Community Outreach & Education

Building stewardship into the communities we serve by providing engaging, educational opportunities in the field of ecological restoration

Ecological restoration is a rapidly evolving field of work. One of Lomakatsi’s founding principles is to provide educational opportunities for the communities we serve with the goal of building and strengthening the field.

By orchestrating forums, presentations, workshops, field tours, conferences, and media interviews, managing an educational website, participating in community events, and developing educational outreach materials, the Community Outreach and Education Program provides participants of all ages with opportunities to learn about and gain hands-on experience with restoration ecology.

Willow Wind Restoration

In September 2019, Lomakatsi was pleased to give Rogue Basin Partnership leadership and Oregon District 5 Rep. Pam Marsh a tour of our restoration site at Willow Wind Community Learning Center in Ashland. Thanks to a grant from RBP, Lomakatsi crews cleared invasive blackberry bushes from another large swath of the stream bank and planted 300 native trees and shrubs along the confluence of Bear Creek and Paradise Creek. Lomakatsi’s work there began nearly 20 years prior with the planting of White alder, Oregon ash, Cottonwood, and other trees that now tower above the creeks, providing vital shade for fish. We also worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners Program to build pollinator habitat for declining Monarch butterfly populations in the meadow behind the school. We’re grateful to RBP and all our other Willow Wind restoration partners who share our passion for this beautiful outdoor classroom that serves Ashland public schools.

Public, Agency, and Partner Organization Workshops and Field Tours

Lomakatsi and our partners have conducted hundreds of public tours to active ecological restoration sites. We believe our communities develop an understanding of the importance of ecological restoration through seeing and participating in hands-on experience. Public field tours take place in all of our active, large landscape projects including the Ashland Watershed, the Illinois Basin, the Colestin Valley, and the Klamath River Basin.

Over the years, Lomakatsi has hosted numerous workshops and tours in active restoration sites for our agency and partner organizations. As a precedent setting, collaboratively based organization, we strive to educate and provide training for our partners in the field of ecological restoration.

Public Presentations:
Lomakatsi provides multiple public presentations, given in a variety of settings. Topics addressed include:

- Restoration Ecology
- Restoration Forestry
- Building Collaborative Partnerships
- Adaptive Management
- Fire Ecology
- Backyard Stewardship
- Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Streamside Restoration

Rogue Forest Partners

Rogue Forest Partners hosted state legislators Rep. Pam Marsh and Sen. Jeff Golden on a site visit to the West Bear All-Lands Restoration Project in May 2022.

Rogue Forest Partners

As a member of Rogue Forest Partners, we engage with landowners, conservationists, businesses, tribal leaders, elected officials, and others with an interest in Rogue Basin forests. We came together on common ground, using science, partnership, and mutual recognition of the urgent need for resilient forests and fire-adapted communities.

Following the forced removal of aboriginal peoples and cultural fire practices, more than a century of aggressive fire suppression, and timber harvesting of the largest, most fire-resistant trees, our overly dense, dry mixed conifer forests are more susceptible to wildfire, drought, insects, and disease. Climate change and frequent droughts amplify the problem, increasing the frequency of severe wildfires and threatening people, property, livelihoods, and habitat.

Rogue Forest Partners’ solution: ecological forestry. Science-based treatments like strategic thinning and prescribed burning aim to make the forests and the communities that rely on them more resilient. We convene experts in natural and cultural resources, including forestry, public lands, wildlife, conservation, and indigenous fire, to plan, fund, and implement forest restoration projects.

Upper Applegate Watershed

Applegate residents joined the Rogue Forest Partners, of which Lomakatsi is an active part, for a field trip to visit the Upper Applegate Watershed project. The tour explored stops at Charlie Buck, Texter Gulch, and Palmer Gulch in the Applegate Valley to look at projects in the Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District (U.S. Forest Service- Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest) and Ashland Resource Area (BLM Oregon & Washington Medford District).

The Upper Applegate Watershed Community Field Tour took place on June 4, 2022.

“The same way we work to restore the whole ecosystem from the ridge tops to the valley bottoms, we work to organize the whole community in an effort to rebuild healthy ecosystems and sustainable communities.”

– Marko Bey, Lomakatsi Founder & Executive Director

Indigenous Fire Practices Highlighted at 2022 Wildfire Leadership Summit

John Muir Outdoor School students help restore Ashland Pond

May 11, 2022

Local High School Students Support Post-Fire Restoration

Contact

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.