On-Ramp Camp 2024 Shines Spotlight on ITEK

Published March 28, 2024

Lomakatsi and Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative were delighted to lead a full-day workshop Wednesday for high-school sophomores and juniors as part of the collaborative Natural Resource On-Ramp Camp hosted by Project Youth+ and other partners at the Table Rock Foundation property in Grants Pass.

Participants began the day indoors by a warm fire, hearing from elder and Native American storyteller David West, citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and Native American Studies Director Emeritus at Southern Oregon University. David offered a land acknowledgement and welcome, stories illustrating Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and encouraging words for the youth as they began to take part in hands-on forest and watershed restoration while learning about careers in natural resources.

David West-Brenda Patton-Sequoia Ahimsa-On Ramp 2024-1

EdComm Team Presentation-3-On Ramp Camp 2024

Lomakatsi staff Sequoia Ahimsa, Education & Training Program Coordinator; Kaiya Spain, Restoration Field Technician and Youth Crew Leader; and Allayana Darrow, Communications Associate; shared a variety of pathways within the natural resources field, from technical forestry to program development. Joining up with Lomakatsi’s Rogue Valley Ecological Forestry Training Crew and Inter-Tribal Woman’s Crew for the afternoon, our education and communications staff and Jennifer Payne and Sofia Maciel from SOFRC presented activity lessons from the Southern Oregon Fire Ecology Education curriculum that demonstrated fire behavior in various forest conditions and highlighted beneficial fire used to encourage strong and healthy basket weaving materials. Check out the beautiful baskets the students made! A big thank you to crew leaders Memory Wilson, Stuart Williams, Rhiannon Ahimsa, and Harbor Engle for supporting the day’s activities.

Weather permitting, On-Ramp Camp participants will take part in ecological thinning of small trees, brush, and ladder fuels later in the week. Thank you to the youth for making ours a memorable day, and to our partners for making it possible, including landowner and founder of the Table Rock Foundation Brenda Patton, whose support and vision for this Camp has inspired hundreds of youth to expand their knowledge of how care for the land and each other.