Nuturing native lands: restoring the forests of the NiMiiPuu tribe.

Along a sloping hillside in north-central Idaho, one-year-old ponderosa pine seedlings soaked up sunlight and spread their roots. The Nez Perce, or NiMiiPuu, tribe, which owns the land, planted the trees in 2002 with visions of the water quality and environmental health they would bring. But its hopes for regenerating the land faded when fire from a vehicle on a nearby highway spread onto the reservation.

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Over nine days in August 2003 the Mile Post 59 fire seared the pine seedlings along with 8,139 acres of forestland on the reservation, above the Clearwater River, north of Kamiah. The Nez Perce--known historically for their generosity to Lewis and Clark and for their current efforts on behalf of the endangered gray wolf--are considered careful stewards of their land, and forests provide the tribe with its second largest income. The Mile Post 59 fire was devastating: 60 percent of the Nez Perce forestland watershed was lost.

This past spring, with support from AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf campaign, the tribe was able to replant the majority of the 340-acre Nez Perce Woods Property, which sits between the communities of Orofino and Kamiah. The tribe planted 111,400 seedlings--90 percent ponderosa pine and 10 percent Douglas-fir, two native species which are considered "suitable [for planting] after a disturbance and tend to be more resistant to insects and disease," says John DeGroot, director of forestry for the tribe.

The post-fire Woods Property would have been lost to scrubby brush without AMERICAN FORESTS' grant, DeGroot says. Some planting had already taken place on tribal lands with support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation program and an Environmental Protection Agency grant. However, because the Woods Property was purchased separately by the tribe and considered Purchase Lands, not managed by the BIA, it was not eligible for BIA funding. That's when the Nez Perce turned to AMERICAN FORESTS.

The Nez Perce were the first beneficiaries in a recently announced decade-long partnership between AMERICAN FORESTS and Coleman Natural Foods that has as its goal planting 20 million trees.

Growing merchantable trees in that section of Idaho is no easy proposition. Big game and field mice alike enjoy snacking on the tender seedlings. DeGroot says they anticipated some damage and planted accordingly. Herbicides and tree shelter tubes will be used to ensure maximum protection.

The trees will improve water quality and environmental health in addition to improving aesthetic beauty in the area along Highway 12 and the Lochsa/Clearwater Scenic River Corridor. Because the planting areas are mostly steep with highly erodible soils, trees will be used to stabilize the soil and decrease runoff. That, in turn, will prevent sediment from accumulating in the adjacent Clearwater River, which supports populations of threatened and endangered anadromous fish.

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The Clearwater River will need the cleansing power of streamside trees to help it maintain its pristine quality as it flows through the forest. Several communities including Lapwai, Lewiston, Kamiah, Kooskia, and Orofino rely on the river for drinking water, income, irrigation, and recreation.

Animals such as bear, cougar, deer, elk, and the endangered gray wolf also rely on the Clearwater's clear water and its surrounding forestland. "Maintaining the property as a large block of forestland ... will likely help maintain wildlife habitat," says DeGroot.

The Nez Perce are especially anxious to see the gray wolf continue to prosper. Endangered across the United States except in Minnesota and Alaska, the wolf ran into trouble during European-American westward settlement when its main food source--bison, deer, elk, and moose--became depleted and the wolves turned to sheep and cattle, which turned ranchers against them.

Despite rancher hunting, the Nez Perce have helped stabilize the population and continue their efforts to release wolves brought from Canada into the wilderness. They hope to see the wolf downgraded to "threatened" status in Idaho. In 1999 the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development presented the Nez Perce with its "Honoring Nations" award for the tribe's wolf preservation efforts.

The Nez Perce's conservation efforts have not been limited solely to animals. Preserving the environment is essential to the tribe because "their culture is based on what the earth provides," says DeGroot. The Nez Perce are currently helping plant trees between the Clearwater River and Woods Property, even though the land is officially managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The forestland the Nez Perce manage is maintained as such rather than converted to alternative uses. The previously heavily forested Woods Property was purchased by the tribe in 1996 after a logging and land development company "removed all the valuable large merchantable trees, leaving large cull trees with no value and small trees with no market value," says DeGroot. The tribe planted acres of ponderosa pine seedlings, and today 750 of the Woods Property's 900 acres are classified as commercial forestland.

The tribe's environmentally responsible management practices use methods that minimize or alleviate adverse environmental impacts during tree planting, thinning, and timber harvest. Environmental concerns are addressed based on the recommendations of an interdisciplinary team of specialists in forestry, fire, water, wildlife, fishery, range, and cultural resources. A Continuous Forestry Inventory ensures timber harvests don't exceed growth. Timber is the second leading source of income for the tribe, after its two casinos.

The Woods Property, categorized as purchase land, is one of three types of tribal lands (the others are allotments and trust reserves). When Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery met the Nez Perce in 1805, tribal lands encompassed 17 million acres. Today the tribe's 3,363 members and its nine-member Executive Committee take pride in protecting and preserving their remaining 770,000 acres of tribal land. While the Nez Perce refer to themselves as "NiMiiPuu," meaning "The People," Lewis and Clark called the people of the tribe "Nez Perce," meaning "pierced noses." Southern neighboring tribes, including the Shoshone and Bannock, referred to the Nez Perce as "people under the tule," because the Nez Perce lived in tule mat-covered double lean-to long houses. Another nickname was "Khouse eaters" because the Nez Perce gathered roots and berries, such as the khouse root, as well as hunted.

The Nez Perce treated Lewis and Clark with friendship and generosity, sharing food, offering lodging, and providing maps for the Corps' upcoming journey. The Nez Perce showed the explorers how to construct canoes and even accompanied them downriver. For a year, until the spring of 1806, the tribe cared for the Corps' horses while they were away. Upon their return, Lewis and Clark awarded the Nez Perce with Jefferson Peace Medals. But that peace was not long to last.

With the "treaties of peace" of 1855 and 1863, the U.S. Government attempted to force the tribe to give up its ancestral homeland and be confined to a reservation, which would stop its seasonal travels in search of food. Chiefs Joseph, White Bird, and Looking Glass refused to sign the treaty of 1863.

When General Oliver O. Howard gave the tribe a 30-day ultimatum, the chiefs prepared to move. Young Nez Perce warriors, seeking retribution for the killing of a warrior family member by a white settler, attacked and killed 18 hostile white settlers, touching off the Nez Perce War of 1877.

The Nez Perce fled 13,000 miles north through Montana to find aid, fighting five battles along the way. At Bear's Paw Mountain, 40 miles from the Canadian border, Chief Joseph surrendered in an attempt to spare the lives of women and children.

"Hear me, my chiefs," Chief Joseph cried in one of his most famous speeches. "I am tired, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun stands now I will fight no more, forever."

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The summer sun is setting now over newly planted seedlings, ones the Nez Perce hope will restore health to their Woods Property. The work has finished ahead of schedule, a fact that will give the seedlings their best chance to become established before competition with brush and grass becomes severe. As they grow they offer hope for continued clean air and water, important qualities for a tribe that has a long history of nurturing the land.

Since 1990, AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf tree-planting and education campaign, which funds cash grants to local groups for important restoration projects, has supported the planting of native trees by local partners in forests that otherwise would take years to regenerate. Every dollar donated to AMERICAN FORESTS plants a tree. The Nez Perce tribe's Woods Property is one of many ongoing success stories of damaged lands that are becoming environmentally beneficial forests again, one tree at a time.

Go to http://www.nezperce.org/ for more information about the Nez Perce Tribe. To learn more about AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf program or to plant trees, visit www.americanforests.org.

Meghan Amoroso was a summer intern in AMERICAN FORESTS' publications department.

PHOTOS BY RANDY BEACHAM