Tuesday, November 16 at 11:00 am Eastern

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The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is hosting a free 30-minute webinar titled “Traditional Gathering Methods of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians” at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 16, in recognition of Native American Heritage Month.

Tribal Forest Resource Liaison Tommy Cabe will discuss how the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Nature Resource Office is collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to study traditional gathering practices and their impact on culturally significant plants, such as ramps and sochan. The joint effort is to demonstrate how the traditional gathering methods have much less impact on plant populations. Once these methods have been observed through scientific standards and proven, the goal is to allow access on traditional lands and to change policy on how some plants are gathered.

Cabe is a Tribal member from the Bird Town Community, and is a senior employee to the newly evolved Agricultural & Natural Resource Department. He studied environmental and natural sciences before discovering his interest in forestry. During his completion of the forestry program at Haywood Community College in 2000, he was employed by the EBCI Environmental Department as an Air Quality Technician before advancing to the evolving Water Quality Program as the Non-Point Source Coordinator. There, he managed several projects on Tribal lands to minimize pollution in the watersheds. Cabe also served as the Tribal Environmental Planner, where he oversaw both the Air Quality Program and the Non-Point Source program. As the Tribal Forest Resource Liaison, he is responsible for Forest Management Plan Development on the Trust Lands and on forested Tribal acres.