Vincent Randall, Apache Culture Director, Yavapai-Apache Nation: Emory Oak Collaborative
Tribal Restoration Initiative is to help restore and bring back not only healthy trees but
also a new growth of trees to replace the old ones.
Ever since I can remember, when acorn season came, that was one of the main things that
our family really wanted to do was make sure that they got their acorn crop in.
Barbara McCabe, Apache Elder, Yavapai-Apache Nation: What they would do is just pack up
the old truck and practically move almost, and have a campsite close to a grove where
the acorns were plentiful, and we would stay two or three days.
Sleep there, camp out and pick acorns all day long.
Dee Randall, Forester, San Carlos Apache Tribe: My aunts and my other cousins, we’d all
be there and being boys and being the youngest, we used to be climbing up the trees to shake
them so that the acorn would fall.
Ora Danford Henry, Elder, White Mountain Apache Tribe: Every time we’d pick, we ate the
acorn and tasted it, you know?
And since it tasted so good, we just continued to pick and eat.
Linda Evans, Apache Elder, Yavapai-Apache Nation: That was the good old days, and today
we still do that because it’s fun.
We laugh, we joke around, we sing as we’re picking, any kind of songs.
Ora Danford Henry, Elder, White Mountain Apache Tribe: But now I think a lot of that is not
here anymore, meaning it’s kind of hard to find really good acorn.
Vincent Randall, Apache Culture Director, Yavapai-Apache Nation: Tribal elders discussed
how they were endangered ‒ that the trees that were living, were old trees ‒ that
there were no new young ones to replace them.
And so, they were very concerned that a very vital food source in our way of life was going
to disappear.
Andrew Stevenson, Silviculturist, Coconino National Forest: When Vincent brought this
up, you know I had to listen to what he had to say because he actually knows far more
about these Emory oak groves than I ever do even though I’m a trained forester.
Vincent Randall, Apache Culture Director, Yavapai-Apache Nation: Because of human intervention,
in the ecosystem, the introduction of cattle, and because of overgrazing, what used to be
grassland becomes now filled with chaparral, and it chokes out the Emory oak.
So, we have all different kinds of conditions and then we also have the situation of the
warming of the climate.
Andrew Stevenson, Silviculturist, Coconino National Forest: At this point, I use my forestry
knowledge to think about, okay, well what are some things we can do on the ground to
help improve the health of the individual trees so that they start producing acorns?
What are ways that we can treat the entire grove so that we get more regeneration coming
back?
Nanebah Lyndon, Tribal Relations Program Manager, Tonto National Forest: We pulled together
a kind of collaborative advisory board consisting of elders, and foresters, and silviculturists.
Sara Souther, Assistant Professor, Northern Arizona University: We basically have almost
everything to learn.
We’re going find out whether burning, how important burning is and prescribed burns
and prescribed fires.
We’re looking at diseases and pests across our populations to see if they are playing
a role in affecting the survival and reproduction of these trees.
We are going to look to see how important it is to exclude herbivores like cattle, deer,
elk, and so we are going to learn a lot about these species.
Nanebah Lyndon, Tribal Relations Program Manager, Tonto National Forest: Every step of the way,
we keep the tribes involved and we are doing everything in a way that they think is appropriate
and sensitive and beneficial.
Vincent Randall, Apache Culture Director, Yavapai-Apache Nation: The primary focus of
the project is, of course, is the Emory oak.
But hopefully, through the consultation and through listening to tribal members, especially
the elders who can remember how things used to be back in the old days, that the Forest
Service would listen and begin to understand and see the responsibility of how they can
take care of the land just as we used to look at it in our own way.
Narrator: In Arizona, the Forest Service has partnered
with tribes to create the Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative, a conservation
program focused on restoring Emory oak habitat.
The goal of the initiative is to ensure that this precious resource is around for future
generations of Apache people.
Special Thanks to our Project Partners: Yavapai-Apache Nation
White Mountain Apache Tribe San Carlos Apache Tribe
Tonto Apache Tribe Northern Arizona University
Funding for the Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative is provided by Resolution
Copper.