Contributed by Michelle Baumflek
Medicinal plants and fungi play important roles in the health of Maliseet people from northern Maine, USA. A critical aspect of health sovereignty for this community is being able to locate and have access to these plants. Commercial development on their traditional gathering sites and restricted access to privately owned lands limit the ability of the Maliseet to gather medicinal plants. Habitat modeling can enhance health sovereignty by identifying locations in which populations of medicinal plants can be conserved or established.
Muskrat root (Maliseet: kighaswes, Acorus spp.) is perhaps the most widely used medicinal plant in northern Maine, and is extensively used by Native American tribes and First Nations throughout the northern United States and Canada. In northern Maine, Maliseet and other Native gatherers rely on a limited number of sites to collect muskrat root; some travel several hours to reach these locations. The primary Maliseet muskrat root collection site was destroyed to build a Wal-Mart parking lot in 1993. Maliseet plant gatherers and tribal natural resource managers want to identify new places to harvest muskrat root, or find suitable locations to establish new populations.
Two species of muskrat root are found in northern Maine: Acorus calamus and Acorus americanus (see Figure 8). While they appear identical, only the introduced species, A. calamus, contains the pro-carcinogen beta-asarone. The effects of beta -asarone are uncertain, and some plant gatherers prefer to use A. americanus. We discovered that the most popular muskrat root collection site had only the less-desirable A. calamus. Our herbarium research has exposed previously unrecognized habitat preferences between the two species. Working with the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, we developed a rule-based model to identify habitat for A. americanus.
Figure 8: Comparison of the spadix of Acorus calamus (a) and Acorus americanus (b). A. calamus is a sterile triploid with non-maturing fruits that shrivel and dry by mid- to late-summer. A. americanus is a fertile diploid; pollinated flowers produce fruits that ripen by mid- to late-summer.
Habitat modeling is an important tool for many conservation efforts. Our iterative model was initially based on habitat conditions described in the literature and was refined using field data collected from A. americanus sites in northern Maine. We validated our model by ground truthing with A. americanus sites and found that 40 out of 44 locations were predicted accurately by our model.
Our model incorporates sociocultural parameters in order to contribute to health sovereignty. Community participants told us that they regularly travel over 30 miles from home to gather plants that are important to them. Furthermore, elders want to gather medicines, but are not able to hike long distances from roads. With these parameters in mind, we refined our model to identify ecologically-suitable areas that were less than 30 miles from the Houlton Band of Maliseet’s trust land and less than 500 yards from a road.
By combining ecological and sociocultural parameters, we have identified previously unknown populations of A. americanus that are accessible to tribal elders. In addition, we have identified areas with suitable habitat to plant muskrat root that could meet tribal members’ needs in the future. Increasing the number of potential gathering sites gives communities options, thereby enhancing health sovereignty.
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