Intertribal Nursery Council Meeting - New KBIC Solar-powered Geodesic Dome Greenhouse on Agenda

By jan schultz on Oct 10, 2010

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community members recently attended the Annual Intertribal Nursery Council Meeting in Washington.

The Intertribal Nursery Council gathered for its 10th annual meeting September 21-23, 2010 in Arlington, Washington. This year's meeting was jointly sponsored by the USDA Forest Service and Stillaguamish Tribe; it was co-organized by Botanist Jeremy Pinto from the Rocky Mountain Research Station-Moscow and BankSavers Nursery Manager Dave Steiner of the Stillaguamish Tribe-Arlington. The event lasted two and a half days with technical and information sharing presentations, field tours, and a short workshop on native plant nursery fertilization. Over 65 individuals representing 23 tribes (US and Canada), four federal agencies, three schools, and three private entities participated in the meeting's activities.

The Intertribal Nursery Council is a USDA Forest Service-managed, tribally-guided organization for advancing the interests of native peoples involved with plant production in nurseries. Annual Council meetings focus on key issues such as technology transfer and information sharing, conservation education, preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, reforestation, restoration, research, and nursery training. Several themes were covered during the meeting including native plant production for fisheries restoration, the use of small native plant nurseries in cultural and conservation education, energy conservation and alternative energy sources in nurseries, and the effects of climate change on nursery production.

Evelyn Ravindran (KBIC Natural Resources Specialist), Karen Anderson (KBIC Plant Technician) and Erin Johnson (Ojibwa Community College Environmental Science Department Chair) are members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) who traveled to this event and presented "Native Plants in Restoration and Ethnobotany: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's Solar-powered Geodesic Dome Greenhouse." The three KBIC attendees shared their thoughts regarding this meeting. "It was great to meet other people involved with restoration using native plants. There were so many knowledgeable people will to lend their expertise to help KBIC with their new greenhouse. The Stillaguamish Tribe was a wonderful host and we were honored to be invited to present."

Information for this article was provided by Jeremy Pinto USFDA Forest Service - Rocky Mountain Research Station, Intertribal Nursery Council Coordinator.