is one of the fastest ways to spread the beetle from one area to another.

But much to its frustration, the tribe could not control everything coming through the borders of the reservation.

In 1961, the termination of the tribe’s federal status by Congress went into effect. At the time, legislators believed its sustainable lumber mill would be enough to support the newly formed Menominee County. Lumber was, and is, a lucrative industry for non-tribal loggers.

But as the least populated and poorest county in the state, and with the lumber mill unable to employ everyone, the county could not fund the taxes needed to support schools, utilities and the area hospital.

Eventually, the tribe made the difficult decision to sell land to private developers to help make up a financial shortfall.

Menominee activists worked hard to win back federal recognition in 1973.

By then, it was too late. Beginning in 1968, a recreational property development called Legend Lake had begun taking shape on land already sold to raise the tax base. The first infested tree in the Menominee Forest was discovered in 2018, near the Legend Lake subdivision. Tribal foresters suspect it was brought in from the outside.

Menominee forester Leon Fowler said the tribe was able to secure

GETTY IMAGES

Today, the emerald ash borer is in all 72 Wisconsin counties, has spread to 36 states and killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America.

grant funding for insecticide to inject into the ash trees to save them from infestation.

But the price tag to save each large ash tree was upward of $2,000, and the treatment only lasted two to three years before each tree would have to be injected again. Ultimately, the cost was prohibitive.

Thousands of ash trees started dying in the Menominee Forest.

Tribe looks to the future, and the potential for rebirth

Today, the emerald ash borer is in all 72 Wisconsin counties, has spread to 36 states and killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America. It has had a staggering economic and ecological impact, not to mention its emotional toll.

As for the Menominee Forest, it still boasts some of the best examples of other native trees in the region. This is, in part, because of techniques innovated by Menominee Tribal Enterprises.

A study published by University of Wisconsin and Dartmouth professors found tribal forests, such as the Menominee, had larger, more mature trees and were able to store more carbon than state or private forests in the region. The study also found that tribal forests maintained their diversity of native plants beneath tree canopies much better than non-tribal forests.

One reason the Menominee Forest is much healthier than others in the region is because it was spared from waves of heavy logging, in which millions of acres of forests in the northwoods of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan were clear-cut for timber in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

However, out of about 25,000 black and white ash trees that once stood in the Menominee Forest as recently as seven years ago, it is estimated that fewer than three dozen seemingly healthy ash trees survive today, according to tribal foresters.

“It’s very sad when you think about it,” said Fowler, the tribal forester. “We’re doing the best we can with what little we’ve got.”

Still, Fowler is grateful the tribe has been able to save the few trees they have left, so far.

And following classic Indigenous thinking, the tribe is looking to future generations.

It has been collecting ash seeds for a seedbank to replant the trees once the threat of the emerald ash borer has passed.

That could be decades from now, for Menominee tribal members who have not been born yet.

With instructions passed down from today, they will plant the seeds. With care, the ash trees will rise again. Tribal members will learn to be basket makers and will pound the pliable wood into strips.

The strips will be woven into baskets once more.

“Hopefully, my grandchildren will be able to see a healthy black or white ash tree,” Fowler said. “But I won’t see any of that.”

▶ Forester Leon Fowler peers up at a black ash tree, looking for signs of emerald ash borers causing damage to the tree, on the Menominee Reservation in Neopit. HANNAH SCHROEDER/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

▶ Today, the emerald ash borer has spread to 36 states and killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America. It is in all 72 Wisconsin counties.

PROVIDED BY PAUL CIGAN/ WISCONSIN DNR

▶ Forester Leon Fowler points to a hole where emerald ash borers entered a black ash tree.

HANNAH SCHROEDER/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

w Emerald ash borer larva eat through the tree’s tissues and leave an S-shaped channel. The channel stops the flow of water and nutrients to the rest of the

tree. PROVIDED BY BILL MCNEE/ WISCONSIN DNR

Menominee foresters, supervised by Leon Fowler, cut down ash, hard maple, hemlock, yellow birch and basswood trees on the southern edge of the Menominee Forest near Neopit.

planted. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL FILES

HANNAH SCHROEDER/ MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL