📝 Week 4: Conservation & Sustainability ✅

Ecosystem Connections

Producers → Primary Consumers → Secondary Consumers → Decomposers

Remove one species and the whole web can change!

Part 1 Form

[EMBED G7.C8.W4 Part 1 Form Here]

Include These Elements

1. Research Question: What ecosystem question did you investigate?
2. Evidence: What data and sources support your findings?
3. Scientific Principles: What ecological concepts help explain your findings?
4. CCC Connection: Which cross-cutting concepts connect most to your topic?

Background & Education

Kimmerer grew up in upstate New York. She felt connected to both her Potawatomi heritage and the forests around her. She earned her PhD in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1983). Now she is a Distinguished Teaching Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She also founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. This center trains indigenous students in both Western science and TEK.

Connection to Your Learning

See the conservation justice section below. Kimmerer's work offers a different path than "fortress conservation" (pushing indigenous peoples off their lands). She calls for reciprocal restoration—healing both the land AND the bond between indigenous communities and their ancestral territories.

The Honorable Harvest

Indigenous rules for sustainable resource use (connects to ecosystem services from Week 2!):

• Ask permission before taking from nature
• Take only what you need, never more than half
• Use everything you take (minimize waste)
• Give thanks and give back to the Earth
• Share what you harvest with others
• Sustain the ones who sustain you—protect ecosystems for future generations

Compare this to modern industrial harvesting (clearcutting forests, overfishing, using up resources). Which approach keeps biodiversity and resilience (Week 2 focus)?

Key Quote:

"The land knows you, even when you are lost." - Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Kimmerer teaches that ecosystems aren't just things we study. They're communities we belong to. How might this idea change your approach to ecosystem restoration (the topic of your presentations this week)?

Osage, Missouria & Illini Peoples

Before St. Louis existed, the area where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet was home to several indigenous nations:

• Population (pre-contact): About 10,000-15,000 people lived in the greater St. Louis region. It was a major trading center for thousands of years.
• Ecosystem management: They managed river bottomlands with controlled flooding and fire. They fished and harvested mussels from both rivers. They kept prairie-forest edges that supported bison, elk, deer, and many bird species. Cahokia Mounds (across the river in Illinois) was the largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico (20,000+ people by 1200 CE).
• Displacement timeline: French colonization (1700s), American expansion (Louisiana Purchase 1803), and the Indian Removal Act (1830s) forced most indigenous peoples west by 1850. The Osage Nation was moved to Kansas, then Oklahoma by the 1870s.
• Ecological consequences: Without controlled burning, eastern red cedar took over prairies. River management practices were lost. Levees made flooding worse. Mussels were overharvested for the button industry (1890s-1940s). Populations collapsed. Missouri lost 1/3 of its mussel species to extinction.

Lessons for Modern Ecosystem Restoration

As you plan ecosystem restoration (Part 2 presentations this week), think about how indigenous practices could guide today's conservation efforts:

• Fire Management: Osage controlled burns kept prairie ecosystems healthy and stopped woody encroachment. Eastern red cedar invasion is now Missouri's #1 grassland threat. The Missouri Department of Conservation now uses "prescribed burns" based on indigenous practices.
• Floodplain Management: Missouria and Illini peoples worked WITH floods, not against them. Seasonal flooding fed nutrients to bottomland forests. Modern levees cut off rivers from floodplains. This made floods worse (1993, 2019) and hurt ecosystems.
• Biodiversity Maintenance: Indigenous peoples actively CREATED biodiversity through varied land management. This is the opposite of "wilderness without people" conservation. Research shows indigenous-managed lands often have MORE species diversity than state-run protected areas.
• Climate Resilience: Indigenous practices like controlled burns, selective forestry, and prairie-forest mosaics built ecosystems that could handle drought, flood, and climate swings. This matters even more as climate change gets worse (Week 3!).

Current Initiatives

• Osage Nation Partnerships: The Osage Nation was removed to Oklahoma. But they still work with the Missouri Department of Conservation on tallgrass prairie restoration in their ancestral lands. They share fire management knowledge and help find culturally important plant species.
• Sac and Fox Nation: They work with conservation groups to bring bison back to Missouri prairies. Bison were keystone species (Week 1!). Indigenous peoples managed them for thousands of years before they were wiped out in the 1800s. Small herds now live at Prairie State Park and Dunn Ranch Prairie.
• Miami Tribe of Oklahoma: They advise on forest management in Mark Twain National Forest (their ancestral territory). They help with sustainable harvest practices and finding medicinal plant populations.
• Collaborative Management: The Missouri Department of Conservation works more and more with tribal nations on ecosystem management for state lands. They see that indigenous knowledge adds to Western science.

What YOU Can Do

• Learn whose land you're on: Use resources like native-land.ca to find out which indigenous peoples cared for the land where you live. St. Louis sits on Osage, Missouria, and Illini ancestral territories. It is also across the river from Cahokia Mounds, the largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico.
• Support indigenous-led conservation: When you can, back groups led by indigenous communities instead of outside groups forcing conservation plans on them.
• Recognize TEK as Science: Traditional Ecological Knowledge isn't "folklore." It is detailed, evidence-based knowledge built over thousands of years. Respect it as a real scientific approach.
• Question Conservation Stories: When you hear about "pristine wilderness" or "untouched nature," ask: Who was removed to create this "wilderness"? Were indigenous peoples pushed out?
• Speak Up for Co-Management: Support plans where indigenous communities share decision-making power in conservation. They should be equal partners, not just asked for input.

The Historical Pattern

In the 1800s-1900s, conservation often meant "wilderness without people." National parks in the United States, Africa, and elsewhere were set up by removing native communities. These groups had lived sustainably on those lands for thousands of years.

• Yellowstone National Park (1872): Created after removing the Shoshone, Bannock, and Crow peoples. They had managed those lands for over 10,000 years.
• Yosemite National Park (1890): Set up by removing the Ahwahneechee people. They had shaped the valley's ecology through controlled burning.
• African Protected Areas: In the 1900s, over 14 million people were moved to create parks and reserves across Africa.

This "fortress conservation" model assumed indigenous peoples hurt nature. The opposite was often true.

Key Finding: Indigenous peoples manage ~22% of Earth's land but protect ~80% of remaining biodiversity. Lands managed by indigenous communities often have better conservation results than state-run protected areas. They also cost less and are more fair to local people.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Indigenous communities have built detailed ecological knowledge over thousands of years:

• Fire Management: Controlled burns prevent huge wildfires and help ecosystem diversity. California indigenous practices cut megafire risk by 80-90%.
• Sustainable Harvest: Traditional fishing, hunting, and gathering practices keep populations healthy instead of using them up.
• Species Monitoring: Watching nature across many generations spots small ecosystem changes faster than short-term scientific studies.
• Sacred Site Protection: Cultural rules protect key habitats (spawning grounds, old-growth forests) without needing police or rangers.

Western science now sees more and more that indigenous knowledge adds to, and sometimes beats, standard conservation science.

Conservation WITH Communities, Not Against Them

Modern conservation is moving from shutting people out to working together:

1. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs): Laws now recognize indigenous-managed lands as conservation areas. Australia and Canada lead this approach.
2. Co-Management Agreements: Indigenous communities and government agencies share decisions together. One example is the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia.
3. Land Rights Recognition: When indigenous peoples have secure land rights, they invest more in conservation and long-term care.
4. Benefit Sharing: If conservation earns money (ecotourism, carbon credits), communities get fair payment.
5. Knowledge Integration: Joining TEK with Western science for adaptive management.

Conservation ethics require asking:

• Who lived on this land before it was "protected"? Were they displaced?
• Are local and indigenous communities part of conservation planning and management?
• Does the conservation project respect indigenous rights and knowledge?
• Are benefits shared fairly, or do outsiders profit while communities lose access?
• Can traditional ecological practices be included in restoration plans?

Good science includes social justice. Ecosystem restoration that ignores people's rights and knowledge is not ethical or sustainable. The best conservation projects partner with—not shut out—the communities who have cared for these lands for thousands of years.

Scenario

Logging and farming have damaged a tropical rainforest. Scientists are planning to restore it. Apply each CCC to study this challenge:

• Patterns: What patterns in species recovery and succession do we see?
• Cause & Effect: What caused the degradation? What will restoration cause?
• Scale: How do effects differ from individual trees to regional climate?
• Systems: How does the rainforest work as a connected ecosystem?
• Energy & Matter: How do energy and nutrients flow through the food web?
• Structure & Function: How do forest layers and species adaptations help organisms survive?
• Stability & Change: How stable will the restored ecosystem be over time?

Part 3 Form

[EMBED G7.C8.W4 Part 3 Form Here]

Growth Mindset Reflection (5 pts)

• What was your biggest scientific challenge this year? How did you overcome it?
• What mistake or failure taught you the most?
• How did your approach to scientific thinking change?

Science Identity (5 pts)

• When did you feel most like a scientist this year?
• What science topic or investigation interested you most?
• How might you use science skills in your future?

Favorite Learning Moments (5 pts)

• Most surprising discovery you made
• Best collaborative science experience
• Investigation you're most proud of

Part 4 Form

[EMBED G7.C8.W4 Part 4 Form Here]

What to expect on Day 5:

• Science Showcase - display your best work from the year
• Gallery walk - see what your classmates accomplished
• Recognition ceremony - celebrating achievements
• Closing circle - sharing favorite science moments
• Preview of 8th grade science!