https://www.aswm.org/aswm/aswm-webinarscalls/8386-aswm-hot-topics-webinar-series#hottotpics091719
Todd Mitchell & Nicole Casper, Swinomish Tribe
Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Protect Wetlands: The Swinomish Tribe’s Wetlands Cultural Assessment Project
Traditional wetland physical assessments do not adequately identify tribal cultural values of wetlands and thus are not adequately protecting cultural uses. The Swinomish Wetlands Cultural Assessment Project has developed a cultural module that can be incorporated into wetland assessments to better inform wetland protections. Local native knowledge was gathered about the traditional uses of 99 plant species. A cultural module was developed based on the presence of plants in several use categories including: construction, ceremonial, subsistence, medicinal, common use, plant rarity, and place of value for each wetland. The combined score of the cultural and physical modules provides an overall wetland score that relates to proscribed buffer protection widths through the Tribe’s wetland protection law. We hope this innovative method can serve as a model in combining traditional cultural values with scientific methods to help promote the breadth of knowledge our ancestors possessed into modern practical environmental protection.