SDI Hires 14 Interns and Puts on Ecology Institute

Here, the group stands in an Oak Wilt Plot, the site of an SDI research project.

Dr. Dave Mausel teaches about forest management.

Bryan Stevenson, Director of CMN Special Collections, teaches about researching historical documents.

Classroom learning was both in and outdoors.

Brennan Waupoose stands by his winning poster at ITC.

This June, the Sustainable Development Institute welcomed 14 interns to the department. All of them are working toward a common goal: learning about the land from the land while applying knowledge from their college experiences and gaining insight on what the “real-world” workplace is like.

In addition to these 14, SDI is currently hosting four students from The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF).

During the first week of June, interns learned about the Menominee Forest and other resources in a “Forest Ecology Summer Institute,” a program developed by SUNY ESF and SDI. Outdoor and classroom lessons included learning about forest ecology from Dr. Kimmerer and Dr. Beier, professors from SUNY ESF, learning about the forest from Jeff Grignon, Menominee Tribal Enterprises
MTE Forest Development Forester, Ron Waukau, Menominee Tribal Enterprises
MTE Fire Management Officer, Tony Waupochick, Menominee Tribal Enterprises
MTE Silviculturist, Dave Mausel, Menominee Tribal Enterprises
MTE Forest Health Forester, and from various other lectures by CMN instructors and SDI staff.

During the second week of June, SDI staff and interns participated in and attended the Intertribal Timber Council's yearly symposium titled, “Overcoming Obstacles in Pursuit of Sustainability.” The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and the

Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans were co-sponsors of this year's meeting which includes foresters, ecologists, silviculturists, and all other natural resource and sustainability professionals from tribes all over the United States. There, the students were able to attend workshops about climate change and invasive species, as well as take a tour of the Menominee forest where they learned about plotting and keeping and inventory of species within the forest, felling trees, traditional fire use on the reservation and a brief history of the tribe.

The tour then transitioned to the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation where they learned about their forest, wetland restoration projects, and historical stream restoration projects. To cap off the week's activities, students attended the ITC awards banquet where SDI intern Brennan Waupoose played a large part in the night by winning a scholarship and two first-place awards from the poster contest with his poster about the effects of earthworms on forests.

Over the next few weeks, interns will branch off into their specific jobs in water resources, marketing, education, climate change research, ecological data collection, and forest systems.

SDI staff extends a warm welcome and well wishes to the interns and hope they continuously expand their scientific ecological knowledge base while staying connected to traditional ecological knowledge. Learning the relationship between the two will result in well-rounded professionals and thinkers and we are glad to welcome them to the College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute.