Restoring with Culturally Significant Plants to Strengthen Food Webs for Pollinators and Tribal Community Well-Being

Before European settlement, grasslands and related open systems (prairies, barrens, savannas, and woodlands) stretched across 162 million hectares of the U.S. More than 60 million bison roamed these lands where Indigenous peoples once prospered. Today, grasslands represent one of the most threatened ecosystems with an estimated 82-99 percent loss. Bison numbers are only a fraction of historical estimates.

The loss of non-forested and open canopy systems has implications for many other species, particularly bees and other pollinators. These losses have drastically reduced ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, and the cultural and health benefits these lands once provided. Those particularly impacted include Tribes, Tribal Nations, Indigenous communities (hereafter, Tribes), and other communities. Restoring these natural communities is key to sustaining and maintaining cultural plants (i.e., edible and medicinal species) and pollinator populations.

Working closely with Tribal, community, and other partners, scientists will study the extent of ongoing restoration efforts of non-forested land. Improved understanding of how acres restored affects long-term sustainability, ecological integrity and resilience of these landscapes is a key goal.

The proposed work advances the Reforestation Strategy for National Forest System Lands with particular focus on restoration for pollinator habitat on non-forest land. The study also supports the National Seed Strategy by identifying appropriate plants for supporting pollinator populations and pollinator habitat. It supplements existing restoration assessments and modeling from individual projects and states to the Midwestern region. The project has the potential to reestablish and maintain relationships between Tribes and medicinal plants, bees, and the entire ecosystem.

Objectives

The overarching objective is to co-produce knowledge with Tribal, community, and other partners on how non-forest (grassland/savannah/barren) restoration in the midwestern U.S. can provide ecological benefits and ecosystem services to support pollinator populations, habitats, and community well-being through supporting culturally significant plants. Specific objectives are the following:

• Evaluate how restoration efforts on grasslands, prairies, savannas, barrens and woodlands in the Midwest have benefited culturally important plants and supported pollinator habitat.
• Develop scenarios that prioritize lands to restore while estimating potential culturally significant plant and pollinator habitat resources.
• Create a database of culturally significant plants and pollinator plants for non-forest restoration.
• Translate results into a prioritization decision-support tool for non-forest Federal and Non-Federal lands.

Expected Results

Outputs

• A database on restoration efforts, their benefits to pollinator populations, their cultural value, and how and which Tribes used them.
• A publicly accessible tool that provides detailed information of where and how to prioritize future restoration efforts.
• Genetically appropriate seed and plant material resources for culturally important and pollinator species for restoration on non-forest lands.
• Three workshops with Tribal partners, youth and elders, and three training sessions with partners.
• At least three peer-reviewed publications and three reports on best management practices.
• Regional brochures that highlight which plants to prioritize.
• At least five webinars and conference presentations to partners promoting the tool and project achievements.

Expected Outcomes

• A stronger integration of Indigenous knowledge and Tribal engagement, and more equitable access to ecosystem services and cultural benefits.
• Increased cultural value of restoration sites and cultural revitalization through increased opportunities for self-sustaining harvests of culturally significant plants by Tribes.
• Increased pollinator habitat and ecological integrity in restoration projects.
• Increased availability of genetically appropriate seeds for restoration.

Metrics of Success

• The number of best management practices disseminated.
• The number of workshops and workshop participants.
• Increasing stakeholder involvement by 10 percent.
• Increased number of stakeholders reached through presentations.
• Tool-use (e.g., number of downloads).
• Establishment of stronger relationships with Tribes.
• Increasing the number of culturally significant and pollinator plants in future restoration projects.
• Increased pollinator habitat.

Geographies and High-Risk Landscapes to Be Addressed

Regional

Upper Midwest and Northeast footprint of the Northern Research Station and National Forest System Region 9 prioritizing grasslands, savannas and barrens and reaching into Kansas and South Dakota.