Tribal Youth Ecological Forestry Training Program

About the Program

Program participants join Lomakatsi to restore the forests and streams of the Upper Klamath Watershed and help protect ecocultural and subsistence resources. Trainees work on ecological stewardship projects, build valuable job skills and certifications, and learn about career paths in forestry, wildland fire management, habitat restoration, and natural resources. Selected participants ages 18-26 gain valuable workforce experience through hands-on training in technical forestry, working closely with a variety of natural resource professionals and cultural practitioners.

Paid to train
During this intensive program, participants are employed by Lomakatsi’s hands-on workforce training and environmental education program. Participants are paid a competitive hourly wage to conduct work projects five days per week. Most work is performed in the field with some classroom instruction time.

Gain valuable work experience

Participants work closely with professional staff from Lomakatsi Restoration Project and The Klamath Tribes’ Natural Resources Department, as well as with local elders.

Certifications earned include safe chainsaw operation for restoration and hazard fuel reduction, basics of wildland firefighting, cultural resource monitoring and surveying, and First Aid/CPR. Participants also practice essential forestry techniques in the field, including data collection, tree marking, and unit boundary layout.

Stewardship-related activities include ecological restoration, technical forestry, cultural resource protection, botany, invasive species management, ecological monitoring, fire ecology, stream restoration, watershed management, wildlife habitat restoration, trail maintenance, soil science, and more. Engaging in positive work experiences and teamwork development, program participants will develop professional skills, a sense of responsibility and self-sufficiency, a long-term community service and stewardship ethic, knowledge and increased interest in natural resource academic study, and the ability to obtain future employment in natural resource management.