In spring 2025, with additional funding support from the UW EarthLab, the Indigenous Rights and Environmental Sustainability project focused on nurturing future generations of climate leaders by engaging Chief Leschi Schools (CLS) and UW students in the creation of two traditional plant food forests: one on the campus of CLS and one at the Nisqually Culture Center. Food forests are multi-story cultivated areas that use native plants to restore ecological function, promote food sovereignty, address cultural significance, and foster a connection to a place. In contrast to a garden or other typical cultivation spaces, food forests are designed to enhance biodiversity and mimic the natural structure of a forest, providing a variety of edible products, such as bulbs, berries, fruit, and shoots, but also a variety of cultural products, such as medicine and bark for weaving. The high ecological complexity and biodiversity increase the climate resilience of these areas. Furthermore, these food forests are conceptualized as spaces for education, community gathering, and cultural revitalization, including the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the promotion of the Lushootseed language.
UW and Chief Leschi students planting, helping to establish a food forest. Photo credit/ Patrick Christie.
The Chief Leschi Schools food forest was established through a series of planting events involving dozens of students and teachers from CLS and the UW. Its inauguration was marked by a joyful celebration with the Puyallup Tribal Council and CLS and UW students and faculty. Together, the two food forests feature approximately 1,000 native plants, supported by an irrigation system to ensure their viability through their first summer.
These food forests are conceptualized as spaces for education, community gathering, and cultural revitalization, including the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the promotion of the Lushootseed language.
This year, we’re excited to welcome two new UW graduate students, Zoe DeGrande and Will Burnham, to the Indigenous Rights and Environmental Sustainability project. In fall 2025, interviews will be conducted to reflect on the project, identify impacts on those involved, and explore individual and collective commitments to environmental stewardship and Indigenous rights. Video footage from planting events, the inaugural ceremony, and interviews will form the foundation for a short educational video to be showcased at public events in 2026.
