(soft music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

In today's episode, we're exploring the complex life cycle of plants, particularly their seeds, ones that were a part of the ecosystem decades or centuries ago, then completely wiped out.

A recent report highlights how Indigenous-led projects could hold the key to restoring those once dormant seeds.

We'll also take a look at the homeless crisis as a case before the nation's high court has advocates fearing the worst for the most vulnerable.

And season three of "Black Arts Legacies" returns.

The mixed media series shines a spotlight on the contributions of Seattle's musicians, dancers, and more, whose creative expressions document the complexity of being Black in the Emerald City.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Today's top story, just beneath our feet, there is a resiliency of the ecosystems within the soil.

Some seeds and roots can remain dormant for years, up to centuries.

Over centuries, landscapes across the Pacific Northwest have changed either by the hands of man or Mother Nature.

Despite the degradation of environments, Indigenous methods to regenerate native seeds could hold a key to restoration.

In a recent article published by "High Country News," reporter Josephine Woolington explores a range of natural regeneration.

She notes that some plants store future generations below ground in seed banks, where seeds, roots, and bulbs remain dormant.

Researchers say some seeds can survive for decades, even centuries.

One study called seed banks "biodiversity reservoirs" that are found in global ecosystems.

Indigenous Oregon and Washington scientists find some native plant species will return on their own once invasive plants are removed or water is restored, a philosophy not shared by Western scientists.

- Scientists are essentially ignoring the oldest data set on the land by not including Indigenous voices.

- To glean a better understanding of the complex life of plants and their seeds and how Native scientists believe their methodologies may be the best to restore them, I spoke with Portland-based journalist Josephine Woolington.

(gentle music) Welcome, Josephine.

Thank you for joining us today on "The Newsfeed."

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Your recent article is a comprehensive look into the regeneration of plant seeds, how man has been responsible for destroying native plants, and the comparison between Indigenous and Western scientific philosophies on the best practices to restore those wiped-out plants or those near extinction.

First, in your words, what are seed banks?

- So seed banks are found in ecosystems globally.

They're typically within the first few inches of the soil, and that's where seeds store their future generations.

So what we see above ground of plants is only a portion of their population.

Many plants across the globe store seeds or roots or buds or bulbs, and all of those kind of propagules have the potential to regrow once conditions are favorable.

So some plants like lupines develop a very hard seed coat, like it's similar to a ceramic shell, and it allows the plants' seeds or embryos to survive for decades.

Some lupines might be able to survive for centuries.

Other seeds scientists have found could potentially regrow after a millennia in the ground.

- Why is it important to understand the complexities of seed banks?

- Seed banks are known as biodiversity reservoirs, and so plants have evolved to persist in landscapes over time and their seeds are a way to do so.

So these plants in the Northwest have evolved with volcanic eruptions, flooding, fire, all kinds of disturbances.

And now, in my story, I can kind of consider colonialism to be another disturbance.

And so what we see above ground, if it's, say, invasive plants or crops, that doesn't mean that there's not native seeds or buds or bulbs underground that could potentially regrow if given enough sunlight, space, if the invasive plants are removed.

So seed banks have the potential to help restore degraded agricultural land.

- You incorporate many historical examples of how past colonization of Indigenous lands is still present in restoration strategies today.

- Yeah, so, colonization, you know, I think, is often talked about as if it happened in the past and now we're over it, but colonization is ongoing.

Colonization of the land is what we see in our cities today.

And a lot of the Native ecologists who I talk to have completely different perspectives on ecological restoration.

They view restoration as more than just bringing plants back to the landscape.

They're attempting to restore what was taken from them through colonization, that severing of connection to place and those relationships to plants.

And so when non-Native ecologists attempt ecological restoration, often what they're trying to do is get plants back on the landscape without necessarily attempting to heal or restore those relationships to plants.

- What struck me about your reporting is the stark differences in philosophies on regeneration between Indigenous and Western scientists.

- Yeah, so to begin with the typical restoration approach by non-Native ecologists, they will often go into a site and if it's covered in invasives, remove those plants with herbicide and then plant a bunch of native seeds or seedlings.

And the approach is typically within a three- to five-year timeframe because a lot of public grants that fund restoration work are required to complete the work within that three to five years.

And so the expectation is that we can kind of rush ecological processes that have evolved over a millennia within five years, whereas the Native perspective is more long term.

Many Native ecologists that I spoke with speak of seven generations ahead.

And so thinking so far into the future, they're more willing to take their time in these projects.

They speak of their relationships to these plants.

And restoration is more than just returning the plants to the landscape, it's about returning those relationships and the traditional land management techniques that have created those plants and those landscapes.

- And what I ascertained from, again, this really complex, really in-depth reporting that you did, is the fact that federal and local governments really need to listen to Indigenous people, and history has proven time and time again that hasn't been the case.

What surprised you from the research that you have done?

- I was unaware that seed banks could hold promise for ecological restoration, because when you read about restoration, you kind of read about the process I described.

Ecologists go in and they remove native plants and then they plant a bunch of seeds or seedlings.

And it's assumed that the land can't recover after, you know, decades of farming.

But talking to Indigenous people and learning about their projects that they've been doing and they're ongoing, you know, for the past 20 years, shows a different way forward, that actually, if you create the right conditions, if you return water to a landscape, how it naturally would've flowed, or if you return fire, the native plants will respond.

And that is a perspective that is not, it's kind of overlooked and undervalued in restoration.

And historically, as you mentioned, Indigenous voices have not been incorporated into restoration projects.

And one Yakama tribal member and scholar had told me previously that, you know, scientists are essentially ignoring the oldest data set on the land by not including Indigenous voices, and it's truly shameful and we're missing out on a potential powerful tool for restoration.

- It was a pleasure to speak with you, Josephine.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- To read more of Josephine's work, go to josephinewoolington.com our check out "High Country News" at hcn.org.

(bright music) Cities across the nation are watching whether the Supreme Court will side in favor of an Oregon town's laws that effectively criminalize homelessness.

Dozens of homelessness advocates rallied outside Seattle's federal courthouse as the Supreme Court weighs a case that could allow cities to effectively criminalize the unhoused.

On April 22nd, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the class action lawsuit against the anti-public sleeping laws in Grants Pass, Oregon.

If justices side with Grants Pass, it could make it easier for cities to fine or jail people experiencing homelessness for sleeping in public.

Lawyers and advocacy groups fear it would effectively make it illegal to be homeless in public as cities across the nation may pass similar laws.

Lawyers representing Grants Pass have argued that the city needs the laws to address safety and public health issues in homeless encampments.

The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness says things could get worse for homeless residents should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the Oregon town, but people should not lose sight of how bad things already are.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in late June.

(bright music) A new season of our series highlighting the creativity and brilliance of Black Seattle artists returns.

Season three of "Black Arts Legacies" is here.

Cascade PBS's multimedia series amplifies the creative genius of past and present Black artists, actors, poets, and other cultural curators in Seattle.

The series is an archive of video profiles, written accounts, portrait photography, and audio stories.

Contributors say these stories are often about being the first, contending with discrimination and breaking down barriers that Black artists encountered in the Northwest.

The first profile of season three highlights painter Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, whose storied career began during the Harlem Renaissance.

Knight was the wife of legendary painter Jacob Lawrence.

The couple became fixtures in the city's intellectual and cultural scene.

Knight's years of work, painting, print, and sculpture, were largely overlooked in her lifetime despite her immense impact on Seattle's Black community.

Visit crosscut.com on Tuesdays to discover each new artist reveal and watch the video profiles every Friday night in June.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit Northwest news.

Go to crosscut.com for more.

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