Representatives from several local Native American tribes came together with members of the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to celebrate the Traditional Gathering Policy at the Mount Shasta Ranger District on Friday.
The Traditional Gathering Policy was implemented in 2006 in order to ensure native tribes access to and use of culturally important plants for non-commercial uses.
The policy encourages collaboration with tribal communities to restore and enhance traditionally important plant resources through traditional tribal methods.
“Forests need the care and attention of tribal communities to restore them to health and allow them to thrive,” said Julie Nelson, a USFS botanist from the Shasta Trinity office in Redding. “California has more native plant species than all of the other US states combined. The Shasta-Trinity forest is where most of these native plants are concentrated.”
Ken Wilson, who worked for the USFS for 25 years and is now the tribal liaison for the BLM, explained that the need for a gathering policy was made known after Native Americans had been denied access to government land while gathering traditional basketweaving materials in 2004. “We recognized the need for tribes to have access to the land,” Wilson said. After many meetings between the Forest Service, the BLM and tribal leaders from all over California, a policy was written which gave tribes access to ancestral land without fees or permits for gathering purposes.
“We kept fine-tuning the wording of the policy,” Wilson said. “Through many formal consultations, requests, and rewrites, we came up with the policy which is consistent and supportive to tribes throughout the region. It really was a collaborative effort.” The policy was a joint project of the USFS and the BLM, in coordination with the California Indian Basketweavers Association and the California Indian Forest and Fire Management Council.
Decisions and issues regarding the implementation of the policy are encouraged to be resolved at a local level in conjunction with tribal communities, to ensure the policy is relevant to each individual area.
In support of the Traditional Gathering Policy, a special greenhouse project at the Mount Shasta Forest Ranger District has finally come to fruition with the planting of a native interpretive garden. The greenhouse was originally funded by a grant from the McConnell Foundation in the early 1990s, for the cultivation of native plant species and the gathering of materials for growing them. Twila Miller, the USFS greenhouse project manager, explained that the native plants are then transferred to populate the local forests. “Many people worked hard to get things organized and to clean up [the garden area.] Without the efforts of the crew, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Sharon Haywood, supervisor of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, praised Miller for her commitment to the project and for her “vision, knowledge, and understanding of local native plants.”
“The Shasta-Trinity forest has worked with local tribes since 1998 to restore the forests and native plant species,” Haywood said.
Representatives from tribes all over Northern California, including the Pit River tribe, the Wintu tribe, the Shasta Indian Nation, and the River Tribal Council, were in Mount Shasta to celebrate the Traditional Gathering Policy.
In addition to discussion of the origins, goals, and implementation of the policy, there was a potluck and a planting session in the native plant interpretive garden. Some, like Ana Barnes from Nubieber Calif., a member of the Pit River Tribal Council, traveled long distances to attend the celebration.
“This is the only place in Northern California where we can do this,” said Nelson. “This climate, this soil, and these people are responsible for the care of these plants,” she said. “Seeing this place gives hope and inspiration that anything can be accomplished if we all work together.”
Mount Shasta, Calif. —
