Tribal Natural Resource Management
All forests in the United States were once tribal lands and managed by generations of Native People for multiple values. Today, American Indian tribes manage 19 million acres of forestland in the United States. American Indian forestlands provide tribes with economic resources, cultural materials, spiritual connections, and maintain community values. American Indian forest management is a powerful expression of tribal sovereignty. I have been involved in research exploring American Indian forest management, perceptions of sustainability, and forest planning for invasive species and climate change.
I have worked with tribes throughout the USA but generally work with Great Lakes tribes. I work with the Intertribal Timber Council as a co-chair of their research subcommittee to develop meaningful research activities that address tribal concerns. I also work with the US Forest Service to develop tribal relations strategic direction for research and management. My graduate students work on several aspects of tribal natural resource management including partnership building, Indigenous phenology, Indigenous forest management, and Indigenous fire use.
Tribal Partnerships and Collaboration
Land management and natural resource research necessitates working with tribes. My research on tribal partnerships aims to develop a framework and best practices for building partnerships with tribes and to develop methods for long-term collaborative planning. I approach this area of research through respect for tribal sovereignty and tribal treaty rights. Additionally, tribal engagement is critical for all universities but especially at the University of Minnesota, a land-grant university located on Dakota homelands in a state with eleven federally recognized tribes and large urban and rural American Indian communities. Tribal partnership research has the potential to heal relationships between the university, tribes, and the environment and build the foundation for sustainable natural resource management in the 21st century.
Indigenous Cultural Fire
Indigenous cultural fire use has been systematically removed from our forests creating critical issues with uncontrolled wildfire and a lack of low-severity fire. Indigenous communities have begun to rekindle their relationships with cultural fire which not only improves ecosystem health but also enhances community resilience. My Indigenous fire research aims to support Indigenous communities in their goals to bring back cultural burning practices, understand historical Indigenous fire use, and put Indigenous fire back onto our landscapes. This research has the potential to improve forest ecosystem health and cultural practices by supporting sustainable natural resource management and deepening Indigenous relationships to each other and the land.
Forestry Workforce Development
Interdisciplinary research is essential for solving wicked natural resource problems like climate change, invasive species, and sustainability and research has shown that diverse teams can develop more creative solutions than non-diverse teams. My workforce research aims to improve workforce diversity (including but not limited to American Indian representation) within our natural resource and higher education institutions. I work to understand workforce employment trends in the US Forest Service, one of the largest land management agencies in the United States. This research has the potential to transform our natural resource institutions to reflect society and create equitable and sustainable science and management solutions to our natural resource challenges.