GEMs in the rough
UW students lend a green thumb in local gardens
September 28, 2005
By KEVIN O'BRIEN
The Daily Press, Ashland, Wisconsin
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 09:33:24 AM
Reprinted by permission
On a small, secluded plot just a few hundred feet behind the Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center, a collection of sunflowers, cornstalks, beans and squash plants grows together in perfect ecological harmony.
Each plant offers natural benefits to its neighbors; for example, the bean vines wrap themselves around the cornstalks.
"They get to travel up the corn, but they provide nitrogen for everything else," says gardener Dan Solberg. "The squash provides protection."
This type of plot is known as a Three Sisters Garden, an ancient Native American tradition designed to produce a small ecosystem in which several different types of plants flourish at once.
The garden is one of the many local gardening projects completed this summer with help from two University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point students as part of the College of Natural Resource's Global Environmental Management (GEM) program.
Dan Solberg, left, and Ben Wojahn, students from the University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point, planted a Native American Three Sisters Garden behind the Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center this summer as part of the university's Global Environmental Management program. The garden includes two types of squash, three types of beans, sunflowers and Bear Island Flint corn.
Solberg, who is majoring in soils and forest ecosystem management, has been working alongside classmate Ben Wojahn, a soils and land-use major with a minor in botany.
On their final trip to the Three Sisters Garden on Wednesday, they explained the GEM program's mission to support local, community-based agriculture.
"A lot of their projects are worldwide. They operate in many different areas, including Kenya and South America, and they're looking at other Asian projects also," Wojahn said. "We're fortunate enough to be able to come and do projects up here in the Chequamegon Bay area, working with organic community gardens, both out of Ashland and the Bad River and Red Cliff reservations."
The two GEM students have been working out of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service field office in Ashland with tribal liaison Tom Cogger.
"Most of their time was spent helping with tribal community gardening projects," he said. "They helped with managing gardens, weeding, picking vegetables, things like that. They also assisted on some of our conservation projects."
In their three months here, the GEMs have done everything from soil surveying and river bank restoration to fish barrier construction and cranberry plotting on the Bad River reservation.
Solberg said the Three Sisters Garden is one of their most successful projects, since it can serve as a demonstration to local gardeners. The seeds from the plants will be saved for the Bad River community.
"We'd like to get people out to see this one because it's pretty easy, very low maintenance," he said.
On the Red Cliff and Bad River reservations, they helped set up a community gardens that provide free produce to tribal members.
The GEMs have been living in a house at the UW's Agricultural Research Station off U.S. Highway 2, where they have easy access to the Green Thumb Community Garden for Ashland-area residents.
"We've tried to, in our own time, talk with different community members who have their own plots out there," Wojahn said.
Now that the summer is coming to a close, the GEM students will be returning to UW-SP to report on what they've done in the northland and deliver scientific data they've collected. They hope to continue the outreach program in this area next summer.
Wojahn said this summer was a test for the GEM program to find out what the needs are in Chequamegon Bay.
"Of course, things are always contingent upon funding," Wojahn said. "All organizations that are trying to do something good face that burden, but I think they're going to listen to what our experiences are. We have a lot of examples and a lot of community members to talk about the impact we've been able to have here in such a short time."
Cogger said there's a pretty good chance of having two GEM students return next year; a graduate student from the program is also planning to work on a thesis project here this fall.
"They've been a big help, especially with the gardening projects," Cogger said. "It's pretty labor-intensive."
Wojahn is also optimistic about the GEM's future in the Ashland area.
"The way it sounds, they're very interested in continuing programs up here," he said.
Ideally, Wojahn said GEM would have students stationed every summer on the Bad River and Red Cliff reservations, as well as at the Agricultural Research Station.
"The whole Chequamegon Bay area can really work together on each other's strengths and help work on each other's weaknesses to really make a sustainable food bank, as well as a seed bank," Wojahn said.
By reviving local interest in organic gardening, Solberg said local residents can improve their nutrition will also taking care of the land.
"I think the whole goal of it all is to pretty much restore the health of the people and to restore the health of the land through gardening and through farming," Solberg said.
Solberg said he and Wojahn are interested in continuing their efforts in the area, either through GEM or with other agricultural projects.
"We're really just the first step in the GEM program. We hope to continue it on and continue towards that goal," Solberg said. "We kind of just got it started. Now it's up to GEM to keep it going, and we'd like to be a part of that."
