The race to adapt ancient wild rice practices in a changing environment

National Observer

22-05-2025

Traditionally, wild rice — or manoomin — is harvested by paddling into shallow waters and gently knocking the ripe grains into the canoe using cedar sticks. It's a time-honoured practice central to Anishinaabe culture and ceremonies.
'This wild rice is part of our migration story,' said Jyles Copenace, cultural coordinator for Kenora Chiefs Advisory. 'It ties us to where we ended up in northwestern Ontario and to the Great Lakes.'
Historically, manoomin thrived in the shallow waters of lakes and rivers. But hydroelectric production, invasive cattails and climate change have made traditional harvesting difficult.
'[Wild rice] used to last a month, but now, because of climate change, the rice becomes brittle and must be harvested within a week,' Copenace said.
Now, Indigenous communities are breathing new life into manoomin — and part of that includes an innovative shift: cultivating wild rice in saturated soils, instead of traditional flooded habitats.
Copenace believes the loss of wild rice has contributed to rising health issues in Indigenous communities.
'Our children are getting sick, and we're seeing less and less wild rice in our traditional territory, and nobody is stepping up,' he said.
"Wetlands with overlying water create low-oxygen conditions," said Vince Palace, a research scientist. "That promotes methane-producing bacteria. And methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases."
Copenance said a sacred Anishinaabe migration birch bark scroll — once held in a museum — was returned to Bad River, Wisconsin. It tells the story of how the Anishinaabe people were guided by prophecy to a place where 'food grows on the water.' That food was manoomin.
Centuries later, the future is dimming for that food tradition, but a race is on to understand what it needs to thrive — and how to bring it back. 'We have very limited time to be able to save this food and to save this traditional way of life centred around wild rice,' said Vince Palace, a Lakehead University adjunct biology professor working with Copenace.
While Indigenous communities across the border in Wisconsin and Minnesota have been engaged in restoring the plant through a combination of traditional practices and modern conservation efforts, on the Canadian side, that conservation has been less active.
'In Canada, nothing like that was ever done in terms of protection of wild rice,' Copenace said.
Growing rice in clay
In response to these challenges and inspired by the work done by Indigenous nations in the US, researchers and community members initiated a series of experiments to explore alternative cultivation methods.
They tested wild rice growth in three environments: natural wetlands, areas overrun by invasive cattails and saturated soils that Copenace refers to as clay.
"The one that did the best was actually the one that was in the clay," said Copenace.
Researchers investigated whether wild rice could grow just by keeping the soil wet at root level without flooding or any overhead irrigation.
'We've run a couple of years of experiments now looking at that. And it grows like stink. It grows really well,' said Palace, who is also lead research scientist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area.
Carbon tests revealed that wild rice grown in saturated soil had the lowest carbon output among the three methods.
"Wetlands with overlying water create low-oxygen conditions," said Palace. "That promotes methane-producing bacteria. And methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases."
Copenace said the idea of growing wild rice in saturated soil came from successful projects in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This method was confirmed by 10 to 12 African scientists who visited the Kenora Chiefs Advisory site, sharing their success with growing rice in clay to improve food security.
The next stage of the Ontario project focuses on managing invasive cattails, which have led to a decline in local wildlife, including geese, muskrats and fish.
Palace said they are working to combine the community's knowledge with scientific research.
"We want to sort of braid that traditional knowledge of, how does the habitat, how is it different now than it used to be?" Palace said. "And if we turn back the clock by removing the cattails and replanting with wild rice, does that lead to a shift back toward the more traditional quality of that habitat?"
Engaging youth
Of all the ecological obstacles, though, one of the biggest challenges to reviving manoomin is the lack of younger harvesters.
Today, most people gathering wild rice are elders, many in their 60s or older. Few youth are stepping in to take their place.
The project was initiated by Bruce Hardy, who is Cree-Métis and CEO of the Indigenous-led biotech company Myera Group. Hardy has worked with First Nations across Manitoba for over 20 years.
'We literally, as Canadians, don't realize that we're going to go through one of the largest losses of opportunity that the world could ever comprehend, with the loss of Indigenous knowledge being less than 10 years away,' Hardy said.
Part of the effort behind this project is to create pathways for young people to take on that knowledge — through training, planting programs, and hands-on work.
'What we're doing is getting this project started so the youth can carry it on into the future, because there's so much work to be done with wild rice, I don't even think I'll be able to do it in my lifetime,' Copenace said.
'If it's just wild rice, what are you doing? Who in the community is going to take this up?' Hardy said. 'And if we don't think this through, and if the youth don't take it up, all the stuff we're talking about now, that's really cool — become a museum exhibit. And we'll have lost that.'
This is part of Hardy's broader ongoing work with universities and communities, focusing on establishing a self-sustaining, circular economy by linking wild rice production with other innovative practices like fish farming and using fish waste to create natural fertilizers.
He hopes that creating this model will encourage youth to explore opportunities in robotic engineering, fish biology, and sustainable agriculture in their home communities, and empower them to be stewards of their land.
Copenace said community members and elders recently passed a formal resolution in support of the ongoing research into wild rice. Now, they plan to start the next stage, focusing on how different wild rice varieties compete with cattails and exploring their taste profiles.
"With the support we got, it's kind of making sure we do whatever we can in our capacity to make sure that wild rice is always there, even if it means moving to aquaponics, to indoor growing to even having more clay wild rice fields,' said Copenace.
'This is going to be the future of wild rice.'