Print PageUsing the educational model of wild rice camps (seasonal subsistence community gatherings), students and others are taught the traditional ecological knowledge of how to turn cedar wood and other plant resources into rice harvesting sticks, forked poles for pushing canoes thru wild rice populations, and other natural resources into rice processing equipment. The camps provide opportunities to use the tools the participants have made for harvesting wild rice from canoes with other novice and veteran ricers. Some of this fresh grain is preserved for use by undergraduate students in the Wild Rice and Ethnobiology Lab for research on comparative germination rates and winter dormancy requirements of select populations of Zizania palustris in Michigan. This research is contributing insight into the restoration ecology question of whether we should transport seed from one end of the Great Lakes ecoregion to the other end, or utilize local (and less productive) sources of wild rice for restoration of declining populations.
Results/Conclusions
Ferris State has exposed a select handful of students to both field and laboratory research on wild rice physiology, ecology, smut pathogen lifecycles, and restoration of aquatic emergent plant communities. This has expanded the undergraduates' horizons, providing experiences and unique learning environments that will impact them, regardless of their career trajectories. Results from several of the projects will be discussed from both the student and research mentor perspective. The students are stewards of the wild rice ecosystems as they both help train and become themselves the next generation of wild ricers in this eco-cultural revitalization project of the Native Wild Rice Coalition.
