Indigenous Science: Seed Banks for Eco-Restoration

Name: Indigenous Science: Seed Banks for Eco-Restoration
Start: 2024-11-20T20:00:00-07:00
Location: The Alberta Rose Theatre

Schedule

Wed Nov 20 2024 at 08:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

The Alberta Rose Theatre | Portland, OR

Many ecological restoration projects are one-size-fits-all: K*ll the weeds, then plant native seeds. But across the West, native plants have unexpectedly reestablished themselves via wind, water, or underground seed banks at restored properties in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California within various ecosystems—prairies, estuaries, sagebrush steppe, wetlands and coastal sand dunes.
Scientists, in particular Indigenous scientists, have found that native seeds can regerminate after decades of dormancy underground and that some species—even federally endangered ones—will regrow once invasive plants are removed, or water is returned.
This approach, known as “natural regeneration,” is understudied and overlooked by Western scientists. Yet Indigenous-led projects show that it is a more effective and more affordable way to restore degraded lands. This show will discuss a handful of tribally led restoration projects where native plants have returned on their own.
Josephine Woolington (josephinewoolington.com) is a writer and musician based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She is the author of “Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest,” which won the 2024 Oregon Book Award for general nonfiction. Her wide-ranging, long-form feature story on this subject was published in High Country News.
David G. Lewis (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) (liberalarts.prod.acquia.cws.oregonstate.edu/users/david-lewis), an OSU anthropology and Indigenous studies assistant professor who descends from western Oregon’s Takelma, Chinook, Molalla and Santiam Kalapuya peoples. Lewis has studied a Willamette Valley site, called Lake Labish, where wapato, a traditional food for PNW Indigenous peoples, has reappeared after a 120-year absence. He is the author of Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley (2023).
Image credit: Alex Boersma, High Country News