POSTS FROM OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
Lomakatsi Secures $3 Million in Funding to Restore Oak Habitat
1/15/2015. Today, the Natural Resources Conservation Service announced that a proposal submitted by Lomakatsi to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for the Klamath-Rogue Oak Woodland Health and Habitat Conservation Project was selected for $3 million dollars in funding to be applied over the next 5 years.
Lomakatsi Engages Hundreds of Students in Recovery Week 2014
12/11/2014. This fall, Lomakatsi led the 7th Annual Streamside Forest Recovery Week. During the event, over 350 students and dozens of community volunteers planted and mulched hundreds of native trees and shrubs along Bear Creek and its critical tributaries in Ashland and Medford. As part of Lomakatsi’s Restoration Ecology Education Program, this event engages students in Lomakatsi’s active riparian restoration projects, providing hands-on experience in reestablishing and restoring streamside forests to improve salmon habitat and water quality. For 12 photos copied to our website, click here.
Pit River Tribal Workforce Restores Riparian Habitat
10/16/2014. Through an established partnership with the Pit River Tribe and California Trout, Lomakatsi is employing 8 Pit River Tribal members during a 9-week ecosystem restoration workforce training intensive as part of the Hat Creek Riparian Restoration, Cultural Protection, and Recreation Improvement Project. Last week Lomakatsi staff launched the program near Burney, California. During the program, crew members will gain hands- on experience in ecosystem management as they conduct riparian re-vegetation, oak habitat restoration, erosion control, noxious weed abatement, trail maintenance and monitoring. For further information visit California Trout’s Hat Creek Restoration Project Home Page. For 10 photos, see our Facebook album
Lomakatsi’s Klamath Tribal Youth Training & Employment Program, Summer 2014. A 3-week summer intensive managed by Lomakatsi in partnership with the Klamath Tribes Education and Employment Department was launched this summer in the Klamath Basin. The program provides tribal youth ages 16-24 with valuable work experience in the natural resources and ecosystem restoration through hands-on training and vocational exploration. For a story and photos about our Summer 2014 program from our Facebook page, click here. For a newspaper story, click here.
Restoring Oak Habitat Throughout the Region — Update, 2/6/14
Lomakatsi forestry technicians and workforce crews have been hard at work this week, from prescribed underburning and on-the-ground project planning in Siskiyou County, California to ecological thinning in Douglas County, Oregon. For more info and photos, click here.
Streamside Forest Recovery Week
REPORT WITH MORE PHOTOS, click here.
A Streamside Forest Recovery Week Success Story Forty 5th and 6th graders from Willow Wind School in Ashland are featured in a great video and a news story about one day of this week-long event: “Students Help With Restoration Efforts Along Bear Creek”, Kyle Aevermann, KOBI 5 Video, 11-14-13. “Healthy streams, healthy kids: Willow Wind students get down in the dirt to help restore Bear Creek”, Vickie Aldous, Ashland Daily Tidings, 11-15-13
300 Helman Elementary School students help restore Ashland Creek Pond In the first week of November, 2013, approximately 300 Helman Elementary School students participated in the sixth annual “Ashland Creek Pond Riparian Restoration Project” planting event at the confluence of Bear and Ashland Creek near Ashland Pond. For more info, click here.
Prescribed Fire News ~ Colestin Valley As a part of Lomakatsi’s Oak Habitat Restoration and Prescribed Fire Programs, Lomakatsi successfully coordinated the implementation of a 30 acre low intensity prescribed underburn on Friday, November 1st on privately owned oak woodlands in the Colestin Valley, Oregon, For more info, click here
NEW VIDEO “Fire for Water – Forest Restoration for Ashland“, As part of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project, this recently developed video helps describe the significance of the work in Ashland’s watershed. To view video, click here. Posted Monday, August 12, 2013
Congratulations to the Ashland Watershed Summer Youth Training and Employment Program participants!
Congratulations for successful completion of this four week intensive! Your efforts to improve conditions in the Ashland Watershed and surrounding lands are greatly appreciated. May each of you continue take the stewardship ethic you learned in this Program forward in the years to come. All of us at Lomakatsi have so enjoyed getting to know you and want to thank you for your hard work!
Twenty youth from throughout the Rogue Valley were selected to take part in this summer intensive aimed at improving conditions in the the Ashland Watershed and surrounding land. Posted Friday, August 9, 2013.
Third Year Completed – Klamath Forest Warriors (Klamath Tribe Forest Improvement Crew).
Working in close partnership with the Klamath Tribes and The Nature Conservancy, Lomakatsi has facilitated another successful year employing and providing training to tribal members in forest and watershed restoration. This marks the third year for the implementation of the Klamath Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Workforce Initiative. Lomakatsi looks forward to another year working with the Klamath Forest Warriors (Klamath Tribe Forest Improvement Crew).
Art by crew member Justice Blacksun. Posted Wednesday, August 7, 2013.
Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program: TRAIL WORK IN ASHLAND’S WATERSHED
August 1, 2013 As part of the rehabilitation after forest thinning, partners of the Ashland Forest Resilency Stewardship Project worked with local recreation groups to coordinate creation of two new trails above the White Rabbit parking area. The Forest Service, City of Ashland and Lomakatsi Restoration Project collaborated with Ashland Woodlands & Trail Association and Rogue Valley Mountain Bike Association to create one mountain bike trail and one pedestrian/equestrian trail.
Last week, members of Lomakatsi’s Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program were hard at work putting some of the finishing touches on these new trails. Program participants learned how to build mountain bike trail from Bill Roussel, owner of Ashland Mountain Adventures. They also performed trail maintenance pruning brush, removing encroaching blackberry plants, and trail out-sloping to allow for proper water drainage.
Lomakatsi’s Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program: “Fire Line to the Future: Students learn forestry skills while helping improve the health of Ashland’s watershed,” July 23, 2013, by Paul Fattig, Ashland Daily Tidings. For article with photos, click here.
Lomakatsi and our partners were recently highlighted in the 2013 “State of the Birds Report“ for our nationally recognized efforts to restore oak environments on private land. Click here for text and a photo from p.21 of the report to learn more about the Central Umpqua-Mid Klamath Oak Habitat Conservation Project. To download a pdf of the whole report, click here. Posted Thursday, 7/18/13.
4 photos added to the album Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program. 7/18/13
Lomakatsi’s Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program: “Students Work on Preserving Watershed”,
by Rob Scott, July 17, 2013, Newswatch KDRV 12. For article and video with student interviews, click here. Posted Thursday, 7/18/13.
5 photos added to the album Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program. 7/17/13.
Lomakatsi is working in partnership with the Yreka Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to coordinate and administer the Tribal Youth Training and Employment Program as part of the Klamath Basin Tribal Youth Employment and Education Initiative (KBTYEE). This is Lomakatsi’s second summer as a partner in this innovative program. The vision of this initiative is to engage and increase Tribal Youth participation in the preservation of natural resources and ecosystems through the effective use of water, conservation and restoration projects and mutual planning opportunities.This summer, the Karuk Tribe will be launching the Kaavíchvaans Project (Engl.: Workers), which will employ 10 Youth between the ages of 16-21 where they will implement eco-cultural management and aquatic and forest restoration projects, while receiving training through interaction with the Karuk Tribe’s Natural Resource Department Staff. Posted Wednesday, 7-3-13.
Over the past nine years, Lomakatsi and our partners have developed successful strategies and integrated approaches where forest restoration objectives are combined with innovative restoration by-product (saw logs, poles, firewood, and biomass) removal methods. We have pioneered a holistic, community based model which addresses the social, economic and ecological aspects of the stewardship process. Through this approach, we have achieved successful outcomes not only on-the-ground, but within the forest-based rural communities, in which we live, work and serve. Posted Friday, 6/28/13
Restoring Oak Resilience at the Table Rocks (5 photos)A recent article in the Ashland Daily Tidings highlights Lomakatsi’s fuels reduction work in the Ashland Watershed. “Work that is going on now around Ashland is being held up as one of six national models for cross-boundary wildfire fuels reduction work.” Fire Knows No Boundaries: Crews thin forest above Ashland on Forest Service, city and private lands” Saturday, June 22, 2013, by Vickie Aldous, Ashland Daily Tidings, re the Ashland Fire Resiliency Project
Ecological Restoration: One Acre at a Time (3 photos) Lomakatsi crews are implementing oak woodland restoration treatments on 30 acres in the Savage Creek watershed near the town of Rogue River in Jackson County. Lomakatsi is employing 8 Klamath Tribal members on this project. Crews are removing encroaching conifers, senescent brush and Scotch broom that has impinged on the structure and function of the oak woodlands. — February 12
We wish to extend a heartfelt “Thank You!” to Will Sears for being our Board President since 2005. His insight and leadership over the years have been greatly appreciated. We also would like to welcome Crystal McMahon who was recently elected as the new board president. Crystal is the Executive Director for Klamath Lake Land Trust, an important partner in the Klamath Basin. — February 7
Lomakatsi is looking to hire a qualified Engine Boss for the 2013+ fire season to run a Type 4 and/or a Type 6 engine. CDL is a plus. All certificates must be current to qualify. RT-130 can be provided if needed. For more information, please contact Jonathan at jonathan@lomakatsi.org. To apply, please send a resume. — February 7
Post-helicopter ecological thinning in the Ashland Watershed for the Ashland Forest Resiliency Project. Lomakatsi crews are cleaning up branches and other debris which are being placed into piles to be burned at a later date. — February 6
Lomakatsi’s Forest Tech Crew is currently assisting in implementing oak restoration efforts on four Nature Conservancy preserves in the Willamette Valley. As part of the ecological restoration process, encroaching Douglas fir are being marked for removal and sale as a restoration by-product. — January 24
Lomakatsi currently has staff working in Del Norte County on 15 acres in the eastern most extent of the redwoods, adjacent to the Wild and Scenic S. Fork Smith River. This is a forest health improvement project on private land surrounded by the Smith River National Recreation Area, in partnership with the Siskiyou Land Conservancy and NRCS. — January 8
As part of this Initiative, Lomakatsi Restoration Project is helping employ ten Karuk Tribal youth along the mid Klamath River in California during the summer months through a partnership with the Karuk Tribe, Lomakatsi, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council, and 9 federal partners. Native American youth participants are simultaneously taking part in educational lessons and gaining valuable experience in natural and cultural resource management. We are happy to be part of this partnership and supporting this ongoing innovative education program developed by the Karuk Tribe and the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. For photos of creek mouth enhancement along Walker Creek, click here. The Mid Klamath Watershed Council has a facebook page here.
Full Circle Schools Report, February 2012
During the month of February, our Full Circle Schools Restoration Ecology Program hosted 6 volunteer and student events for 282 participants at our Medford Bear Creek site. As part of restoring this site, a total of 510 native plants were planted thanks to everyone’s hard work! March 6, 2012
Bear Creek Riparian Restoration Project – Spencer Street Adopted Site: During the 2011 season, a grant through “Together Green,” a collaboration between Toyota and Audubon, helped implement this project. Nearly 300 students and community volunteers from throughout the region put in over 840 volunteer hours of hands-on restoration work planting a total of 367 native trees. To track our efforts, please check out the project’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/
Riparian restoration in Wood River near Fort Klamath and Four Mile Creek in the Upper Klamath Basin: In partnership with the Klamath Rangeland Trust, the Klamath Tribe and the USFWS, Lomakatsi employed Klamath Tribal members to re-vegetate newly created side channels for native fish spawning habitat along Wood River. Klamath tribal members also worked to restore Four Mile Creek back to its historic stream channels by re-contouring stream banks and planting native willows. These projects were funded by the USFWS Partners Program, Oregon Wild, Bureau of Reclamation, and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. — December 6, 2011
Restoration of ponderosa pine habitat in the Sycan watershed, Upper Klamath Basin: Lomakatsi in partnership with the Klamath Tribes of Oregon completes the final phase of this restoration project on private lands. For the past year, Lomakatsi has been working in partnership with the Klamath Tribes of Oregon, to develop tribal workforce capacity for the implementation of ecological restoration projects in the Upper Klamath Basin. Lomakatsi is currently providing training and employing 15 tribal members and assisting the tribe in securing restoration projects and contracts within the foot print of the historic reservation, which is now the Fremont-Winema National Forest. — November 30, 2011
Lomakatsi welcomes two new employees: Matt Cocking is our new restoration ecologist. Having recently graduated from Humboldt State with a Master’s degree in Forestry/Fire Ecology, he is new to the area. Leah Schrodt is our new Outreach Manager. She is in the process of getting her Master’s Degree in Management and has 13 years experience working in public outreach and environmental education. — November 29, 2011
