An estimated 4,000 miles of Indigenous forestland share a border with US Forest Service lands alone, not including other agencies and organizations that border Indigenous lands (Dockry and Hoagland, 2017). These shared borders mean that forest management and stewardship may benefit from cross-boundary collaboration and communication. Without proper training in communicating with, understanding of, and general exposure to tribal entities, future foresters are not only at a disadvantage, but are inadequately prepared to work meaningfully with tribal partners. In addition to this, federal land managers now have a legal requirement to consult with tribes on forest management in these areas where cross-boundary stewardship is essential (Dockry & Hoag, 2017). This requirement is often difficult, because new foresters lack the background knowledge or respect for Indigenous ways of knowing (Verma et al., 2016). Outside of classes and programs specifically designed to teach about Indigenous knowledge and topics, these students and future foresters do not receive the education and training they need to work meaningfully with tribes. Few research studies have examined the prevalence of Indigenous knowledge in forestry curricula and how forestry education can incorporate Indigenous knowledge comprehensively and even fewer have explored the benefits that come with this integration and collaboration in educational settings. This collaboration can then help knowledge co-production between Indigenous and non-Indigenous natural resource managers. Knowledge co-production (KCP) is a process that requires a time investment and open-mindedness among the contributors. KCP combines Indigenous knowledge and Western science to create stronger management outcomes that address current environmental challenges facing the world (Kruijf et. al., 2020). With an increasing emphasis on KCP, particularly with underrepresented and historically marginalized communities, there is a demand placed upon communities to engage in research and knowledge co-production, by researchers and the entities that fund them. In the Great Lakes Watershed, there are 27 federally recognized tribal groups. These tribal communities are facing disproportionate impacts from climate change, such as sea-level rise and increase in intense weather changes (David-Chavez and Gavin, 2018). This work seeks to understand how tribes in the region are affected by and managing their natural resources, understanding their capacity for knowledge co-production, study capacity impacts of knowledge co-production, and if and how this knowledge is used in forestry curricula. From this study we found that the greatest concerns for tribes in the region are climate change and capacity, however there is a strong interest in knowledge co-production with some tribes already implementing some collaborative projects. We found that there are practical limitations to knowledge co-production and capacity is the central barrier. Preparing future forestry professionals to engage in meaningful knowledge co-production will not only require a deeper understanding of tribal resource management and co-stewardship approaches but may also require a fundamental shift in forestry education. A sample of U.S. undergraduate forestry curricula revealed that while there is interest in including more Indigenous knowledge in the future, most courses in forestry majors lack Indigenous knowledge inclusion. These results can help foster new conversations and changes that can encourage the inclusion of more Indigenous knowledge in forestry curricula and natural resource management more broadly.
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