00E05004

Description: This agreement provides funding under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

Specifically, the project will interrupt and redress systemic and long-standing environmental injustices (i.e., wetlands degradation and the loss of wild rice) by bolstering the capacity of tribal communities to address wetland degradation and the loss of mayom through traditional ecological methods and increased participation in governance.

Activities: The activities include building capacity within Brothertown and other tribes in the watershed and western Great Lakes to participate in water and wetland governance, integrating environmental data from mainstream scientific methods, including water, sediment, and wild rice monitoring data, with the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of our advisors and participants, support and host traditional wild rice stewardship, harvesting, and processing.

Subrecipient: Activities to be performed include cultural events held at the Brothertown Cultural Center, citizen water monitoring training, land acquisition which will dramatically improve the Brothertown Tribe's capacity to redress the long-term environmental injustices by establishing a conservation and stewardship center.

The spring seasons will be used for planning citizen water monitoring, habitat suitability assessments, community events, and governance actions for the rest of the year.

In the summer seasons, we will focus on mayom monitoring, traditional community events, and training for citizen monitoring groups and project staff.

The fall focus will shift to stewardship of future generations of mayom, with harvesting and processing community events as well as increasing collaboration with tribal governments to create a mayom TEK and governance gathering.

Outcomes: The anticipated deliverables include having at least 50 community members participate in cultural revitalization events, 20 community members participating in listening sessions, 4 citizen wild rice monitors complete training, 3 project network meetings, completing a habitat suitability assessment of potential wild rice sites in Lake Winnebago tributaries, completing the first round of seeding in two of these tributaries, and for the pilot mayom TEK and governance gathering to have at least 4 and eventually all 12 tribes in the Winnebago watershed participate.

The expected outcomes include establishing a wetland conservation governance pilot led by Brothertown Indian Nation and other tribal leaders, documenting and sharing policy recommendations from a tribally-led wild rice stewardship network so that they can be used in environmental policy decision-making, establishing a TEK-informed wild rice conservation co-management policy with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, extending our citizen monitoring program to involve students and local community members in water quality measurements and wild rice monitoring, author an article on TEK for wild rice ecology and governance (co-authored by tribal and university partners), support environmental studies students from the UW-Madison and interns from the Menominee Nation and UW-Oshkosh, and support community-building and wild rice stewardship by hosting cultural events.

The intended beneficiaries are disadvantaged communities.

University Of Wisconsin System

2 - TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS 2.1 - PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE FEDERAL, TRIBAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS 2 - TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS 2.2 - EMBED ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS INTO EPA’S PROGRAMS, POLICIES, AND ACTIVITIES 4 - ENSURE CLEAN AND HEALTHY AIR FOR ALL COMMUNITIES 4.1 - IMPROVE AIR QUALITY AND REDUCE LOCALIZED POLLUTION AND HEALTH IMPACTS 6 - SAFEGUARD AND REVITALIZE COMMUNITIES 6.2 - REDUCE WASTE AND PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION 1 - TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS 1.1 - REDUCE EMISSIONS THAT CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE 1 - CORE MISSION 1.1 - IMPROVE AIR QUALITY 2 - TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS 2.1 - PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE FEDERAL, TRIBAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS 2 - TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS 2.1 - PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE FEDERAL, TRIBAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS 2 - TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS 2.1 - PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE FEDERAL, TRIBAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS

66.616 - Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program

EPA Region 5: Chicago [EPA - RO]

Wisconsin United States

State-Wide

Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program (EPA-R-OEJECR-OCS-23-04)

Termination This project grant was reported as terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in July 2025. See All
Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been shortened from 11/30/27 to 05/02/25 and the total obligations have decreased from $3,286,442 to $3,286,422.