North Stonington — In a ceremony that marked a new chapter in the Eastern Pequot Tribe’s history, tribal leaders braved the elements Tuesday to honor forest land they expect to harvest in connection with a five-year community development plan.  

On the horizon, according to the plan, are reservation improvements that will lead to construction of a community center, housing for tribal members and other structures.

Members of the tribe’s council — Chairwoman Katherine Sebastian Dring, Vice Chairwoman Brenda Geer and La’Tasha Maddox — took part in the ceremony on the tribe’s pow-wow grounds at the end of an unpaved stretch of Wright Road.

They were joined by "White Fox," the tribe’s drummer, and foresters and loggers from Hull Forest Products, a Pomfret-based company that specializes in managing woodlands.

In an interview before the ceremony, Sebastian Dring revealed that the tribe has been working with Hull foresters for months.

“We’ve spent 15 years identifying the resources — the plant and animal species, birds, trees — on our land. We’ve worked with UMass Boston to map our archaeological sites. Now it’s time to work on developing our infrastructure,” Sebastian Dring said. “We’ve got dead and dying trees all over the place.”

In July, tribal members elected Sebastian Dring chairwoman and voted to have the condition of the tribe’s forest land assessed.

In September, they voted on the community development plan, which calls for management of the forest and bringing water and sewer service and electricity to the reservation. A network of roads could also be developed.

Currently, only 20 to 30 tribal families live on the reservation, which dates to 1683. The tribe has more than 1,000 members, an estimated 400 to 500 of whom live within 15 miles of the reservation.

The tribe hopes to secure necessary funding as the community development plan moves along.

“As a state-recognized tribe, we’re hoping for state and federal grants,” Sebastian Dring said.

State statutes require the state to provide funding for housing development and other services, obligations she said the state has failed to meet.

“The Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation recently formally requested that the governor and the State of Connecticut comply with their statutory obligations and without further delay make plans to assist the (tribe) with community development on the reservation,” Dring said.

Chris Casadei, a Hull forester, said the forest management program is taking place on about 115 acres of the Eastern Pequots’ 225-acre reservation.

Essentially, the program involves the harvesting of poor-quality trees, a process that gives other trees an opportunity to thrive and enhances the wildlife habitat. Ash trees will be removed in anticipation of an infestation of emerald ash borer beetles.

“The objective is to improve the overall health of the forest, to be active stewards of the land,” Casadei said.

He described the forest’s trees as “very high-quality hardwood,” and said they’ve grown in “rich soil that can be very productive if managed properly.”

The forest, Casadei said, has been "quite stagnant” for many years.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck