Inter-Tribal crew trainees gain experience and help return good fire through RBTREX

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Published May 1, 2023

On Saturday, a Lomakatsi crew joined U.S. Forest Service- Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest (RRSNF) fire management personnel in implementing a prescribed underburn as part of the The Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project (AFR). They participated through the Rogue Basin Prescribed Fire Exchange (RBTREX), a collaborative of agency and non-profit partners (including ours!) that is increasing local capacity by creating opportunities for diverse fire practitioners to gain hands-on experience and advance their certifications in prescribed understory burns.

After spending the past five months supporting ecosystems and communities through chainsaw thinning and hand pile burning, five inter-tribal trainees from Chiloquin, OR, who are part of Lomakatsi’s Tribal Youth Ecological Forestry Training Program funded by Oregon Youth Works/Oregon Conservation Corps, were able to participate in their first prescribed understory burn. They were led by Crew Boss Braulio Maya Cortes and Squad Boss Roberto Tellez who bring years of experience in wildland and prescribed fire. We were honored to be joined by five members of the Cultural Fire Management Council from the lower Klamath River, who also participated through RBTREX, and helped reintroduce beneficial fire to the landscape.

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Lomakatsi extends a heartfelt thank you to the amazing fire management leadership of the RRSNF for building in these invaluable training opportunities to return good fire, to RBTREX for creating a framework for building local prescribed burn capacity, and to Grayback Forestry, Inc. for providing key resources and experience for the careful application of fire. We also thank City of Ashland Oregon, The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, and the US Forest Service for our long-term partnership on AFR, where we have restored and maintained 13,500 acres of forest land over the past decade.

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645 Washington Street
Ashland, Oregon 97520

(541) 488-0208
info@lomakatsi.org

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Mission

Restore ecosystems and the sustainability of communities, cultures, and economies.

We acknowledge that Lomakatsi operates programs across the ancestral lands of aboriginal peoples who lived and live in the watersheds of the Willamette River, Rogue River, Klamath River, Umpqua River, and Pit River, in what is now called Oregon and California. From sagebrush hillsides and mixed conifer forests, to oak woodlands and riverine systems, we offer our respect, recognition, and gratitude to the original past, present, and future inhabitants of these landscapes, to whom we dedicate this work.