We’re excited to have two active crews in our Youth Ecological Forestry Training & Employment Program putting their hands on the land to reduce community wildfire risk and care for local ecosystems! While most of their work involves ecological fuels reduction on forest lands, last week they had the opportunity to learn about riparian restoration.
The two 10-person crews—one comprised of inter-tribal members from the Chiloquin community and the other from around Jackson County—worked along Bear Creek in the Almeda Fire footprint where they selectively cut back resprouting vegetation, including blackberry, to provide a diversity of native trees, shrubs, and pollinator plants with room to grow. They also piled slash as part of a new project in partnership with City of Central Point near the Boes Avenue neighborhood, where Lomakatsi is removing woody debris and invasive plants such as blackberries and hemlock to reduce wildfire risk and improve streamside health.
Thank you to our dedicated trainees and to Oregon Conservation Corps/Oregon Youth Works for funding this program! Check out these photos of our stellar crews!
