M a s h k i i z i i b i i N a t u r a l Re s o u r c e (2021)

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MNRD Warden HOTLINE

M a s h k i i z i i b i i N a t u r a l Re s o u r c e

Call 715-682-7123 Ext. 1560

The Warden Hotline provides the tribal membership with the opportunity to confidentially report suspected wildlife, recreational and environmental violations.

These violations may include fishing, or hunting out of season, deposit of harmful substances in lakes

or rivers or illegal storage or disposal of hazardous waste. All these violations seriously affect the natural resources of our reservation.

Information received on this line will be relayed to a Mashkiiziibii Conservation Warden for investigation. You don’t have to leave your name when reporting a violation. However, it is often helpful to an

investigation if a Conservation Warden can follow-up on your report to verify essential facts. If you provide, your identity and any information that may identify you, that information will be protected and

kept confidential.

If response is needed immediately please feel free to call or email one of the following Wardens:

Brad Bigboy

715-292-7822

chiefwarden@badriver-nsn.gov

Stanlee Kmiecik

715-292-1902

warden@badriver-nsn.gov

Tim Oja

715-979-1777

brnrwarden@badriver-nsn.gov

Helpful info when reporting a violation

Who is the violator? Describe the people, including their physical description and clothing

What is the violation?

Where did this violation take place? (be as specific as possible)

When did this occur?

If possible, please take pictures, and license plate numbers, anything to help identify the suspects.

Jessica Strand, Environmental Specialist - environmental@badriver-nsn.gov

T

he COVID-19 pandemic

has forced us to grow as

an organization and change our

Biennial Open House event from in

-person to virtual in order to keep

things as safe as possible for staff

and participants. Unfortunately, this

switch did not lead to as many opportunities for our partnering agencies to present information, but it

really allowed MNRD to showcase

a subset of projects that are staff are

working on and gain feedback from

the community on projects that

were being proposed or courses of

action being taken. And anytime

that MNRD staff can have such a

dialogue with the community we

serve, is a success in my book.

(Plus, we were able to give away

some fantastic prizes to those that

participated!)

• Not So New Staff Introduction

Virtual Sessions

• Forever Chemicals

From February 23 to April 22, 2021

we held weekly virtual sessions

every Tuesday with hour-long

presentations in the afternoon with

sometimes a second presentation in

...continued on page 7...

~MISSION STATEMENT~

Mashkiiziibii Natural

Resources Dep ar t ment

72682 Maple Street

PO Box 39

Odanah, WI, 54806

Phone: 715-682-7123

Fax: 715-682-7118

Email: NRDOutreach@badriver-nsn.gov

The Department strives for resource management which both conserves the natural resources

for the future generations and provide for the

needs of the present. The departments existence

reflects the importance the Bad River Tribe

places on its right and ability to exercise sovereignty, self-determination and self-regulation in

the area of natural resource management.

• Climate Change Update

• Air Quality Safety as Winter

Approaches

• 2021 Virtual Open House

• Sea Lamprey Treatment 2021

• MNRD Warden HOTLINE

Inside this issue:

Bad River Sea Lamprey

Treatment 2021

2

Solar + Storage = Resiliency

+ Savings

3

Forever Chemicals

4

Climate Change Update

5

Ganawendan Ma’iingan:

Taking care of our kin the

6

GIS Introduction

8

Air Quality Safety as Winter

Approaches

9

Beach Clean Up Flier

10

Public Notice—Service Line

Agreement

11

Enbridge Public Notice

15

Warden HOTLINE

16

Andrew Spychalla, Brownfield Specialist, MNRD: brownfields@badriver-nsn.gov

P

er- and polyfluoroal-

kyl substances (PFAS) are

man-made chemicals which

are used in industries and

goods ranging from: paper

packaging, nonstick

cookware or weatherresistant-clothing, carpeting,

We’re on the Web!

Visit www.badriver-nsn.gov

Special points of interest:

and various other plastic and

rubber materials. These

chemicals have gone rela-

…Continued on page 4

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COMMON GROUND

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Bad River Sea Lamprey Treatment 2021

Jacob Rodmaker; Fisheries Specialist fisheryspecialist@badriver-nsn.gov

T

he United States

Fish and Wild-

life Service (USFWS) is treat-

ing the Bad River system for

the removal of larval Sea Lamprey (Young of year lamprey

up to transformer phase lamprey) using TFM. This happens every three years, with

few exceptions, since the

1960’s. The last treatment was

in 2017, and the treatment

scheduled for last year was

canceled due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. The scheduled

time for treatment this year is

September 14-23. If treatment

is not fully executed in that

allotted time, USFWS is to

Figure 1: 2021 Teatment Map

come back to complete the treatment between September 28

-October 6. Factors that could cause the treatment to not be

completed in the first timeframe include, but are not limited

to low water levels and weather events. Tribal Council approved this work during the April special meeting. MNRD

staff will be assisting USFWS in collecting water samples

and monitoring for nontarget mortalities. If you happen to

see USFWS members out and you have questions they are

more than welcome to answer your questions. If you do not

feel comfortable asking them, feel free to contact Jacob

To View FULL PDF visit:

http://www.badriver-nsn.gov/news/

Rodmaker; Fisheries Specialist via email fisheryspecialist@badriver-nsn.gov or phone (715)-685-7840 ext 1552.

Figure 2: Larval Sea Lamprey

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COMMON GROUND

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Takin Care of our Kin continued...

By Gena Abramson, Forestry Specialist - Forester@badriver-nsn.gov

•

Report any Ma’iingan sightings or track and scat

from Ma’iingan to our Program

The Mashkiiziibii wildlife program is focused on checking

in on the reservation Ma’iingan packs by surveying for

tracks, scat, and conducting howl surveys. If you’ve

heard or seen signs of Ma’iingan please reach out to

wildlife@badriver-nsn.gov to pool community knowledge

about what our relative has been up to. Community members are also welcome to reach out to learn how to do

howl for wolves and identify their tracks and sign.

spoken out against Act 169 – the law mandating a yearly

wolf hunt when the species is delisted. In February, we

saw how dangerous a mandated trophy hunt can be. LRB

4472 would remove that mandate by replacing “shall”

with “may.” While we don’t support wolf trophy hunting

and trapping, this is a necessary first step.

Find you state lawmakers here: humanesociety.org/stateleglookup”

Write to state representatives who have a track record of

anti-wolf votes

The Humane Society has made it easy to contact state

lawmakers about the inhumane, unscientific, and treaty

violating state law which mandates wolves be hunted

every year when delisted:

“Ask your State Senator and State Representative to

support LRB 4472. For years, Wisconsin citizens have

B

oozhoo. If you live in or have visited the Birch Hill Community,

you’ve surely noticed the orange

paint on some of the red pine trees. Those

trees will be the ones removed during the

upcoming pine thinning. We’ve selected the

trees voted “least likely to succeed” and

marked those for removal.

We are also hoping to chip up the tops once

the thinning is completed and the snow

melts. This will involve putting the nonsellable branches through our department’s

chipper. Chipping will improve the look of the community while blanketing the forest floor with a thin

layer of mulch. Breaking

down the bulk of the branches will allow for more moisture to

be retained in the soil for the remaining trees, as well as a

The Birch Hill Pine Thinning is one of the 15 timber harvests in our Council Approved 3 Year Plan (2021-2023) and is

one of the four harvests planned for the first year. Each year, we will try to implement strategies that diversify our

forests and keep them as healthy as possible.

...Continued on page 12...

The Tribe is continuing to learn from the microgrids and have set up quarterly meetings to

I

Daniel Wiggins, Air Quality/ Radon Tech, Air1@badriver-nsn.gov

highlight actual savings, projected savings, microgrid responses to outages and any other issues that may have arisen in the previous quarter.

These meeting will be important to make sure they

n May of 2021 the Tribe commissioned the Ishkonige Nawa-

dide Microgrid Solar project, which includ-

are accomplishing the goals the Tribes has set for

ed the installation of over 500 kilowatts of

the microgrids and renewable energy.

solar and over 1,000 kilowatt hours of

Information will continue to be presented to the

storage microgrids at three facilities: the

community and on the Ishkonige Nawadide Solar

Health and Wellness Center (H&WC),

project and microgrids. Currently there is a kiosk

Chief Blackbird Administration Building,

located at the H&WC entry that allows for a visual

and Wastewater Treatment Plant

(WWTP).

of how the microgrids are operating. A webpage

on the Tribe’s website is also being developed to

Picture 2: Kiosk located at the H&WC and shows all three microgrids along with current operations.

highlight the microgrids. If there are any questions about the

microgrids or this project, feel free to contact Daniel Wiggins

Jr at Air1@badriver-nsn.gov or 715-979-1486. Miigwech!

The project was built around resiliency

after the 2016 Flood, specifically outages

that affected the Odanah Community and

...continued on page 13...

Picture 1: Wastewater Treatment Plant Microgrid- Battery Storage is located directly in front

followed by the solar array and WWTP building in the back.

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COMMON GROUND

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tively unstudied in

the past. In

recent years

however,

these chem-

icals which

are known

to bioaccumulate

or build up

in the human body,

giving them

the name

“forever

chemicals,”

started becoming

Graph 1: Microgrid savings can be seen for the months of May, June, and July.

recognized

as potentially hazardous to humans in various ways.

Some research indicates that high levels of PFAS may

contribute to: decreased infant birth weights and general

infertility in women, thyroid diseases, increased cholesterol, and decreased response to vaccines in children. This

last potential effect is important now with the ongoing

Covid-19 pandemic, as the scientific world is focused

heavily on the research of both viruses and vaccines.

PFAS effects on the immune system in humans relating to

the reduction of infectious disease resistance has just begun being studied (https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/healtheffects/index.html). 50% of the exposure to PFAS is estimated to come from ingesting food or water containing

these chemicals. Contaminated water sources, eating fish

from contaminated bodies of water, and eating foods packaged in containers utilizing these chemicals are common

points of entry into the human body.

In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

the three facilities. Through post-flood emergency planning

Although not the primary reason the microgrids also pro-

published health advisories for PFOA and PFOS of 70

the Tribe identified critical infrastructure and developed an

vide financial benefits, specifically in savings. When they

parts per trillion in drinking water. In 2019, the EPA re-

Emergency Response Plan along with measures to mini-

are not providing emergency power, which is most of the

leased a formal PFAS action plan to address these chemi-

mize impacts from disasters and other events. Emergency

time, they are offsetting electrical usage from Bayfield Elec-

cals which led to the fiscal year 2021 omnibus bill that

back-up and generators are key when addressing electri-

tric Cooperative. This provides direct savings to each facili-

had $300 million set aside for testing and regulation of

cal outages.

ty and can be seen in Graph 1. The three microgrids have

these chemicals. In August 2021, EPA sent plans to Trib-

provided around $15,000 in savings from May to July. The

al leaders to continue sampling for these chemicals in

As the Tribe continued through post-flood activities funding

Tribal Public Water Systems in both Minnesota and Wis-

opportunities, specifically grants, were made available to

consin. This voluntary program will give Tribes data on

the Tribe. In 2019 the Tribe was awarded funding on a

the potential presence of these chemicals in community

$2.2 million-dollar microgrid project, now called the Ishko-

Electrical outages have still been ongoing, but not in the

drinking water, and if needed, will assist in coordinating

nige Nawadide (In Catches Fire) Solar Microgrid Project.

duration as during the 2016 Flood. The microgrids are

remediation activities of these systems. Tribes will, if

allowing this sampling effort, receive results within 2

This project was built around resiliency. The H&WC and

months of the sample collection date. Those dates are

WWTP Microgrids can island (or isolate) the entire building

being scheduled throughout the rest of 2021.

from the grid during an electrical outage. With support from

H&WC is the larger of the three and has provided nearly

$8,000 in savings within the same time span.

responding accordingly and providing back-up when needed and fortunately the longest outages have only been for

a few minutes.

the back-up generator at each facility the microgrids can

provide emergency power for days, possibly weeks.

...continued on page 14...

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warming and become more resilient to the inevitable

changes in our climate. I am looking at the water distribu-

Mariah Hipsher, Climate Change Specialist - climate@badriver-nsn.gov

tion and how we can be more prepared for such events

W

like the 2016 flood. It is not if this type of event will occur

again it’s when. Upgrading the culverts in poor condition

and replacing undersized culverts is a step in the right

direction to help improve resilience of the watershed. Any

questions or comments I encourage you to contact me.

isconsin is

warmer and wetter than we

Miigwetch!

saw more than half a century

ago. Temperatures have risen

by approximately 2 degrees

since the 1950’s and are expected to warm between 2-7

degrees Fahrenheit by

midcentury. The amount of

rain and snowfall each year

has increased, and extreme

faster break-down of organic matter into the soil.

This will be like a fertilizer to the remaining pine

and oak.

Management for pine is

different in some ways

than it is for hardwoods.

We thin pine trees for a

number of reasons. Some

of them include:

To create space for

growth. The trees that

remain after the sale will

grow faster and healthier

once the overstocked

(crowded) stand is thinned.

To reduce the fuel load. Part of our Bad River PreDisaster Mitigation Plan indicates that the Birch Hill community is vulnerable to forest fire. Eventually, there will

be more oak than pine, allowing for a safer forested community.

To reduce the likelihood of stressed (crowded) trees from

becoming targets for insect infestation.

To allow more nutrients and moisture to nourish the existing trees.

If pine aren’t managed,

they become sick from

being too crowded. This

is evident by a small

crown ratio. If the trees

have branches and needles that encompass the

top 1/3 of the tree, it’s

fairly healthy and will

photosynthesize enough

energy to live for a long

time. If the trees get too

crowded, the crowns will

look like Q-tips, only

having a very small area

of branches and needles.

rainstorm events are becoming

more common, according to

updated climate projections

from the Wisconsin Initiative on

climate change impacts. Humans are responsible for these

widespread and rapid changes

in warming of the earth’s atmosphere, water, and land.

Climate change is altering pre-

cipitation patterns around the world, bringing more

months but what I have been doing is gathering data

There are areas on the

Bad River Forest that have these Q-tip looking pine

trees. They’re long overdue for thinning, and the entire

stand is suffering. We hope to manage those pine

stands relatively soon so that we can protect and expand

our pine acres for many generations to come.

frequent and severe storms and floods. These effects

such as size and condition along with many other fac-

will only intensify in the future, increasing the risk of

tors on each individual culvert so we can use this infor-

damage to water infrastructure, limiting our supplies,

mation to assess increased flood risks as well as im-

and causing greater impacts on watershed communi-

pacts on our water resources. Flooding has been an

ties such as Bad River. As the Climate Change Spe-

issue in recent years for Bad River residents; the 2016

If you have any questions about the Birch Hill Pine

Thinning or anything else related to forestry, please feel

free to give me a call at 715-685-8929 or email me at

Forester@badriver-nsn.gov.

cialist, I have been working this field season on col-

flood even destroyed roads, bridges, utilities, and public

lecting data for a culvert inventory within the reserva-

infrastructure and made normal daily activities impossi-

tion. You may have seen me standing on the side of

ble. Living within this watershed we want to be able to

the road looking broke down or lost over the past few

adapt to the changes that are brought on by global

Continued on pg. 12

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COMMON GROUND

Abi Fergus, Wildlife Specialist – wildlife@badriver-nsn.gov

T

his year has held a lot

of grieving and anger

around the violence that happens to our human, wolf, and

water relatives at the hands of

colonialism. The Bad River community has also taught me how

to always find joy and laughter to

keep going in a good way. Over

the past few years, when the

work gets hard opposing extractive and violent people and interests, coming together in community has been my source of healing. The pandemic requires us to

take extra precautions to care for

one another, but I see ways that

we can continue to be in community and to bring about healing

so we can honor our role in our

ecosystems and care for nibi and

aki as our elders have taught us.

Today I want to offer some positive actions community members

can take to help protect

Ma’iingan. Recently, the Biden

administration backed the unprecedented Trump delisting of

Ma’iingan. The State of Wisconsin plans to conduct another wolf

hunt in the fall, citing state statute and following the decisions

of the state Natural Resource

Board. Still, we have time before

November to stop the hunt or

reduce harm to our relative Ma’iingan,

who keeps chronic wasting disease out of

the Waawaashkeshi herd and reduces

overbrowsing by Waawaashkeshiwag to

protect cool water systems. Ma’iingan

helps protect all of our relations from disease and the increasing impacts of climate change.

Here are some ways for you to take action

for Ma’iingan:

•

Write social media posts and letters

to the editor

claim those who actually have to “deal”

with living in wolf country don’t want to coexist with Ma’iingan. In reality, treaty territory overlaps with much of the core of

Ma’iingan’s habitat and social science surveys have shown a majority of people want

to live with wolves. It is valuable to speak

up on social media and by writing local

papers to express how those of us who live

with the wolf really feel. Need tips on how

to write a letter?

https://wiwolvesandwildlife.wordpress.com/

how-to-write-a-letter-to-the-editor/

•

Follow and plug into wolf advocacy groups and their efforts

Locally, the advocacy group Friends of

the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife regularly directs folks in how to advocate

for Ma’iingan in addition to recently

filing litigation against the state Natural

Resources Board to stop the planned

fall wolf hunt. You can follow them on

Facebook and check out their website

at

https://wiwolvesandwildlife.wordpress.

com/take-action/

Anti-wolf folks use a strategy where they

.continued on page 14...

To View Current Public Notices visit:

http://www.badriver-nsn.gov/news/

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COMMON GROUND

the evening for a total of fourteen virtual sessions.

Session topics ranged from the Piping Plover to Sea

Lamprey Management to Private On-Site

Wastewater Treatment System Program information

to our 3-Year Forestry Plan. We even had an evening

session focusing on providing information regarding

Enbridge Energy Line 5 within the Reservation.

While some of the session were attended more than

others, each had some dialogue during the Question

& Answer portion of the session and positive feedback from those who attended. All of the presentation that were recorded on the GoToMeeting platform are now available for viewing on our webpage

for those of you who may have been interested in

some of the topics but couldn’t attend!

Participation

Over the course of the fourteen virtual sessions, we

recorded 187 participants with many people logging

or calling in for more than one session. Participants

represented a range of individuals, including Bad

River community members, other tribal and nontribal community members, outside agencies (state,

federal, local, and tribal), and educational organizations. The most well-attended presentation was that

co-hosted by our Bakaan Ingoji Gaa-Ondaadag (Non

-Local Beings) Program and our Manoomin Oshkaabewis (Wild Rice Specialist) focusing on both

Manoomin and Cattails out in the Kakagon and Bad

River Sloughs Complex.

In addition to the virtual sessions, we had a separate

youth activity to try to engage our younger audiences

and get to know what they know about natural resources. The activity was for the youth to either draw

a picture, snap a photo and create a caption, or write an essay

based on one of numerous prompts they had to choose from

(dependent upon age group). For example, youth between 913 were asked to take a photo answer a question and provide a

caption for the photo; one of the questions was: “What is your

favorite place outside of town?” We received two entries answering this question and ten entries overall. Youth entries can

also be viewed on our website.

prizes like a Stormy Kromer cap, cooler, vacuum sealer, tent,

sleeping bag, a small generator, fishing equipment, manoomin,

gardening equipment, and more! The Grand Prize drawing was

a bundle of home and personal care products that focus on eliminating single-use plastics and included products from Grove,

CleanCult, Ethique, and Ziptop. Each youth who submitted an

entry for the youth activity won a prize, some of which included

a backpack made from an upcycled Milwaukee Bucks jersey,

toys made from recycled milk jugs, and some cool science sets.

Prizes

Due to the generosity of many MNRD Programs we were able

to give away some great prizes to those who participated in

the Open House. Each virtual session had several door prizes

given away at the end of each session and for each time a

person participated in the Open House they earned another

entry to the grand prize drawing the day after Earth Day. Door

To see recordings of the presentations, submissions from the

youth activity, or to view the final list of who won what, please

visit MNRD’s Environmental page: Environmental – Bad River

Tribe (badriver-nsn.gov).

Chi miigwech to all those who participated and made our Open

House a success.

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Berthea Olby, MNRD Outreach Coordinator- NRDOutreach@badriver-nsn.gov

T

his years Lake Superior Days Celebration was a little different due to

the ongoing Covid19 pandemic.

Information, Like Us

Instead of doing our normal group gathering

on Facebook -OR-

event with informational booths and activities,

Check Out our Web-

we provided Tribal Members and Employees

site @ badriver-

Free Madeline Island Ferry Tickets. We did this

nsn.gov

in hopes that people would get out and enjoy

our beautiful Lake Superior by visiting Made-

Miigwetch!

line Island for a day, while still maintaining the

social distancing guidelines.

We registered and dispersed approximately 150

round-trip vehicle passes and 385 round-trip

passenger passes. The MNRD staff appreciates

all the support and participation in these events,

not only from the community, but the Council

as well. We couldn't have done it without them.

To stay up to date on Upcoming Events and

Matt Eitrem, GIS Specialist - gis@badriver-nsn.gov

Boozhoo,

them to real world applications to help with decision sup-

My name is Matt Eitrem, I am the new GIS Coordinator

port, infrastructure design and operations, and land man-

for the Tribe. I previously worked 12 years for the tribe

agement. I hope to use my knowledge and experience to

until 2008 where I left to work for the City of Ashland

help guide our decision makers in making the most in-

for 13 years. In late June I returned to work for the tribe

formed decisions for the betterment of our community.

and am very happy to be back and excited to make a

difference here at Bad River. I am a proud tribal member and have lived in the nearby city of Montreal for the

last 20 plus years, where I have raised 4 beautiful children. My interests include spending time with my family,

hunting, fishing, camping, and traveling the country on my

motorcycle.

I am well versed in the trust relationship the federal government has with the tribe and the struggles of self-governance

and sovereignty that the tribe has gone through. In my

career alone, I would say we have come a long way since

the days at the Old School in old Odanah and I am very proud

of where the tribe is at today. I am a firm believer in the concept of “the democratization of information” and look forward

I bring with me to the tribe 25 years of experience working

to helping the tribal government to better serve its tribal mem-

with GIS (Geographic Information Systems). I have expertise

bership, with this concept in mind, using information technolo-

knowledge of the ESRI software suite of tools and applying

gy such as GIS. Miigwech