The Integration of Traditional Ecological
Knowledge with Western Science for
Sustainable Forest Management
Frank K. Lake
USFS-Corvallis Forestry Sciences
Lab/Intertribal Program Office, OSU
Environmental Science, Graduate Ph.D
program
Raised in NW California
Fisheries and Fire Ecology
Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Traditional Ecological Knowledge

“A cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief,
evolving by adaptive processes and handed down
through generations by cultural transmission, about
the relationship of living beings (including humans)
with one another and with the environment…is both
cumulative and dynamic, building on experience and
adapting to changes”
(Berkes 1999:8 in Sacred Ecology).
TEK and Cultural Environmental
Management Practices
Work with the “Natural” conditions of the local
environment across many different habitats
 Often mimics natural processes observed in nature
to increase biodiversity locally and/or regionally
 Refinement of TEK and CEMP through time lead to
the maintenance and/or enhancement of ecosystem
productivity
 Effects vary in intensity, spatially and temporally
across the landscape

Cultural Environmental
Management Practices
 Mimics natural physical and biological
disturbance processes
Fire (seasonality and location may differ)
Animals (extent and duration may differ)
 Buffer against extreme ranges of natural
variability
 Fosters biodiversity and productivity
 Learning to read and understand Nature
The Development of Native
Peoples’ Ecological Literacy
 Traditional Ecological
Knowledge
 Cultural
Environmental
Management Practices
 Fostering of
Community
 Ethics of Sustainability
Ecological Literacy
Expanding and developing further than environmental
education
 Leaning to “Read” and understand ecological processes
and explain phenomena of Nature
 Integrate TEK and Western Scientific Knowledge
 Accumulates inter-generationally by individuals and
community

 Defined: The ability of an individual or community to
observed, understand, and predict ecological
processes and phenomena of Nature.
Evolution of TEK and CEMP
Lertzman, Spies, and Swanson 1997
Humans?
Sustainable forest managementWhat is it any way?
 … “is the process of managing forest to achieve
one or more clearly specified objectives of
management with regard to the production of a
continuous flow of desired forest products and
services without undue reduction of its inherent
values and future productivity and without undue
undesirable effects on the physical and social
environment” –ITTO
Criteria and Indicators: Cultural
vs. Western-Should they differ?
 Tribal governments and communities have the
unique ability to set the stage and lead by
example what sustainable forest management
can be and is.
 Criteria and indicators can reflect multiple
knowledge systems and include a broader
definition of forest productivity or “goods and
services” provided by the land base.
Integrated Resource Management
Plans and Forest Management Plans

These documents provide an opportunity for tribal
governments and communities to a have functional role
in the world timber market and retain their unique ecocultural values and a modest quality of life.

These documents also often reflect a strong place based
commitment that accounts for social-ecological
processes and interactions that are not often reflected in
other non-Native management plans.
Forest Productivity –
A tribal definition ?
Sustainable supply of timber and other forest products
 Preservation of water quality and quantity
 Preservation of fish and wildlife habitat
 Good quantity and quality of food, medicinal, and
material resources
 Preservation of spiritual-cultural resources
 Maintenance of a sense of place: self and community
identity

Timber harvesting practices that
account for multiple values
Harvesting practices that account for
productive basket material patches
Over storycanopy
conditions:
basal area and
species
preferences
 Light and
nutrient
requirements
 Low intensity
fires

Harvesting practices that account for
productive berry and herb patches
 Over story-canopy conditions: basal area and
species preferences
 Light and nutrient requirements
 Harvesting and fire sensitivity of tree and
understory species to management
Forest Restoration: Fuel Reduction and
Prescribed Burning
Understand how Native
peoples used fire in the
past
 Landscape level effects
 Lighting vs.
Anthropogenic
 Fire Adapted
Ecosystems
 Overstory vs.
understory

Photo: Curtis, Klamath Indian
Oak woodland and savanna restoration:
Reinstating Indigenous land use practices.



Harvesting of conifers and hardwoods
Prescribed burning
Establishment Study: Culturally significant plants
Camas, Lilies, Brodiaea, Wyethia, Lomatium, etc.
Aquatic-Headwater Springs

Sacred places/prayer spots
Pacific giant salamander

Water and food processing
sites

Burning
Clear vegetation
Water yield
Water Quantity and
Quality
Closing Ideas and Questions?
 How realistic is the integration of TEK with
western science for sustainable forest
management?
 Can tribal IRMPs and FMPs serve as templates for
other governments or companies if such
divergent eco-cultural values of forest resources
exist between western and tribal communities?
 What current tribal forest management examples
are available as case studies or of successful
adaptive management?