EGLE grant to support stewardship of native wild rice

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Office of the Great Lakes announced on Wednesday that a $100,000 grant will be made available to help protect wild rice, one of the state's most culturally and ecologically significant native plants.

The grant money will come from the Michigan Great Lakes Protection Fund and go to the University of Michigan Water Center to support the creation of a wild rice stewardship plan at the request of the Michigan Wild Rice Initiative Team, which will include representatives from EGLE; the state departments of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Transportation; and each of the 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan.

Native to the Great Lakes region and parts of Canada, Zizania palustris and Zizania aquatica are found in shallow waters of inland lakes, slow-flowing streams and Great Lakes embayments. There was once lots of wild rice in Michigan, but the plant has been disappearing due to climate change, habitat loss, uninformed harvesting practices, degraded water quality and other factors.

According to Jon Mauchmar, environmental specialist for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and member of the initiative team, once wild rice is lost, it is extremely difficult to restore. 

“It's very particular about the environmental quality of the areas so it's not something that can be planted in necessarily a wide variety of locations that need very specific environmental parameters to survive and to be able to reseed itself,” Mauchmar said.

Wild rice has ecological, social, cultural and economic value in Michigan, especially for Anishinaabe communities in the region, who know the plant as manoomin or mnomin.

“Wild rice, or manoomin, has been really important to Anishinaabe communities for a long time,” said Dani Fegan, an assessment biologist with the wildlife program for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and co-chair of the initiative team. “A lot of Anishinaabe communities point to the manoomin in their migration stories as one of the reasons that they decided to stay here (after) their migration westward from the eastern seaboard. Since then, manoomin has served as a really important subsistence food, and is often viewed as more of a relative than just a food crop. Super valued for, yes, those subsistence food qualities but also being on the water, harvesting the manoomin is an opportunity for communities to get together and do something really important to them. And many people use manoomin in their ceremonies as well.”

In addition to its cultural importance, wild rice is an important food source in ecosystems and often indicates good water quality, according to Fegan. 

The water center will partner with the initiative team to develop the Tribal-State Manoomin Stewardship Plan, working closely with Michigan tribes to develop the plan and secure commitments and resources for implementation. 

The initiative team was formed in 2017 to protect, preserve and restore wild rice and wild rice culture in Michigan through collaboration, education, research, policy and stewardship, to enhance ecosystem health and benefit present and future generations.

The plan will promote further collaboration between tribal and state agencies and more coordinated research, protection and restoration of wild rice in Michigan.