Date of Award

Summer 8-22-2025

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ecology and Environmental Sciences

First Committee Advisor

John Daigle

Second Committee Member

Darren Ranco

Third Committee Member

Bridie McGreavy

Abstract

Wabanaki people and conservationists have been calling for ash protection efforts since first learning about the threat of emerald ash borer (EAB) in the early 2000s. Building on priorities determined in ongoing collaborations between Indigenous Basketmakers, university researchers, and government agencies, in 2023 the newly formed Ash Protection Collaboration Across Waponahkik (APCAW) hosted a program to advance outreach and education efforts about the cultural significance of brown ash, EAB mitigation strategies, and ash resilience research. The online and in-person events strove to center Wabanaki perspectives to guide an audience across the region of Waponahkik, made up of conservation staff, Tribal Nation employees, private landowners, and foresters, to learn about and engage in ash protection actions.

Program evaluation can reveal changes in knowledge, relationships, and collaborations that can generate energy for future engagement. In addition, researching if and how participants gained awareness of strategies to protect ash through our program and the barriers that stand in the way of caretaking action can inform the next iterations of ongoing collaboration, outreach, and education done on behalf of brown ash ecosystems and Wabanaki people. To evaluate the impact of the APCAW program on participant learning and action, a questionnaire was distributed to all registrants and a series of interviews with key informants were conducted. A mixed methods evaluation design was used to analyze our quantitative and qualitative data together, which provided richer information than either type of data could have alone. Major insights arising from our analysis include the value of Wabanaki leadership of this program and the facilitative relationship between building collaborative relationships through in person events and ash protection work. APCAW’s initial programs catalyzed awareness and action across the region of Waponahkik for ash, and continuing to organize participating groups would help guide the next fifteen years of landscape-level actions to protect ash before over >95% of ash is projected to succumb to EAB.

In Chapter 2, I describe how the APCAW program had a significant impact on increasing average knowledge about ash caretaking concepts in most categories, even months after participation in our programs. Participants indicated that Wabanaki speakers were particularly memorable teachers, and learning about ash caretaking from multiple perspectives strengthened the overall program offerings and emotional commitment to this work. With new understanding of the significance of ash and pathways to protect ash, APCAW participants left the program more equipped with information to act in collaboration with Wabanaki communities. In Chapter 3, I argue the field of program evaluation must go beyond studying knowledge gain and expand its focus to include behavior change. Our results suggest that the participants who built relationships and collaborations around ash protection, and those who attended events in person, were more likely to have taken ash protection actions. I also found that several facilitating conditions, including role, time, and place, work together to influence whether learners ended up acting. In Chapter 4, I synergize recommendations from our respondents about what is needed for the future of ash protection efforts and describe possible ways to move forward with collectively sharing our responsibilities to ash trees. I conclude by posing some ethical guidelines that can guide future efforts to support Wabanaki sovereignty in cross-cultural environmental efforts, based on lessons learned through APCAW organizing.

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