By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s September, 2023 Newsletter edition.
WWA President Bruce Urben and Public Lands Ecologist Mark Pfost take a break from the heat while ricing.
WWA’s new relationship with the DNR includes the expectation of collecting and re-seeding rice to restore (or introduce) wild rice beds in northern Wisconsin. For my wife Pam and I, it was the first time harvesting this culinary treat, culturally important food source for the Ojibwe peoples, and significant energy source for waterfowl migrating through Wisconsin.
This past weekend, we were joined by eight other WWAers to try their hand at collecting this storied food source for animals of all kinds – including human. We didn’t expect these novice ricers would collect all the rice we needed in order to meet our obligations to the DNR and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC – pronounced glif-wick). But we did think it would be an interesting way to engage volunteers and have some fun in the Northwoods, while learning about the cultural and biological significance of the plant.
WWA Director Mike Depies harvests ripe Manoomin. Check out the amount of rice he’s accumulated in the bottom of the canoe
Little did we know that the dates we chose, based on the availability of the most initially interested volunteers, would bring the hottest and most humid weather of the season. Still, this intrepid group gathered at our Minocqua cabin as home base for our two-day adventure. The WWA hardcore ricing team consisted of Mike Depies, BJ Grassmann, Bruce Urben, Mark Pfost, Peter Ziegler, Pam Ross, Bruce Ross. WDNR’s Wetland Habitat Specialist Jason Fleener also brought his expertise to our harvesting efforts.
There is an interesting rice relationship between the tribes and the DNR – certain lakes are jointly managed for rice. Lakes that have a historical crop of rice are designated “date-regulated” ricing lakes. These partners must agree on which lakes should be opened to ricing on what dates. In practice, the tribal “rice chiefs” are privy to more information about when the rice is ready for collection, and their decisions are generally automatically accepted. The DNR and GLIFWC both communicate the late-breaking information to potential ricers – the DNR through push-emails to folks who sign up for notifications, and through GLIWFC’S wild rice website.
Day One Team (from left) Mark Pfost, Peter Ziegler, Mike Depies, Bruce Ross
Canoes, paddles, ricing sticks, push poles, bug spray and plenty of water were important to our efforts. And an $8.25 license to harvest rice is required (unless you are over 65). Techniques learned by the participants “on-the-job”: as one person poles the canoes through a rice bed of 4-5 foot high rice, a person in the bow uses slender “ricing sticks” to gently bend the stalks over the canoes, and brush the top of the plant’s stalk – a corn-like tassle – to release the rice into the canoe. At the end of the day, this manoomin fruit is scooped from the bottom of the canoe into feed sacks for transport. If the fruit is intended for human consumption there are painstaking steps to prepare it for the plate. If used for reseeding elsewhere (as was ours), it must be soaked within a day or two to remain viable for the new location.
Harvested manoomin on the bottom of the canoe
Results: Day one, two teams harvested nearly 100 pounds. Three teams the next day did slightly more, resulting in a total of 225 pounds of rice. Good thing we had sufficient feed bags to consolidate all of this unexpected bounty. And after each day’s collection, there were celebratory libations (to replace body fluids lost in the heat), and a good meal arranged by Ricing Coordinator (and Habitat Committee Chair) BJ Grassmann. We expect this rice will be re-seeded in Powell Marsh.
We also expect to buy another 1500 pounds of re-seeding rice for Crex Meadows wildlife area in another week or so.
Want to get on this list of volunteer ricers? Email us at info@wisducks.org.