{"id":7651,"date":"2015-07-21T15:41:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T19:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?page_id=7651"},"modified":"2017-02-03T13:09:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T18:09:01","slug":"drawing-on-local-knowledge-to-build-better-solutions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/newsletters\/drawing-on-local-knowledge-to-build-better-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing on Local Knowledge to Build Better Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stakeholders<\/a>
Stakeholders continue to meet to share knowledge and lessons learned<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mitchell Center researchers are tackling diverse problems, but all of them are committed to close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the research process. Every project is rooted in the understanding that the people, agencies, and organizations dealing with sustainability challenges have expertise and insights that researchers lack\u2014information that is key to finding effective and sustainable solutions.<\/p>\n

The process begins with listening, says Darren Ranco, Chair of Native American Programs, Director of Native American Research at UMaine and a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, who is leading a team to help Maine prepare for a likely invasion of the emerald ash borer (EAB). This insect threatens to decimate the state\u2019s ash trees, which are at the center of culture, art, and livelihood for Maine\u2019s renowned Indian basketmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinking knowledge with action is about listening to people and where they\u2019re at and what they\u2019re\"rancoquote\"<\/a> concerned about,\u201d Ranco says. \u201cWe\u2019re mutual learners. We have some knowledge and expertise, but everyone else does as well\u2014basketmakers, ash harvesters and other tribal members, along with foresters and tribal, state and federal agencies. Our question is: how do we mobilize all these different forms of knowledge to actually solve a problem? No one community or group can do that alone. It takes all of us working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The emerald ash borer team and their partners are creating an innovative \u201csafety net\u201d to help protect the State\u2019s ash trees from the destructive insect, which in 2014 was found within 35 miles of the Maine border in Loudon and Salem, NH, and North Andover, MA. Ranco\u2019s team has established guidelines to help tribal and state agencies develop coordinated emergency response plans, which outline steps for fighting a borer invasion, from monitoring and control to communication and quarantines. These plans are the first in the U.S. to be developed in collaboration with tribes before the borer arrives.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s work continues with a new research project focused on adapting to an EAB invasion. \u201cWith EAB\u2019s imminent arrival in Maine, we are continuing our project so that all of our partners work together in a collaborative manner to respond to the potential devastation, and we will also seek ways in which we can all work together to adapt to its arrival,\u201d Ranco says.<\/p>\n

\"Graduate<\/a>
Graduate student Kara Costanza helped map the location of high quality ash stands in Maine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To that end, the EAB team will launch pilot projects to evaluate ways to store brown ash materials, locate and secure access for harvesting ash trees in new locations, and document traditional methods of identifying and harvesting basket-quality ash trees to ensure that these techniques are available for future generations. \u201cThroughout the process, we will continue to meet and share lessons learned,\u201d Ranco says.<\/p>\n

Funding to support new research on adaptation to an EAB invasion has been provided by the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and the Northeastern States Research Cooperative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Center researchers are tackling diverse problems, but all of them are committed to close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the research process. Every project is rooted in the understanding that the people, agencies, and organizations dealing with sustainability challenges have expertise and insights that researchers lack\u2014information that is key to finding effective and sustainable solutions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":0,"parent":2179,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-7651","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mitchellcenter","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/mitchellcenter\/"},"comment_info":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11398,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7651\/revisions\/11398"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}