APCAW Team – 2023 Award for Development of a Solution
The Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik or APCAW is honored with the recognition of this award given all the other great research being done by faculty, students, and collaborators in the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. A main driver of our work has been the potential implications of losing ash trees and their relationship to other species in the forest landscape. Of special importance is the brown ash – a culturally important species to the Wabanaki given the basketmaking traditions and source of identity and other important dimensions. APCAW helps to facilitate and mobilize diverse interests to address threats posed by the non-indigenous forest insect Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) that kills ash trees.
The success of the work has been directly related to collaborations with Wabanaki Tribal Nation communities, basket-makers, tribal managers and foresters, state and federal foresters, university researchers, and interested landowners. Tribal youth are a huge focus of the APCAW and our Tribal Nation partners which has helped foster great partnership in this work with the Wabanaki Youth in Science (WaYS) Program. Also, importantly new partners are joining in efforts such as the Wild Seed Project. In 2023, APCAW offered informative webinars and in-person trainings, based on graduate student research efforts and the work of our many collaborators, and it now all has a landing spot on our new dedicated APCAW website for recorded sessions and other program information. As might be expected, the scale necessary for meaningful protection of the ash species across the forest landscape requires the desire and interest of society as a whole, as well as the many private landowners who make forest management decisions. Fortunately, we’ve been encouraged by the number of participants that have engaged in our work this past year, representing the whole Northeast region and even parts of Canada. Nearly 1,000 people participated in the 2023 organized webinars and in-person trainings. For those interested in more information or to become more engaged in our work please visit the APCAW website.
We also encourage those interested to see some of APCAW’s work portrayed in the Public Television series – America’s Forest by Chuck Leavell portraying Maine’s forest in 2024.