Indigenous Knowledge on Migitating Climate Change and Eco Friendly Farming

[Piney]

@Doug1066

I'm not a forester but I designed a natural water filtration system for a student's forest garden yesterday and I think it would work with many types of farms in the northeast.

Plant poplar stands on the banks to soak up nitrates and other pollutants, help stop erosion and soak up carbon. Pollinators also love them.

Plant the mudflats with wild rice to also clean the water of nitrates and prevent erosion also providing a crop.

Side ponds planted with water lotus ( which was brought to the East by the Fox Creek and /or Meadowood Culture) providing a crop and giving pollinators some variety.

Seed sandy shallows with freshwater clams providing more filters,  another crop, food for animals.

This is based on a smaller stream. Not a river.

@Swede 

Any ideas since you are both more knowledgeable?

[Piney]

@rashore

A heritage grower should be involved too.

To everybody

Cattails are out. The phragmites overran them and they are rare now.

Plus the stream is too small.

[rashore]

For a creek and mud? Plant in medicinals and beneficials- jewelweed, milkweed, joe pye, armanaths, borages, horsetail; fertility and tilth improvers- chicory, comfrey, common mullen, dock, and thistle types. Watch for edible indictor plants like dandelion, plantain, purslane, and lambs quarters that can indicate richness or deficiencies in the soil. Plant in understory for fauna- berry bushes, small fruited dwarf trees, edible ferns, walking alliums... also for feed/food crops deep rooted beets, parsnips, salsify, oyster plant, and parsleys- all are biannuuals. 

Bummer to lose cattails. Use the phragmites as an edible crop instead. Young shoots are tasty like cattail and hosta shoots are, the seed is edible, and you can render sugar from it like sugarcane- but it can have a bit of an anise taste. If you have quite a lot of them, you could process them for a cash crop for basket makers and weavers. You can help cull and control spread between early shoot removal and latter harvesting. 

If you want cheap fencing. River/weeping willow or hazel for coppicing. Sassafras can work, but can be more difficult since it does not always grow as straight- but it does also yield file powder for gumbos. Willow is the most efficient of the three for pulling up and retaining/confining water impurities. Black willow is also excellent for it, but it grows much more gnarly than weeping, thus less suitable for fencing. It can grow plush enough for some animal retainment if it's kept harshly. Osage orange is the superior hedge for animal retainment by comparison. 

There's a lot more, but that's what I got off the top of my head before I've had all my coffee. 

[Piney]

58 minutes ago, rashore said:

For a creek and mud? Plant in medicinals and beneficials- jewelweed, milkweed, joe pye, armanaths, borages, horsetail; fertility and tilth improvers- chicory, comfrey, common mullen, dock, and thistle types. Watch for edible indictor plants like dandelion, plantain, purslane, and lambs quarters that can indicate richness or deficiencies in the soil. Plant in understory for fauna- berry bushes, small fruited dwarf trees, edible ferns, walking alliums... also for feed/food crops deep rooted beets, parsnips, salsify, oyster plant, and parsleys- all are biannuuals. 

Bummer to lose cattails. Use the phragmites as an edible crop instead. Young shoots are tasty like cattail and hosta shoots are, the seed is edible, and you can render sugar from it like sugarcane- but it can have a bit of an anise taste. If you have quite a lot of them, you could process them for a cash crop for basket makers and weavers. You can help cull and control spread between early shoot removal and latter harvesting. 

If you want cheap fencing. River/weeping willow or hazel for coppicing. Sassafras can work, but can be more difficult since it does not always grow as straight- but it does also yield file powder for gumbos. Willow is the most efficient of the three for pulling up and retaining/confining water impurities. Black willow is also excellent for it, but it grows much more gnarly than weeping, thus less suitable for fencing. It can grow plush enough for some animal retainment if it's kept harshly. Osage orange is the superior hedge for animal retainment by comparison. 

There's a lot more, but that's what I got off the top of my head before I've had all my coffee. 

I'm trying to keep it Native Northeast , but lambs quarters was actually domesticated by the Adena.

[Doug1066]

5 hours ago, Piney said:

@Doug1066

I'm not a forester but I designed a natural water filtration system for a student's forest garden yesterday and I think it would work with many types of farms in the northeast.

Plant poplar stands on the banks to soak up nitrates and other pollutants, help stop erosion and soak up carbon. Pollinators also love them.

Plant the mudflats with wild rice to also clean the water of nitrates and prevent erosion also providing a crop.

Side ponds planted with water lotus ( which was brought to the East by the Fox Creek and /or Meadowood Culture) providing a crop and giving pollinators some variety.

Seed sandy shallows with freshwater clams providing more filters,  another crop, food for animals.

This is based on a smaller stream. Not a river.

@Swede 

Any ideas since you are both more knowledgeable?

A man named Rod Will has done some research with cottonwood plantings to reduce nitrogen pollution from old feed and hog lots.  I tried to find his paper, but it wasn't listed on Google Scholar.  I'll try again.

My experience of trees vs nitrogen consists of having burned up some seedlings I planted in an overly-rich amine deposit in an old feed lot.

I think your idea is a good one.  Keep up the good work.

Doug

[Piney]

19 hours ago, rashore said:

For a creek and mud? Plant in medicinals and beneficials- jewelweed, milkweed, joe pye, armanaths, borages, horsetail; fertility and tilth improvers- chicory, comfrey, common mullen, dock, and thistle types. Watch for edible indictor plants like dandelion, plantain, purslane, and lambs quarters that can indicate richness or deficiencies in the soil. Plant in understory for fauna- berry bushes, small fruited dwarf trees, edible ferns, walking alliums... also for feed/food crops deep rooted beets, parsnips, salsify, oyster plant, and parsleys- all are biannuuals. 

Bummer to lose cattails. Use the phragmites as an edible crop instead. Young shoots are tasty like cattail and hosta shoots are, the seed is edible, and you can render sugar from it like sugarcane- but it can have a bit of an anise taste. If you have quite a lot of them, you could process them for a cash crop for basket makers and weavers. You can help cull and control spread between early shoot removal and latter harvesting. 

If you want cheap fencing. River/weeping willow or hazel for coppicing. Sassafras can work, but can be more difficult since it does not always grow as straight- but it does also yield file powder for gumbos. Willow is the most efficient of the three for pulling up and retaining/confining water impurities. Black willow is also excellent for it, but it grows much more gnarly than weeping, thus less suitable for fencing. It can grow plush enough for some animal retainment if it's kept harshly. Osage orange is the superior hedge for animal retainment by comparison. 

There's a lot more, but that's what I got off the top of my head before I've had all my coffee. 

There is a ongoing debate about Osage orange in the East. People were bringing it here after 1850 but I did find a very old tree once that looked coppiced for bows. I should of took a core.

Back from the riverline on the flood plain elderberry for sap (syrup) which is what outer coastal plain natives used in lieu of maple and berries. Service berries also. Jack-in-the-pulpit for medicine and ginseng for sale and medicine.

Sassafras is already present.

Phragmites are invasive here and I'm avoiding anything that didn't show up in floatation studies. 

@Doug1066

[rashore]

Sounds like you already know what you want for plantings. This thread does not need any additional suggestions from me for plantings. 

[Piney]

On 6/25/2022 at 6:40 AM, rashore said:

Sounds like you already know what you want for plantings. This thread does not need any additional suggestions from me for plantings. 

You provided some good suggestions. My stroke damaged autistic mind remembers and forgets things all the time.

I wasn't thinking about bracken ferns or lambs quarters until you suggested it.

[Doug1066]

4 hours ago, Piney said:

You provided some good suggestions. My stroke damaged autistic mind remembers and forgets things all the time.

I wasn't thinking about bracken ferns or lambs quarters until you suggested it.

And, bracken ferns are fire-adapted.  Burn an established plant and it just re-sprouts.   Lambs quarters are annuals.  Burn the plant and it dies, but seeds remain in the ground and will come up the following year.

Doug

[Piney]

3 hours ago, Doug1066 said:

And, bracken ferns are fire-adapted.  Burn an established plant and it just re-sprouts.   Lambs quarters are annuals.  Burn the plant and it dies, but seeds remain in the ground and will come up the following year.

Doug

I know about bracken. It's a Pine Barren native. I'm also familiar with lambs quarters because it's a Algonquian secondary food source.

[Doug1066]

58 minutes ago, Piney said:

I know about bracken. It's a Pine Barren native. I'm also familiar with lambs quarters because it's a Algonquian secondary food source.

We occasionally have lamb's quarters salads.  Work pretty well with vinegar-and-oil dressing.

Doug

[Piney]

50 minutes ago, Doug1066 said:

We occasionally have lamb's quarters salads.  Work pretty well with vinegar-and-oil dressing.

Doug

Do me a favor if your near the Halliburton Monument.

Place a quarter on the base and say...

"Uncle Shep, the last Randolph trained logger beseeches you to watch and protect St. Lizzy in her fight to protect democracy."

 

[Doug1066]

13 minutes ago, Piney said:

Do me a favor if your near the Halliburton Monument.

Place a quarter on the base and say...

"Uncle Shep, the last Randolph trained logger beseeches you to watch and protect St. Lizzy in her fight to protect democracy."

 

?????

Doug

[Piney]

1 hour ago, Doug1066 said:

?????

Doug

You never saw the Erle Halliburton statue in Duncan?

[Doug1066]

40 minutes ago, Piney said:

You never saw the Erle Halliburton statue in Duncan?

Only been to Duncan once and that just passing through.

Doug

[Swede]

On 6/24/2022 at 5:34 AM, Piney said:

 

@Swede 

Any ideas since you are both more knowledgeable?

Apologies for the slow response. Have been most engaged. Will attempt to catch up with the pages over the weekend.

Not being intimately familiar with your specific micro-ecosystem, my input will be limited to the general area, aquatic/semi-aquatic environments, and Indigenous usage. There are actually a quite number of applicable genera/species. For starters:

Alliums: Wild leeks (ramps), Allium tricoccum, do well in moist environments, were commonly utilized by a number of Indigenous groups, and are most tasty and healthful.

Polygonaceae: The Polygonums are a diverse group of the buckwheat family. Species known to be traditionally utilized (and archaeologically documented) include those going by common names such as knotweed and smartweed. Check spp for your specific area.

Sagittaria: Arrowhead root (Sagittaria latifolia). Aquatic. Common Indigenous utilization.  “Indian potato”, wapato, etc.

Chenopodium: Careful with the nomenclature on this one. The genus Chenopodium includes quite a number of species and common names can be bandied about in rather imprecise manners. For example, true lamb’s quarter (Chenopodium album) is of Eurasian origin and any association with Archaic/Early Woodland North American cultures is highly questionable at best. Due to local naming patterns, you are likely referring to a goosefoot such as Chenopodium hybridum . Again, check local spp.That said, C. album is highly nutritious and tasteful.

Acorus calamus: Commonly known as sweet flag. Traditional Algonquian names include bitter root. Aquatic to semi-aquatic. Medicinal applications.

Again, just some starters.

[Abramelin]

I like this thread but I need to google to find out about what plants you all are talking about. So I'm glad Swede showed up with the systematic (latin) names.

[Swede]

16 hours ago, Abramelin said:

I like this thread but I need to google to find out about what plants you all are talking about. So I'm glad Swede showed up with the systematic (latin) names.

Abe: As always, pleased that my input has been of value. Additional notes:

• The traditional Anishinabemowin (Ojibwe/Algonquian) name for A. calamus is wiikay.
• Another genus, given the loosely specified environment, would be representatives of the genus Salix (willow). There are some 30 species present in the general area of concern. Heavily utilized by Indigenous cultures for utilitarian and medicinal purposes. The base source for modern day aspirin. Can go into a bit of detail on the latter..

.

[Abramelin]

34 minutes ago, Swede said:

The base source for modern day aspirin. Can go into a bit of detail on the latter..

Yes, acetyl salicyl acid. It's in the bark.

[Doug1066]

6 hours ago, Abramelin said:

Yes, acetyl salicyl acid. It's in the bark.

Willow bark; hence, it derives its name from the genus name for the willows:  Salicacea.

Doug

[Abramelin]

2 hours ago, Doug1066 said:

Willow bark; hence, it derives its name from the genus name for the willows:  Salicacea.

Doug

I know. But it would be great if you Angri-Saxons also use the latin names of the herbs you post about. In that case non-Angri-Saxons won't have to google for that latin/systemetical name first to know what plant you are talking about.

 

[Doug1066]

11 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

I know. But it would be great if you Angri-Saxons also use the latin names of the herbs you post about. In that case non-Angri-Saxons won't have to google for that latin/systemetical name first to know what plant you are talking about.

 

So you want us to Google the Latin names?

Besides, I'm a forester.  We use a standardized list of common names.  Unfortunately, some, like hop hornbeam, ironwood and Virginian hornbeam (all the same tree) are not on the list.

Doug

Edited July 4, 2022 by Doug1066

[Abramelin]

7 minutes ago, Doug1066 said:

So you want us to Google the Latin names?

 

Yes.

I work for a landscaping company, and you are expected to know the latin names of many herbs, shrubs and trees. Not that I know all of them, btw.

And that's because these Latin/systemetical names are used for international trade and so on. I think posting on a forum frequented by people from all over the world should count too.

But that's just me.

[Swede]

11 hours ago, Abramelin said:

Yes, acetyl salicyl acid. It's in the bark.

Close. The actual component found in the inner bark of the Salix spp is salicylic acid. Acetylsalicylic acid is the synthetic version originally developed by Bayer. It is worth noting that salicylic acid use has a lower incidence of causing the bleeding and stomach upset associated with acetylsalicylic acid, i.e. aspirin.

[Abramelin]

3 minutes ago, Swede said:

Close. The actual component found in the inner bark of the Salix spp is salicylic acid. Acetylsalicylic acid is the synthetic version originally developed by Bayer. It is worth noting that salicylic acid use has a lower incidence of causing the bleeding and stomach upset associated with acetylsalicylic acid, i.e. aspirin.

You are right, as usual.

The 'acetyl' part of the molecule was added to stabilize it.