Integrated Resource Management Plan

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Environment Division developed this plan and the first of the series was in the last edition of Indian Time prior to the Christmas holidays. The management plan is an excellent way for you to read and understand what is required to manage Akwesasne’s natural resources.

Current existing Documents

The Tribal government is comprised of many organizations and entities that each have their own mission, vision, and direction to work toward. The IRMP core team examined and researched all known plans from various tribal entities and created a plan matrix that represents each of these organizational plans in a tabular format with comments reflecting areas of complement and conflict. The value of recognizing the existence of various tribal entities and their plans is to reduce future conflicts as new plans are implemented. For example, a housing development project can support the Tribal Solid Management Plan by reducing solid waste, recycling, and respecting the environment. Thus, creating a solution that is cohesive with the integrated resource management plan.

Land Resources

Issues and Concerns

Maintaining sustainability of land by utilizing sustainable practices like composting.

Industrial pollutants and their impact on our lands.

Maintain our finite land base through further consideration of human needs and natural resources. In addition, management systems need to be created that address over-population, commercial enterprises, and diminishing natural resources.

People recognize that open dumping and littering is a continuing problem

There’s a desire for the development of recreational areas including trail systems for motorized and non-motorized uses.

Visions for Land Resources

“No grocery store, no problem”

“Bring the territory of Akwesasne into the future, with the best our traditions have to offer”

“Our land, our resources, our future”

Nothing but sweet grass and flowers along our roadway”

“High-quality soil, high-quality land”

“Land so good, you’d feed it to your kids”

“Soil you can trust”

“A place for homes, a place for business, a place to play, a well-planned community”

Description of Land Resources

Land in the context of this IRMP is finite. There are a fixed number of acres within the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, as there are fixed amount of land that can be utilized for homes, businesses, crops, timber, and supporting wetlands and wildlife. The land consist of approximately 15,000 acres, the current status of that land is approximately;

Agriculture-1,585

Residential/Commercial-1,712

Underdeveloped plant/animal habitat-2.827

Wetlands-1,696

Forrested-7,557

Other-190

Our Responsibilities

The responsibilities we have toward the land, Mother Earth, extend beyond the creation story or legend, Mother Earth provides all things, living and non-living. Our children invested the responsibility in us to ensure that the land be whole and intact when they inherit it. Our present day actions impact the generations to come, the sustainability of Mohawk culture, values, and survival depends upon us. Will the land be fit to live on, will it sustain life (human and animal) and will is be healthy? These are all questions that we need to consider when planning and developing the land we stand on.

Goals & Objectives for Land

Goal-To improve availability of land for agriculture production.

Actions:

Identify lands for communal gardens in 3 years.

Identify suitable agricultural land classes within 2 years.

Restore proper drainage for agricultural and farm use within 15 years.

Identify known and potential contaminants to agricultural land in 1 year.

Goal-To educate the community on agriculture production

Actions:

Survey the community’s agricultural educational needs bi-annually for 50 years.

Goal-to significantly reduce contamination of land to safe levels.

Actions:

Identify and reduce the 10 most significant sources of contamination in 8 years.

Goal-To manage land efficiently to house the growing population

Actions:

Identify & categorize suitability of all lands within Akwesasne for residential housing in 2 years, update every 5 years.

Establish a land use governing board within 12 months.

Goal- To have diverse public recreational areas

Actions:

Identify and measure all existing trails within 2 years.

Identify existing tribally owned areas suitable for recreational activities within 2 years.

Hire and staff a 3 member parks and recreation department within 5 years.

Assess overall recreational needs of the community every 5 years.

Analysis of Alternatives Management Approaches (AMA)

Alternative Management Approaches (AMA) are various solutions to the issues and concerns that are presented for each resource. Possible outcomes for each approach were considered while the vision, goals and objectives for each resourced were kept in mind. Each AMA is presented below and rated on the impact of each issue and concern by:

-None-No measurable impacts are expected to occur.

-Minor- Short-term but measurable adverse impacts are expected. Impacts may have a slight impact on resources.

-Moderate- Noticeable adverse impacts that would have a measurable effect on resource and are not short-term.

-Severe-Adverse impacts that are short and long term and would have serious consequences on resources. These impacts would be considered significant.

-Beneficial-Impacts that would benefit resources.