Wild Rice in Minnesota

Good snowy morning to all!
So just how many lakes are there with wild rice in Minnesota? We're not discounting Wisconsin and Canada here....I just happen to have more information on Minnesota lakes than anything else.

In February of 2008 the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources released a wild rice study report requested by the Minnesota Legislature. The report includes current location and estimated acreage of natural wild rice stands; potential threats to those stands; and recommendations for protecting and increasing natural wild rice stands in the state. Link to report:


According to the report wild rice was once found across most of the state, but is now restricted primarily to central and north-central Minnesota. Wild rice is sometimes hard to pin down as it is an annual plant and dependent on water levels and growing conditions. Some years you will find it completely covering a lake, and other years - nothing. The best estimates to date are that wild rice is found on rougly 1286 lakes and river/stream segments across Minnesota. The largest concentration of lakes supporting natural wild rice are found in the following counties: Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca and St. Louis. Over 70% of all reported wild rice gathering trips occur in these counties.

Where has wild rice been lost? Do you know of natural stands that once existed, but are now gone? Do you want to help in monitoring the natural stands we have left? SORA hopes to put together some form of a citizen watch program for natural wild rice stands in Minnesota (Wisconsin is welcome to join us). Monitoring natural stands of wild rice is limited by funding, time and the complexities of wild rice management boundaries. What is needed is continuous interest and input by harvesters and wild rice enthusiasts to keep an eye on trends in natural wild rice growth and abundance. Inventories every 10-15 years will simply serve to monitor it's decline. Join us if you can by becoming involved, asking questions and supporting SORA.

Thanks for your interest in wild rice! Let's keep it around for a few hundred years more...

Miigwech,

Wild rice journaling?

Hello fellow wild rice enthusiasts! (Those of us crazy enough to LOVE going out in all sorts of weather with the bugs, sun, muck and more bugs!) One of the goals of SORA is to increase our understanding of natural wild rice, how it grows, ripens, etc. and to understand our human role as we interact with it. While conducting my research several years back, many of the wild rice harvesters/gatherers I interviewed mentioned keeping a journal about their ricing experience every year. In these journals amounts of rice harvested, dates and times, conditions of rice and even weather patterns were often noted. What might these journal entries provide us in regards to understanding wild rice ripening patterns and abundance?

SORA is looking to apply for grants to answer this question. Very little scientific study of natural wild rice ecology (growth, abundance, distribution) has been published. Would harvester journals be able to provide a data set going back 30-50 years? How would this information be collected? Who would have access to this information? Would harvesters be willing to share their journals with SORA? How many journals are out there that go back 30-50 years? What is the range of information available?

You can help with this project. In fact, you, as a wild rice gatherer and journal keeper, ARE the project. Please consider offering your opinion and expertise to SORA as we move forward to make this project a reality. We will be sending out inquiries to harvesters to look at interest and involvement, and I'm sure we'll be holding some meetings. My thoughts are that we will initiate this as a pilot project to check interest and data availability (ie. how many journals are there and what kind of data is in them?)

As always, please feel free to contact Annette at adrewes@saveourrice.org with any comments or ideas. Until next week, stay warm!

Annette

Looking to the New Year....

Okay, so it looks as though I should engage in a New Year's resolution to blog once a week. We'll see if I can be better at this in 2010 than I was in 2009. First off - a couple of new things happening with SORA! We have sent off our 501c3 application and are waiting to hear back from the feds on this. Keep your fingers crossed! What that does is allow us to go out on our own for grants and funding, without having to go through a fiscal agent. We are continuing to look for grants and funding that will allow us to both grow as an organization and to begin some of the research that is so badly needed with wild rice.

Secondly, mark the date: Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14th, 2010! It may seem far away, but it will be here before we know it along with another season of ricing! Aug. 13 SORA will be hosting an education/outreach event around wild rice and wild rice harvesting in Bemidji, Minnesota. On Saturday, the 14th, SORA will hold its 2nd Annual Wild Rice Gathering. The agenda has not been set - but again, we will be in Bemidji this year and please stay tuned for more details as we move into spring.

On a final note - the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is looking to identify 'important' wild rice lakes with a goal of at least documenting the importance of these lakes to the general public and local decision makers. Currently there really is no list, as it were, that developers, county commissioners, etc. can access to know if a particular lake has wild rice growing on it. This would help in reducing some conflicts or at the very least, raise some questions when decisions are being made. Look for the rice list on SORA or check with a member of the DNR Interagency Wild Rice Work Group (SORA is a member).

Until next week, stay warm, close your eyes and remember the sound of ripe rice falling into the canoe!

annette