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 s (2025)

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 s

MNRD Warden HOTLINE

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

715-292-7256

chiefwarden@badriver-nsn.gov

Augilucho (Auggie) Godinez

715-292-3118

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.

Job Opportunities within MNRD

•

Stay Tuned for Upcoming Job Opportunities within MNRD!

**To See the Tribe’s hiring incentives along with other opportunities, Full Job Descriptions, and Printable Applications visit: www.badriver-nsn.gov/careers/

~MISSION STATEMENT~

Mashkiiziibii Natural

Resources Depar tment

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.

Were on the Web!

Visit www.badriver-nsn.gov

Kristen Vensland, Wetlands Specialist - wetlands@badriver-nsn.gov

Special points of interest:

T

• Non Local Beings Program

Update

he Bad River Reservation has over 52,000 acres of

mapped wetlands, 475 miles of streams, and 38 miles of

Lake Superior shoreline. Many of the water resources have cultural and ecological uses

that benefit Tribal members and the natural communities. Because of the significance of the water resources and their uses, governing agencies like the Bad

River Tribe and the U.S. Army Corps of Engneers issue permitting decisions through different regulations,

including tribal codes, to make sure projects are designed and completed so that impacts to water resources

are avoided and minimized.

The Mashkiiziibii Natural Resources Department (MNRD) Water Resources Program

(WRP) administers three different permits and approvals that you may need if you want to start a project within

the Reservation: the Antidegradation, the Clean Water Act

401 Certification of a federal permit, and the Bad River

Reservation Wetland and Watercourse Protection Ordinance.

Antidegradation Policy

• The Antidegradation Policy provides for the maintenance and protection of the water quality of surface

waters within the Reservation to ensure that all

designated and existing ecological and cultural uses

are met and maintained as described in the Tribe’s

Water Quality Standards (2011).

• A project applicant must submit an Antidegradation

Demonstration when a proposed project may lower water quality of nearby water resources through

discharges to surface water or alterations to the

land or waters.

• It is also called the Antideg.

• The Antidegradtion Policy requires a 30-day public

comment period, and the WRP’s recommendations must be brought before Tribal Council for a

decision.

Clean Water Act 401 Certification

• The Clean Water Act is a federal regulation that

manages the discharge of pollutants into the waters

of the United States to help control water pollution.

• The Clean Water Act (CWA) 401 Certification is a

requirement under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act

where a project applicant must get a water quality certification from the Tribe when any federal permit or license

is needed, including—but not limited to—

• 2025 Sea Lamprey Updates

• Brownfield Program Update

• Air Quality Update

• Indigenous Arts & Sciences

(IAS) Program Update

• Pig Problem!

Inside this issue:

The map shows all the streams, rivers, and wetlands that have been mapped

within the Reservation. For a closer look at the water resources near you, visit

the Bad River Water Quality Designations mapping tool: https://

www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?

appid=6f44c371217e4ee8b5f1c2c705c7c7c5.

permits for dredging and filling wetlands from

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

•

The CWA Section 401 is a direct grant of

authority to states and Tribe’s with “treatment as a

state” (TAS) status which allows the authority to

grant a certification with or without conditions, deny

certification, or waive.

•

It is also known as the 401, CWA 401, 401

Cert, Tribal Water Quality Certification (Chapter 3.12

of Bad River Tribal Codes).

•

Once the permit application

is deemed administratively complete, a 30-day public comment period is held. After the comment period, the WRP’s recommendations for the CWA 401

...continued on page 4...

How is fine particulate

pollution monitored in

Odanah?

2

2025 NLB Field Season

Update

3

2025 Water Quality

Sampling

4

Manoomin Community

Project

5

2025 Mashkiiziibiing

Sea Lamprey Activities

6

Brownfield: Caring, Continuity, and Progress

7

Manoomin Gabeshiwin

2025

8

Dust, the catchall of

small particulates

9

NIXLE Alerts

10

The Pig Problem

11

Warden Hotline & Job

Opportunities

12

Page 2

Page 11

The ”yes, and…” approach:

Nathan Kilger, Air Quality Specialist - airquality@badriver-nsn.gov

T

here are air

quality monitoring sites spread out across

the country. Many are

owned and operated by

states, typically each state’s

department of natural resources or environmental

quality, but some are

owned and operated by

tribes. Four of the sites in

Wisconsin are owned by

the Bad River Band (in

Odanah), Forest County

Potawatomi Community

(near Crandon), and the Ho

-Chunk Nation (near Black River

Falls and Tomah).

Air monitoring sites can consist of

different sampling equipment. The

site in Odanah includes a sampler that

measures fine particulate pollution.

Fine particulate pollution (particles

smaller than 2.5 microns) is used as

the size threshold because particles

this small can cross into the bloodstream when they enter human lungs.

Fine particles can come from burning

This perspective of a comprehensive, backward-and-forward view, meant

that most times when presented with

something new, the answer would be to

say ‘yes.’ Effective in both brainstorming

sessions and improv-comedy à la Whose

Line Is It Anyway?, ‘yes, and…” allows

for more thought, more action, and often,

more progress. After saying yes enough

times, this program had the opportunity to

work with federal partners on topics like:

disaster debris management planning for

the Bad River Reservation, presenting

nationally to the US EPA’s Community

of Practice on Environmental Justice series, and contributing to a scientific paper

and framework project on evaluating disaster-driven landscape changes, stream

hydrology, and water quality on the Bad

River Reservation.

(like fires and smokestacks), construction sites, and from vehicle and

equipment activities (like unpaved

roads or farming fields).

The fine particulate samplers in

Wisconsin are all the same model,

for consistency in data collection,

and they are a model called T640.

The photo of the blue box is what a

t640 looks like. >>

Data from the T640 in Odanah is

collected continuously and is uploaded to the main Wisconsin server in Madison.

Servers in each state send

their information to EPA

servers so that the data is

brought together for the

entire country.

Bad River operates a

T640 for several reasons.

First, to monitor human

health levels during wildfire smoke episodes like

--

those we’ve experienced in 2021,

2023, and 2025. Second, for a background measurement that is used by

state and federal policy to protect

human health on a larger scale. Bad

River uses the delegated authority

in the Clean Air Act to monitor fine

particulate pollution which is then

linked to topics such as state and

federal air permits, and the ability

to compare annual or daily measurements to the National Ambient

Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

This brownfield program

over the past six years has functioned

with a sense of quiet discipline. Some

goals or ideas were more or less written down: planning thoroughly, questioning further, taking the extra moment to look, to secure, to speak up.

Some of the goals simply came from

a different perspective: emergencies,

when they come, rarely announce

themselves in time, which is why

preparation must be steady, ongoing,

and utilize lessons learned in the past.

Mitigation strategies are not simply

procedural checkboxes, they are the

lifelines we extend to future workers

and community members, ensuring

that what threatens us today becomes

only a lesson for those who follow.

Over the years, the brownfield program has watched these habits take

root in teams and communities, practices taught now becoming instinct, caution turning into culture. Those things

will continue to take place, not

because someone is watching,

but because they have inherent

worth. The world around us is

worth caring about, the individuals around us will continue

to be protected, and progress

will certainly be made to create a safer and healthier community than the one that was

inherited. In work or in life,

one often chooses to do things

in a good way, in the right

way, or in their own way, and

sometimes, you can choose all

three. Miigwech.

The Pig Problem

Elle Lozinski, Wildlife Program Manager - wildlife@badriver-nsn.gov

O

ver this past summer and through the fall, the wildlife program had

received multiple reports of wild pig sightings. These reports started

to come in around August, but it was just sightings. In September, the wildlife program got the first photo of pigs, and just a week later, we were notified that 2 of

them were shot by a hunter. Tissue samples were collected from the pigs so we could

figure out what the breed make-up was. Since those initial pigs, 4 additional pigs

2 pigs shot off government road

have since been shot, and genetic material from 2 of those 4 have been sent in. While pigs being on the landscape is terrible news, all of the

pigs that have been shot appear to be sub-adults, so there hasn’t been any documented breeding yet. We have gotten results on their breed, and

they were a cross between the guinea hog and mangalitsa breeds. Pigs will be destructive to the landscape, so if you spot one please contact us

at Wildlife@badriver-NSN.gov or at (715)292-2933. We appreciate the communities help with dealing with the pig problem.

Page 10

COMMON GROUND

Page 3

Noah Arbuckle, Nonlocal Beings Technician - nlbtech@badriver-nsn.gov

I

n the 2025 field season we started looking for

Garlic Mustard, Eurasian Honeysuckle, and

Glossy Buckthorn on the southern reservation where

the Marengo meets the Bad River. We walked in from

the first corner on Jusala Rd. and spent the day looking around the river bottom. We found a couple small

plants, marked the area using the Bad Elf, then did the

survey questions in the binder. We then switched

gears, adjusted our eyes and started noticing that the

Wild Parsnip was starting to show itself in areas that

we dug out this past year. We realized that the Wild

Parsnip wasn’t as bad as last year in the areas we dug

out and bagged them. So, it seemed to be working that

way, just checking those areas each year, and marking

any new ones as we went along. Cow Parsnip is also

around, we continued to use the same method bagged,

survey, and mark with Bad Elf. Canadian Thistle was

located as well. We continued with those few for a

compost materials they collect

while until Purple Loosestrife started to show up all at

from designated areas and com-

once it seemed. Our control method was dig up and

post the materials to make top-

remove Purple Loosestrife as much as possible put in

soil. Recently we cut down

a contractor bag, survey, and mark it. I did notice that

some Black Locust we marked

there were Loosestrife Beetles on most of the plants

in Franks Field, and some in Old Odanah down by the

we harvested, but they can only eat so much, and the

Bad River. We did partnerships with GLIFWC, and For-

Purple Loosestrife was abundant this season. As for

estry Dept., forestry cut the trees down, GLIFWC treated

Cattails, this was our first year getting certified using

the fresh cut tree stump with Garlon along the cambium

the Mobitrac Mb5070 cattail harvester. We got ap-

layer and helped load up dump trailer. Then disposed of

proved to use Cattail Harvester in two spots down on

it at the Ashland City compost site to get chipped up.

Beartrap Creek (Goslin Rd.). We launched out of

After all those objectives it seemed to be a productive

Haukaas’s boat landing since the

year, crew seemed to enjoy the changes in control meth-

Tribe acquired the land. The Mobitrac worked great.

ods, scenery, using different machinery and most of all

Everybody took turns on it doing both cutting and

being safe.

raking. We ended up with 4 dump trailers full, brought

the cattails to Big Lake Organics where they take the

Page 4

COMMON GROUND

Certification is brought before Tribal Council for a decision and then submitted to federal agencies for approval.

Bad River Reservation Wetland and Watercourse Protection Ordinance

•

The Bad River Reservation Wetland and Watercourse Protection

Ordinance protect wetlands and watercourses by ensuring that

damage to surface waters from proposed project activities are

avoided or minimized to the greatest practical extent so

that projects that have the potential to impact water resources do

not cause public hazards or destroy natural wetland functions and

values important to their general health and uses.

•

A permit is usually needed when a proposed project will have

temporary or permanent impacts to or near wetlands and watercourses; for a complete list of prohibited activities, please review Section 3.11.070, which can be found in the

Law Library: https://law.badrivernsn.gov/us/nsn/badriver/council/code/3.11.070.

•

It is often also called the WWPO and Chapter 3.11.

•

A permit is often issued once a complete application has

been submitted. If an Antidegradation Decision or a Clean Water

Act 401 Certification is needed, then a Wetland and Watercourse

Protection Ordinance permit is typically issued after the Antidegradation and Clean Water Act 401 Certification decisions have

been made by Tribal Council.

project cannot start until the necessary permits have been issued or it

has been determined that permits are not needed. If you feel that your

project is an emergency, then please complete a project review application and reach out to MNRD to let us know the circumstances so we

can work through the project review process and initiate emergency

permitting procedures if they are needed. For information about

the Project Review Process, please visit the Natural Resources Project

Reviews webpage: https://www.badriver-nsn.gov/naturalresources/projectreviews/.

During this process, it is important to stay in communication with

the MNRD in case additional information is needed to complete the

project review application. Some projects may need to gather additional environmental data and information before MNRD’s review can be completed and permits can be issued. Because some

environmental data can only be collected during the growing season, project applicants should plan for at least one growing season to

pass before you get permits or approvals if they are needed.

If you have any questions about the WRP permits or would like to

discuss your project, please reach out to Kaylee

Houle at waterreg@badriver-nsn.gov

or Kristen Vensland at wetlands@badriver-nsn.gov. By working through

this process together, we can protect the water resources on the Reservation while the Bad River community continues to grow.

All proposed projects located within the exterior boundaries of the Bad

River Reservation must submit a project review application so that the

WRP can review project plans and identify what permits are needed. A

Mark Arbuckle, Water Quality Technician - wrTech@badriver-nsn.gov

W

ith the 2025 sampling season completed,

the Water Resources Program (WRP) team at

the Mashkiiziibii Natural Resource Department (MNRD) would like

to provide you with a recap of the amount of sampling that took

place and cover some of the highlights of our results. First, we

would like to provide a little insight into what kind of sampling took

place and why we continue to do so.

Surface water sampling can be captured

with a simple grab sample which is typically a 1000-ml bottle for rivers, streams, and

wetlands. A 125-ml bottle is used for

beach monitoring. “Grabs” take place

within a 3-ft spectrum of a body of water.

Within that spectrum we can monitor the

quality, trends, and needs of the tribal surface

waters, not to mention, notify the public of any

contingencies related to the monitoring of

tribal beaches, rivers, streams, and wetlands.

Along with grabs, an “In-situ” is completed using our sonde and digital surveys. Our

sonde is an instrument with probes

that relay real-time information such as dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, temperature,

and specific conductance.

As of 2011, the department implemented monitoring tribal beaches to

evaluate potential health risks related to potential pathogen exposure

during bathing or swimming activities. Being more fair-weather activities, beach monitoring typically takes place from Memorial Day to Labor

...continued on page 5...

Page 9

COMMON GROUND

By Zakk Zander ; Indoor Air Quality Tech - airqualitytech@badriver-nsn.gov

W

e have all heard the term dust

before, but have you stopped to

think about what you are actually breathing

in while indoors and outside? Starting with

a broad definition, dust can be anything that

is smaller than a half a millimeter in size

(500 micrometers) and does include smaller

particles like PM10 (10 micrometers) and

PM2.5 (2.5micrometers). PM 2.5 has been

in the news recently because of wildfires out

west and in Canada. If you want to read

more about outdoor dust, read the Spring

Common Gound article Blowing Dust from

Texas reaches Wisconsin. At the end, I’ll go

over some clean air /cleaning tips to keep on

top of this Sisyphean task.

Bringing this back to indoor air

quality, the majority of the dust, about 3050% that you will be breathing in, will be made of dead skin/hair

cells form well anything with skin like dogs, cats, people, lizards,

birds, et cetera. If it has skin or hair dead cells will be shedding

from it. Once the skin flakes are drifting freely in the air they become food for a number of things, such as dust mites. These tiny

mites (200-300 micrometers) that specialize in eating dead skin

cells and live alongside you in unknowable numbers. While they do

provide a valuable service in keeping things clean, they are also a

very common allergen for folks with asthma. Often a dust mite

allergy is shortened to a dust allergy but as we will see there is far

more in dust that could be causing allergy symptoms.

The other fraction of particles held within dust can be a

hodgepodge of things. We’ll briefly cover a few of the more impactful ones. As I'm sure people are aware, a common component

in this mix is plant pollen; I’m sure folks are aware that pollen can

cause allergies in people. This portion of dust in the home does

change with the seasons, with spring and summer naturally having

higher pollen counts due to plants growing and doing their thing.

Once the plants senescence (fancy term for a plants ageing and

dying) another common allergen starts to grow in, this of course is

the mold and fungi. Folks may start to notice it more in the fall and

wintertime as things are starting to decompose. However, the mold

that is found indoors does best when the temperature is around the

mid-70s with about 60% humidity, which happens to also be

around what we keep our homes at. The spores of the mold and the

mold themselves produce many different compounds with most of

them aimed at defending against being eaten or being able to digest

whatever surface they are growing on. These compounds have a

wide range of effects on the human body with some being used as

antibiotics while others can cause life-threatening reactions. I’ll

leave it there with the mold talk because I will be writing a future

article just on that fascinating group of organisms.

So far, this has just been a walk through the organic component of dust, which is a complex enough topic on its own and

one I have only scratched the surface on. In the interest of

space, I’ll briefly say this on the inorganic side. It can be as

simple as sand being kicked up on windy days and getting

brought indoors. Or as complex as figuring out where the

asbestos is located within a building. The inorganic side of

dust will also be covered in a future article.

So those cleaning / clean air tips I promised. Reducing the humidity to about 50% within the home can slow the

growth of both dust mites and mold. Replacing carpets removes a large area that traps dust and mold. Carpeting is

prime real estate for dust mites; it’s basically an all-you-caneat buffet and a home wrapped into one. While you are doing

the typical cleaning, use a damp mop, damp cloth or duster

that can trap and lock dust to reduce the amount that is stirred

up when cleaning. Areas around your home that accumulate

dust frequently are baseboards, molding, blinds, and shelves.

If you have an HVAC system installed, it’s a good idea to

check every few months and replace HVAC filter at least

twice a year. While none of these are particularly flashy or

new methods of cleaning, they are just as important as ever.

Remember areas that are typically thought of as out of site and

out of mind still contribute to the breathing environment and you are inhaling old skin, hair, pollen, mold, and many other

substances. So be better

than 62 % of millennials

and dust your home.

Dust & Indoor Air

Quality Briefing |

American Lung Association

Page 8

COMMON GROUND

Nathanael Secor, IAS Coordinator - IAS@badriver-nsn.gov

T

his past August 20th and

21st, Mashkiiziibii had

another successful manoomin camp

at the Tribe’s Goslin landing property on Beartrap Creek. This second

annual manoomin gabeshiwin had

strong community participation with

roughly 150 total participants over

the two days. The camp highlighted

tool making, traditional and mechanized processing, harvesting, and

cattail harvesting for making mats.

Waabizheshii Martin Powless opened

the gathering with a prayer in Ojibwemowin. Elder Vern Stone led

knocker making, with around 20 people including many youth completing

pairs of knockers. During the first

afternoon, around 10 youth went out

harvesting, most for the first time.

Their rice was collected and dried to

be processed later on day 2. Aiyana

Perry taught the traditional method of

bundling manoomin with wiigoob

(basswood fibers) prior to harvest.

The first evening there was a manoomin-themed cooking contest with

Bill Roundwind winning first place!

The second day focused on processing the manoomin harvested the

day before along with a few additional workshops. David Nevala and

Kathy Smith demonstrated how to

make traditional push poles with

forked hardwood Ys. Sasanehsaeh

Jennings led the traditional jigging

demonstration with a number of

young helpers contributing. Bickering

Page 5

Day with subtle overlap. During the season, we monitored 14 beach locations

along with 6 tributary sites. The 14 beach

locations are ranked as Tier 1 (most

used), Tier 2 (moderate), or Tier 3 (least/

lowest) based on the use of the beach and

the potential risk to human health presented by pathogens. (e.g. Waverly - Tier 1 –

sampled weekly)

In total, 243 beach samples were collected

by staff from May to September! We did

see 4 exceedances for E. Coli this season

at both Waverly and Second Landing 07/16/25, 09/09/25. At that time, you

may have seen a swim advisory come

across as a Nixel alert, a post to the department’s Facebook page, or seen a sign

at one of the locations notifying an advisory had been issued.

Since 1997, MNRD has been collecting

surface water data within the Bad River

watershed which we refer to as Rivers,

Streams, and Wetlands. Currently,

we monitor 25 primary sites and 10 secondary sites for rivers and streams

throughout the year when applicable. June

through August is referred to as

the “growing season,” during which, approximately 8 variable wetlands sites are monitored along with

4 historical sites. Once collected, rivers, streams, and wetlands samples

are then analyzed by water staff for inhouse parameters while a separate sample bottle is shipped out for contractual

comparison analysis. In-house parameters

include Total Suspended/Dissolved Solids,

Nitrate, Phosphate, Hardness, Chloride,

and E. Coli.

November. Wetland collections added

an additional 13 samples from 11 site visits

over the summer. That’s 209 samples that

were analyzed by our staff!

This Fall, the water team also collected over

30 macroinvertebrate samples from 19

different sites during the month of October. These samples are used

as additional indicators for habitat and water

health based on their sensitivity to pollutants.

Staff will begin the identification and counting process before contracting

for further analysis.

Stay tuned for a Spring 2026 article on

some of the findings from the data that was

collected during the 2025 sampling season.

Rivers and Streams collection efforts produced 196 samples (including duplicates)

from 178 site visits from January through

Dan Powless, Manoomin Ashkaabewis - manoomin@badriver-nsn.gov

Canoe processors - Maria Nevala and

JD Lemieux demonstrated how to process manoomin with their portable

processing equipment. April Stone led

cattail harvesting for cattail mat making. Russ Blanchard cooked food for

the gathering the second day including

frying fish caught by David Nevala

and Adam Oja.

Overall, this was a

very fun and engaging camp…chi

miigwech to all

who participated

and especially to

the demonstrators!

B

ad River MNRD was awarded GLRI

FY2025 funding in the amount of $122,687

to increase the community’s awareness of

threats to the Kakagon -Bad River Sloughs

wetland system. At different times during the

2025 growing season program staff got to

identify the Brown Spot fungal disease at

various locations within in the sloughs. They

found an increase as the season progressed

for the disease to be more prevalent.

Community-based efforts have valuable

implications for stewardship practices involved with habitat management. An important objective of this project is to integrate

community members’ personal experience

and knowledge of the Sloughs with biological

monitoring and increasing traditional ecological knowledge concepts in order to develop

strategies for wetland monitoring and habitat

enhancement. Their participation in wild rice

stewardship efforts, will result in improved

community health objectives while learning

to monitor the wild rice beds. Also, this project will increase the Tribe’s understanding

of current conditions, factors influencing wild

rice health, and traditional management

practices, resulting in more effective protec-

tion and restoration efforts through community engagement.

This project has four objectives:

1) The main objective of this project is to

better understand the prevalence of the

brown spot fungal disease impacting wild rice

beds as well as other possible contributors.

This objective includes field survey activities

by manoomin program staff throughout the

growing season to identify the extent of prevalence and assessment of life cycle conditions of wild rice.

2) Conducting brown spot survey during the

open ricing season by tribal harvesters that

will provide hands-on interaction with the

manoomin resource and increase community

engagement.

3) Increase participation of Tribal youth in

becoming stewards of the wild rice ecosystem. This objective includes hosting events

for youths to attend field outings to observe

Brown spot conditions at identified sites.

Attend Field trips to identify phenology cycles

of manoomin and learn about phenological

functions of Wild Sage node sensor. Observe and support events such as the Manoomin Pow wow, Lake Superior Days, Ma-

noomin

camp

activities,

integration of

Ojibwe

language,

etc.

When infection occurs in the seed, unfilled

grains or spotted or discolored seeds are

formed. ts most observable damage is the

numerous big spots on the leaves which can

kill the whole leaf

4) Increase the success of wild rice

restoration efforts. This objective includes improving wild rice restoration

efforts with proven technology to harvest native and non-native competitors /invasive plant species with the

Tribe’s new Mobitrac harvester. It will

include competitive native plant species removal and reseeding of wild

rice.

Page 6

COMMON GROUND

Page 7

By: Andrew Spychalla, Brownfield Specialist, a.spychalla@badriver-nsn.gov

I

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

M

n every season of both work and life,

our relationship with the world

around us is shaped by the care we choose to give it.

The land, the water, and the air do not ask for much,

only that we remember they are finite, and that what

we take from them we must also replenish. Commitment to caring for the environment is not simply an

obligation of policy or procedure, it is an act of stewardship, a promise passed from one set of hands to the

next. Small acts of attention, especially regarding

hazards in the home or community: disposing of hazardous materials properly, preventing a spill before it

begins, reporting one without hesitation when it does,

can ripple across years and protect people we may

never meet and places we may never stand.

ashkiiziibii Natural Resources (MNRD) in conjunc-

tion with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Great Lakes Indian Fish

and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) have managed the Sea Lamprey population within Mashkiiziibing for decades. This year MNRD assisted

USFWS with juvenile Sea Lamprey surveys and

applying TFM to the Potato River. During the

The caring approach to brownfield science:

spring spawning run GLIFWC set adult traps to

MNRD is working with other

The goal of most ‘brownfield programs,’ on

paper, is that the program must identify hazards that

could negatively affect human or environmental

health when future development occurs. Really, it

means to care. To care about spills and their occurrence, to care about something done in the past and

figure out if it might hurt someone in the future. If

development is planned near a parcel of land where

activities took place that could affect environmental

or human health, future occupants would want to

know. The brownfield program’s efforts to discover

PFAS compounds in groundwater and soil onReservation were, at the time, a shot in the dark to

discover if the community was at risk from these

chemicals. Much to the surprise of other Tribes at the

time, due to high costs and uncertainty in finding

what was being sought, that effort ensured that progress can be made toward remediating those areas

that do indeed contain PFAS. By caring about these

hazards, the community in the present knows the risks

are there, as will the Seventh Generation.

tribal entities to utilize tradition-

Continuity in planning for future risks:

al methods on stewarding Sea

Another goal of a brownfield program is

planning ahead for future risks. This risk planning is

an effort in community continuity; when things might

estimate the adult Sea Lamprey population that

utilized Mashkiiziibing for reproduction. In June

MNRD assisted in applying TFM to the Potato

River after Tribal Council approval was received.

In summer USFWS and MNRD evaluated the

Potato River for larval lamprey for posttreatment efficiency. We found that a backwater

of the Potato River had residual larval Sea Lamprey. In November MNRD manually removed

153 larval lamprey from the backwater that had

residuals from the TFM applica-

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to con-

tion. These lamprey would have

tact MNRD’s Fisheries Specialist, Jacob Rodmaker at

resulted in the loss of 6,120 lbs.

715-682-7123 ext 1552 or via email at fisheryspecial-

of Lake Superior fish. The

ist@badriver-nsn.gov.

Lamprey within Mashliiziibiing.

turn bad, don’t let them get worse. Depending on the

age of the reader, many were likely taught how to

“duck and cover” or “stop, drop, and roll.” Personally, our family had a meeting place if an inextinguishable fire broke out in the home – by the mailbox in the

front yard. Preparation for emergencies is of utmost

importance for any government, community, or otherwise. The brownfield program has coordinated many

Tribally held emergency response roundtable meetings and group exercises over the years. There has

been planning for disasters, through contributions to

mitigation efforts and disaster management. There

has been preparation, utilizing the incident command

‘language’ throughout those efforts that all emergency responders would understand, as to keep individuals and families in the community safe if an emergency did occur.

Progress can be self-appointed:

Goals that are written down are certainly important to strive for. Again, the main brownfield goal

is the identification of hazards, which once known

and addressed, would protect human or environmental health. But that doesn’t take into account that

some places are not in need of massive developments.

Some places are better left pristine, beautiful, and

unmarred by the very thing that one might think defines the program itself. In my self-introduction in

this Common Ground Newsletter, winter 2019-2020

edition, I wrote regarding the land, “…we can’t simply throw it away and ‘ask for a new one.’” Sometimes, keeping your lands healthy, full of life, and

allowing one’s background or lifestyle to thrive is the

best use of all. To this effort, the brownfield program

took a place in helping shape part of Bad River’s cumulative impacts assessment project. If there wasn’t

an immediate risk, nor an obvious one to plan for,

why not look into the past to help shape a better future? The passing down of culture, of stories, of life

lessons from elders can be the best way to decide how

someone younger wants to approach their own future.

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