AbstractTelling the Story of the Land: Revitalizing Traditional Plant Knowledge and Harvest With a View Toward Sustainability had three project objectives; one of these objectives was to develop a baseline for ongoing, long-term lowland forest research. To further this work, this aspect of the project included collecting and identifying plants in the Coast Salish Forest Garden (CSFG), with a focus on plants that are ethnobotanically relevant to the Lummi Nation. Data was used to update species lists in order to further asses the species in the garden for ethnobotanical relevance, long-term sustainability of the garden, and to assist in planning next steps in the management of the CSFG. The questions addressed in this work is: What might a forest garden look like at Northwest Indian College? What might enhancing the CSFG look like with regard to native and Lummi ethnobotanically relevant species?

MethodsThe methods used in this project mainly consisted of secondary research, fieldwork, and site visits for comparative observational surveys.•My research included aspects of: Lummi ethnobotany, forest gardening, permaculture, community environmental resilience, and food sovereignty.•The fieldwork I did for this project included plant collection and identification at the study site according to standard botany procedure’s (Pojar, Mackinnon, & Alaback; 1994). •The aerial view photo (see Figure 1) was taken using a quadcopter. •Two sites were visited for comparative observational surveys.•Western Washington University Forest Garden•An example of an established forest garden at a university•Kikitali Island with Swinomish tribal representatives•An example of a developed and relatively undisturbed Pacific Lowland Forest

ResultsQuestion is: What might a forest garden look like in a Coast Salish context at a tribal college?• Results of field data: • Plants recorded last year, are still present. Nine species have been added

(see Figure 2). • Results of secondary research• Added to ethnobotanical species list (see Figure 3) (Gunther & Janish, 1981

in Moerman, 2003), (Leckman, 1991).• Found that in the field of forest gardening, there hasn’t been work done in the

context of native species, native ethnobotany and culturally significant plants, or at a university.

Discussion• Now that the assessment is done… What is the nature of the species?• Native/Non-Native, Desirability, Invasive/aggressive

• Recommendations to improve/develop the character of the Coast Salish Garden in terms of Lummi ethnobotany and in terms of forest garden layers.• Ethnobotanically relevant plants are underrepresented in the garden.• Many of the plant species are not contributing in an ethnobotanically significant way.• Revitalization of traditional plant knowledge and harvest with a view toward

sustainability.• An increase of ethnobotanically relevant species increases educational

opportunities for our scholarly community.• An increase of ethnobotanically relevant species could improve the sustainability of

the garden.• Because of the garden’s status as a disturbed site, invasive and volunteer plants are

to be expected; an increase in native and ethnobotanically relevant species will help the garden respond to the invasive and volunteer species.

• The representation of traditional food plants increases community access to health-promoting, traditional foods; this coincides with the community commitment to wellness.

ReferencesGunther, E., & Janish, J. R. (1973). Ethnobotany of western Washington: The

knowledge and use of indigenous plants by Native Americans. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Leckman, S. (1990). A Forest History of the Lummi Indian Reservation. Seattle, WA.Moerman, D. (2003, May 13). Native American Ethnobotany Database Retrieved August 3,

2015, from http://herb.umd.umich.eduPojar, J., MacKinnon, A., & Alaback, P. B. (1994) Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast:

Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Redmond, Wash: Lone Pine Pub.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Brian Compton, Ph.D.; Lynda Jensen, M.A.; Gary Brandt, M.Ed.; and Phavion Gorman for their support on this internship.

IntroductionEvery person has story, every community has a story, and every place has a

story. In the second year of Telling the Story of the Land, I am one of the storytellers. This is my piece of the telling the story of the Coast Salish Garden. Last year’s interns carried out a thorough survey of the present species. Then, each individual intern focused on an individual topic. One looked at permaculture, another at Lummi ethnobotany, and the last at historical and cultural consideration’s. In the second year of the internship, I start with these three very different projects already completed. All individually are valuable work, and have made my work possible, which is why I think that this project is best explained as a synthesis. It borrows and builds on bits of the preceding projects to come to an interpretation of what a forest garden could look like on this campus.

Through all of these projects, I see something missing. The work done with this space is burdened with a general lack of understanding of the space as a member of the community. And I think that the sense of absence stems from not considering what holistic continuity needs to happen. The transitory nature of student relationships in a college community underlies and reinforces this absent consideration. Yet for this garden to prosper and flourish, it must be recognized as a community member in order to foster the holistic continuity that will ensure its growth and prosperity. For something to work here, it has to have a few things: it needs to belong, it needs to have cultural relevance, and it needs to further the education of the people, which we understand as a matter of survival.

What emerged from this reflection was the blossoming of my own axiology that I understand myself and my relationships with plants differently now and that my educational goals have taken shape as a result. Considering how other people interact with these ideas through a literature review revealed that basically no one has approached forest gardening from an Indigenous viewpoint and certainly not at a tribal college. What emerges from my new found perspective is the understanding that we have a unique opportunity to approach this work as an indigenous learning community, establishing a complete landscape.

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