Federal grant supports Oregon tribal youth conservation training program
By Eric Tegethoff, Oregon News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) - Federal grant money is supporting an Oregon organization rehabilitating the land and training tribal youth.
The Interior Department's Indian Youth Service Corps has awarded the Lomakatsi Restoration Project two grants of $300,000 and $400,000. The funds will support the organization's Tribal Youth Ecological Stewardship Training and Employment program.
Marko Bey, executive director of the project, said the Indian Youth Service Corps supports tribal young people age 18 to 30, and up to 35 if they are veterans.
"What it's focused on is providing paid to train opportunities for tribal members to work on their ancestral lands or neighboring ancestral lands," Bey explained. "Engaged in ecosystem restoration or eco-culture restoration work."
The Lomakatsi Restoration Project has been around since 1995 and is based in Ashland. Bey noted the focus is on ecosystem resilience and reducing large wildfires that have become more prevalent and destructive in recent decades. The organization works in Oregon and northern California.
The goal of the Indian Youth Service Corps grant is for the organization to train 12 tribal youth from seven tribal communities on restoration in southern Oregon.
Belinda Brown, director of tribal partnerships for the group, said the program will prepare the young people for careers in forestry work.
"The success is the youth having family-wage jobs, of them being able to contribute and help their family, of them being able to be successful in their community," Brown outlined. "Which elevates them to the mentors for that next generation."
Bey added that the goal is also to include tribes in restoration and management work.
"This gives an opportunity to get the lands treated in an ecological way," Bey emphasized. "And to get cultural fire ultimately back on the ground, incorporating indigenous, traditional ecological knowledge with Western science into the work."
