PARENT SESSION
Symposium #32: Ecological Restoration and Environmental Justice: Empowering Communities.
Organized by: LM Jablonski and KM Rodriguez
Thursday, August 8. 1:00 PM to 3:45 PM. Maricopa Meeting Room, TCC.
Who speaks for the mycorrhizae? Environmental justice in Southwest forest restoration.
Tohannie, Roberta*,1, Alcoze, Thom1, Moote, Ann1, Oran, Sally1, 1 Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
ABSTRACT- Ecological restoration typically begins by considering an ecosystem as a whole and including each member of the ecological community individually. Yet in the Southwest, where most forest restoration takes place on federal lands, congressional and national interest groups are given powerful voice. Other considerations, such as the traditional knowledge of tribal communities, the economic and social needs of forest-dependent Hispanic and Anglo communities, and the concerns of communities threatened with wildfire are often neglected, in part because they require additional research and support to be included in effective forest restoration. Similarly, in the name of practicality and expediency restoration often takes the form of single-species management, neglecting the needs of other members of the ecological community. Can ecological restoration proceed without these voices? A restoration project on the Kaibab Paiute Reservation involving tribal members, Diné (Navajo) students and other rural communities in cooperation with the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University is one example of a restoration project that began by examining the needs and values of all concerned. The Community Forest Restoration Act being implemented in New Mexico is an example of federal policy that embraces many voices and diverse ecological values. These efforts suggest that it is possible to address the needs of the whole ecosystem and associated communities in restoration policy and practice.
KEY WORDS: traditional knowledge, forest-dependent communities, diversity