鈥榃ay of Life鈥�: Protecting Indigenous lands and culture from invasive species

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鈥榃ay of Life鈥�: Protecting Indigenous lands and culture from invasive species

Our Living Lands | By Rachel Cohen

Published February 10, 2025 at 5:22 AM MST

Several people are bent over picking weeds in a marshy area in front of a lake — Fish and wildlife officials from many tribes met in California in 2024 to discuss challenges they face with invasive species management. As part of a workshop near Clear Lake in Calif., they learned techniques for removing an invasive plant called water primrose and electrofishing to catch invasive carp.

Invasive species are around the world. They鈥檙e also increasingly affecting tribal lands, and climate change is making it worse.

The Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau's Rachel Cohen spoke with Mitzi Reed, an enrolled citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians who also leads the invasive species program, about how she works with tribes on invasive species challenges 鈥� from freshwater mussels to plants like water primrose.

"[Invasive species] are not just affecting our lands or what we can see, it's affecting our past, our traditions, what our ancestors tried to thrive for us," she said. "It threatens all of that, too."

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Rachel Cohen

Rachel Cohen is the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau reporter for KUNC. She covers topics most important to the Western region. She spent five years at Boise State Public Radio, where she reported from Twin Falls and the Sun Valley area, and shared stories about the environment and public health.

See stories by Rachel Cohen

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鈥榃ay of Life鈥�: Protecting Indigenous lands and culture from invasive species

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