Mescalero Apache Tribe

Abstract The Mescalero Apache Tribal Lands (MATL) provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, many of which are of fundamental importance for the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s well-being. Managing forests on MATL, especially under climate change, involves prioritizing certain ecosystem services. We used an iterative survey of experts’ opinions to identify those ecosystem services that 1) have high utility—services that the Tribe uses, or could use, and are obtained directly or indirectly from the MATL; 2) are irreplaceable—services that cannot be provided by any other natural resource; and 3) are under a high level of threat—services at risk of declining or being lost directly or indirectly by climate change and thus are critical for management. Both scientists and practitioners identified water and cultural services as management priorities. Management recommendations to mitigate and adapt to climate change effects include reintroduction of fire in the landscape, assisted migration, creation of age/size mosaics across the landscape, and incorporation of green energy. Incorporating human perspectives into natural resource management is a critical component to maintain and adapt social–ecological systems to climate change, especially for Indigenous communities with inherent rights of sovereignty who are deeply connected to natural resources. This study demonstrates how knowledge systems are complementary: diverse perspectives related to values and threats of ecosystems can be incorporated to coconstruct ecosystem management decisions.

The Tonto Apache Tribe applied and was competitively selected for funding under the Department of Energy’s “Tribal Energy Program” for the “Community Scale Clean Energy Projects” in Indian Country in 2015. The plan was to create a solar energy project with photovoltaics that would offset the energy footprint of the tribal hotel on the reservation. The system applied for consists of roof mounted solar PV on top of the hotel and casino, interconnecting to two meters; the Hotel, and the Old Casino/bingo meter. The solar system was designated to reduce the electricity costs of those two meters by 33.4% as well as associated cost savings. The system installed meets those objectives. The total system size installed increased to 270kW, when original project objectives was 250kW. The additional kW installed was from a cost decrease in which we applied the difference in the total project cost to add to the system and offset more kWh’s for the Tribe. Solar PV has proven the most effective technology for the Tribe and the previous system installed is working well and producing as expected.