Courtesy photo BMIC fire crew members tend a burning slash pile during prescribed fire operations on Hiawatha National Forest in April.

GLADSTONE — Hiawatha National Forest and Gnoozhekaaning, Place of the Pike, or Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC) work together to accomplish shared goals through a variety of means, including a Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) agreement that kicked off in 2021. Following the success of last year’s work, the Forest Service is looking ahead to another productive year.

Since Hiawatha National Forest lands are part of the 1836 ceded territory, the BMIC fire crew’s work is a natural extension of BMIC’s historical tie to protecting and managing these lands. The US Forest Service and BMIC have a shared interest in ensuring the ongoing resilience and productivity of the forest.

Hiawatha forestry technician Chelsea Murawski reports that in 2021 the Bay Mills Crew assisted the Hiawatha’s silviculture program through the GNA agreement. In the first year of the agreement, the crew completed 414 acres of timber stand improvement and site preparation for natural regeneration on the national forest. This included:

– 63 acres of red pine prune and release

– 112 acres of hardwood canopy gap cleaning (removal of undesired or poor quality trees)

– 187 acres of aspen site prep

– 52 acres of hardwood cleaning (removal of undesired or poor quality trees)

In addition to the GNA work, BMIC’s fire crew helped the Hiawatha National Forest implement a long list of other work on national forest system lands during the 2021 field season. According to Brenda Dale, US Forest Service east zone fire management officer, the fire crew cleared and brushed out all east zone Hiawatha National Forest bridges and culverts for Engineering; prepped 1,000 acres of prescribed fire units; stump marked two timber sales for the timber crew; assisted Forest Service Recreation staff with hazard tree removal in six campgrounds (Monocle Lake, Soldiers Lake, Brevort Lake, Lake Michigan, Carp River and Bay View); and cleared and brushed 14.5 miles of Recreation trails.

“The crew also increased our capacity to provide important fire training to firefighters across the UP,” said Dale. She explained that the crew conducted two Annual Fireline Refresher Courses, four Work Capacity Tests, and an inter-agency medical training day, as well as assisting with the Fireline Chainsaw course, two chainsaw certification/recertification courses, and a Lake Superior State University fire training field day.

Looking ahead to the second year of the GNA agreement, Hiawatha personnel and BMIC crew leaders have developed another ambitious program of work. For example, Murawski indicated that in 2022, BMIC’s fire crew will assist the Hiawatha silviculture program with 317 acres of hardwood and hemlock release and beech brush removal. In addition to benefiting public lands, the various Hiawatha/BMIC partnership projects also benefit the crew by keeping members employed for a longer season and helping BMIC achieve its own resource management goals.

“The Forest Service is excited to continue working in partnership with Bay Mills Indian Community to benefit the public and the resource,” said Mary Moore, forest supervisor at Hiawatha National Forest.

For more information about the Bay Mills Indian Community, visit their website http://www.baymills.org/. To learn about Hiawatha National Forest, explore our website https://www.usda.gov/hiawatha.