Project Area
The Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians (LTBB) is centered on a reservation in far northern Michigan, occupying the western half of Emmet County and portions of a few islands in Lake Michigan. The LTBB reservation was established as part of an 1836 Treaty, which also established the rights of tribal members to hunt, fish, and gather across a large "ceded territory" in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula. Today, LTBB owns scattered parcels of land across the reservation. Much of the tribe's natural resources management has historically focused on monitoring and managing fish populations and key game species across the ceded territory and within the Great Lakes. For this project, LTBB staff focused on a 300-acre property directly owned by the tribe, which was acquired in part to generate locally-grown food for tribal members and the surrounding areas. About 200 acres of the property is forested and managed by the Natural Resources Department, consisting of a mix of upland and lowland forests, streams, and wetlands.
Management Goals
Management goals for the forested portion of the Ziibimijwang property include maintaining and improving cultural values (including sugar bush), maintaining and improving wildlife value, and improving forest health. Some of the more specific management objectives are:
- protect key tree species including ash, beech, maple, basswood, birch, and northern white-cedar
- increase old growth characteristics and wildlife value of mature upland forests through girdling and non-harvest practices
- designate wildlife refuge areas to be excluded from active forest management
Climate Change Impacts
For this project, the most important anticipated climate change impacts include:
reduced soil moisture in the summer
damage from forest pests and diseases, particularly EAB, beech bark disease, and hemlock wooly adelgid
more difficult access for logging equipment with reduced snowpack
milder winters may boost the local deer population, increasing browse pressure on cedar and other preferred species
Challenges and Opportunities
Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of this project, including:
Challenges
Sap production may be less predictable due to changing springtime conditions
Future climate conditions may be too hot and dry to support northern white-cedar
Opportunities
Other climate-adapted tree species may be suitable to help achieve particular resource goals (red maple, boxelder, etc.)
Adaptation Actions
Project participants used the Adaptation Workbook to develop several adaptation actions for this project, including:
Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Cedar management
Install deer exclosures and tree tubes to promote cedar regeneration
Identify and maintain current cedar cover
Import seed stock from cedar populations in southern Michigan
Old fields
5.2. Maintain and restore diversity of native species.
9.2. Establish or encourage new mixes of native species.
9.2. Establish or encourage new mixes of native species.
Plant a mix of trees and shrubs expected to provide wildlife and cultural value, including hzzenut, black cherry, black walnut, bur and chinkapin oak, sassafras, and tulip tree.
Monitoring
Project participants identified several monitoring items that could help inform future management, including:
Deer browse levels on cedar and other plants
Survival and growth of planted seedlings, particularly from southern seed sources
Regeneration of cedar within and outside exclosures
Human harvest rate of cedar
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Keywords
Lowland/ bottomland hardwoods
Lowland/ wetland conifers
Upland conifers
Upland hardwoods