By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The Timber Committee of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) met on Monday, July 20 and discussed various topics including environmental grants, water quality, and forestry updates.
Michael LaVoie, EBCI Natural Resources Department director, spoke on a 2025 Climate Pollution Reduction Grant received by the EBCI. “This was a $5 million grant from the EPA that has allowed us to create more sustainable energy infrastructure and clean transportation objectives. A big portion of this has involved the Boys Club, and they are continuing to move forward on the construction of a microgrid. This microgrid system is going to be powered by solar and set up a battery bank to fuel the 21 electric school buses that we have. That’s all, hopefully, providing a really important reduction in the particulate air matter our students are exposed to.”
He said part of the grant funded solar panels at the Cherokee Council House, the TOP (Tribal Operations) Building, and the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program (KPEP) building.
“I’m hopeful those types of projects will help create examples and help move the community forward to seeking out these types of sustainable energy projects in the future.”
The grant also funded 20 EV (electric vehicle) charging stations. “Ten are going to be associated with the Cherokee Central School complex. Then, an additional 10 are going out through the community. We’ve been working with a community group called the Air Care Collective to help identify where these are going.”
Cherise Maples, EBCI Natural Resources Dept. environmental resources manager, said the community EV charging locations will be at the various community buildings, the Cherokee Cinemas & More movie theatre, and in upper Soco by the falls.
LaVoie spoke about the program’s monitoring of several animal populations. They just completed the sixth year of monitoring bear populations through hair samples looking at genetics to gain information on population total and density and movement. To date, 132 samples have been collected and are currently being processed.
He noted that surveys seeking Hellbenders have been done at five sites with no animals detected. They plan to do the surveys again in August.
They are also doing bat acoustics surveys to better understand that population. “We do have threatened and endangered bats here and a responsibility to work within the Endangered Species Act to make sure those populations are protected.”
Maples spoke about water quality monitoring mentioning the EBCI Water Quality public water quality dashboard operated by EBCI Natural Resources, EBCI Water Quality, and EBCI Public Health and Human Services (https://ebciphhs.github.io/ebci-ecoli-dashboard/)
“We’re still monitoring and we’re still working to address any spot where we might see exceedances. We’ve been talking about signage at those places where people recreate. We had hoped that we would have had signs up by now, but the delivery is pending and we’ll have them up as soon as we can.”
She added, “Having an exceedance doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s unsafe for everyone to enter the water. It is meant to inform. We don’t want to have exceedances and not share that information. If someone is immunocompromised or very young, very old, or might be more susceptible than others – if you have any reason to want to know that information, we want to share it. Because the citizens out in the waters of North Carolina have that benefit. We want equal benefit for folks that are recreating on the Qualla Boundary.
In general, we have some of the cleanest waters in the state – if not the cleanest waters in the state. And, fishing should really not ever be a concern. Fish don’t carry ecoli. It’s generally still ok to fish.”
Rainee Tetreault, EBCI Natural Resources water quality supervisor, said the EBCI Water Quality Program has received an award from N.C. Health and Human Services for its monitoring. “We partner with PHHS and all that data goes to them. So, this is something we’ve been doing since 2020 when COVID came out. I have the award, but I want to say that it’s not just for me. It is a team effort for sure.”
Josh Parris, EBCI Natural Resources forestry manager, spoke about a new project at the Thomas Valley Road site in Jackson County. “We’re actually building a greenhouse and shed there now to re-up that site so that we can get back in production. Very pleased about that. Additionally, we just received word on Friday of the receipt of a $100,000 grant from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy that will fund additional greenhouse facilities. That is originally structured to do river cane production and river restoration, but it will be a crossover facility, too.”
He then spoke of two forestry management areas – Lickstone Ridge and Jenkins Creek.
On the first, Parris commented, “We have marked trees on those new, early successional areas that are on the ridgeline between two wildlife openings to thin out that area for oak regeneration and basically resetting of that forest. We’ve marked trees we want to save in there and marked boundaries. We’re going to go in and remove those trees relatively soon. The trees saved in there are the obvious ones – white oaks, large white oaks were saved, hickory of any size were saved, and there were a few red oaks and cherries that were good size in there that were kept.”
He said no timber has been cut yet, and they plan to create an alert process for artisans to harvest what they want. Then, it will be open for firewood harvesting.
On Jenkins Creek, they are planning different restorative activities for the regeneration of oak and hickory. He said they plan to add prescribed burns to get back a better mix of species.
“Fire is recommended in both of these plans, quite significantly. We have conducted fire on Lickstone.”
David Rowland, EBCI Natural Resources hatcheries supervisor, gave a report on his program.
“We’re in a rough time of year right now. The water temperatures are getting high and flow is pretty low which depletes the dissolved oxygen. So, we’re trying to keep the ponds open as long as possible, but we’re seeing a few mortalities right now…we don’t want to lose our fish, but we want to keep the ponds going for our anglers. As long as we can keep them in there, we’re going to keep them stocked. But, if conditions get too bad, we’ll have to suspend stocking.”
He said they are meeting with an engineering crew to install a water recirculating pump, an oxygenation system to supplement oxygen in places, and an updated solids and wastes system.
The Timber Committee is chaired by Wayohi (Wolftown) Rep. Bo Crowe. He was present for Monday’s meeting along with: Kolanvyi (Big Cove) Rep. Lavita Hill, Aniwodihi (Painttown) Rep. Michael Stamper, Eladowi (Yellowhill) Rep. Shennelle Feather, Dinilawigi Taline Gahvsgi (Tribal Council Vice Chairman) David Wolfe, and Kolanvyi Rep. Venita Wolfe. Dinilawigi Gahvsgi (Tribal Council) Chairman Jim Owle and Tutiyi/Tsalagi Gadugi (Snowbird/Cherokee Co.) Rep. Adam Wachacha were absent.
