Wisconsin tribes excited for promising crop
Wildlife officials report favorable conditions for harvest
In the first year since Wisconsin’s Wild Rice Stewardship Council launched to protect the culturally significant crop, wild rice harvests have increased thanks to a wet spring followed by dry late summer conditions. The Bad River Reservation, headquarters of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, hosts the largest natural wild rice bed in the Great Lakes basin.
Wisconsin Public Radio’s Danielle Kaeding reported from the state’s inaugural Wild Rice Week, where Ojibwe leaders celebrated the plentiful harvests of “manoomin.”
Wisconsin wildlife officials told Kaeding that when the plant is in its floating leaf stage around early summer, sudden increases in water levels can cause substantial problems. Shoreline development on Lake Superior, pollution and storms driven by climate change all threaten wild rice harvests as well. Many lakes where wild rice no longer grows are targets for the council to eventually try to replenish the natural resource.
- 1.Danielle Kaeding. Wisconsin’s wild rice harvest is expected to be up this year. Wisconsin Public Radio.
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