Northwest Forest Worker Center/Promotora Program

Empowering forest workers and harvesters of non-timber forest products in northern California, Oregon and Washington to improve their lives and livelihoods

For over 20 years, the Medford-based nonprofit Northwest Forest Worker Center has served hundreds of Rogue Valley forest workers with resources and counsel around safety and workplace rights.

Now, the Center’s legacy continues on as a program of Ashland-based nonprofit Lomakatsi Restoration Project.

  • 1994

    The Jefferson Center convened multilingual stakeholder gatherings

    Beginning in 1994, The Jefferson Center convened numerous multilingual gatherings of forest workers, non-timber harvesters, and other stakeholders throughout the Pacific West.

  • 1997

    Independent organization formed

    In 1997, an independent organization was formed to address many shared common concerns: low pay for forest work and lack of health insurance; health and safety on the job; workplace abuse; sustainability of forest resources; and having a voice in natural resource policy decisions. 

  • 1999

    First Board of Directors appointed

    Bylaws and an organizational structure were developed, and in 1999 the first Board of Directors was appointed, representing multicultural forest workers and NTFP harvesters from California, Oregon, and Washington.

  • -2005

    Community-Based Forestry Movement

    From 1999-2005, the Board and staff continued to promote and support work in the Community-Based Forestry Movement as one of the 13 Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Projects supported by the Ford Foundation. 

  • 2007

    USDA/Department of Labor Forum

    Testifying to Congress on working conditions among forest workers led to a forum in 2007 with US Department of Agriculture and Department of Labor officials which, in turn, led to greater coordination between USDA and DOL on issues relating to forest labor.

  • 2009

    Sí Sé: Salud y Seguridad en el Trabajo

    In 2009, the Board of Directors engaged in a strategic planning process and developed the Sí Sé: Salud y Seguridad en el Trabajo program, which employs women from the forest worker community in Medford, Oregon, as promotoras (community health workers) to train forest workers in preventing on-the-job injuries and educating them about their rights. 

  • 2010

    Forest Workers’ Community Garden

    In 2010, a longstanding dream of members of the Northwest Forest Worker Center to start a community garden came together when Dr. Barbara Sibley and her husband, Will Prust, started leasing one acre of their property just outside Ashland for $1.00 per year to the NFWC to use for the garden.

  • 2011

    Revisions to H-2B Visa Program

    Collaboration with the Low Wage Worker Legal Network led in 2011 to the Department of Labor substantially revising the regulations governing the H-2B (guestworker) visa program to include greater protections for the thousands of workers who enter the U.S. every year with these visas to work in the forest restoration, landscape, seafood, and many other industries. 

  • 2012

    Gifford Pinchot Huckleberry Monitoring Project

    The Gifford Pinchot Huckleberry Monitoring Project began in 2012 to improve communication between huckleberry harvesters and the Forest Service, and to help huckleberry harvesters serve as monitors, educating their fellow harvesters about how to minimize their impact on forest resources.

  • 2013

    Northwest Forest Worker Center Reborn

    In 2013, the Board of Directors changed the name of the organization from Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters to Northwest Forest Worker Center, in part to highlight a commitment to working collaboratively toward the stewardship of forest resources that is firmly rooted in social and environmental ethics. 

  • Present

    Health & Safety Resources

    Since the fall of 2011, NFWC promotoras have trained hundreds of forest workers in southern Oregon using the educational materials developed for this purpose. Training modules offer ongoing education in health and safety around pesticides, rights and responsibilities, on-the-job injury, chainsaw operation, and outdoor work.

The Rogue Valley is home to one of the most active forestry and wildfire protection services industries in the country. Dozens of forestry companies employ hundreds of workers on a daily basis, who work on public and private lands across Southern Oregon and beyond, reducing hazardous fuel loads to reduce the risk of severe wildfire.

This important work often comes at a cost—forest workers are at high risk of injury and are 9 times more likely to be killed on the job than the average Oregon worker. Unfortunately, despite the hazards, most contractors do not provide adequate safety training for their work crews. Additionally, forest workers are often paid less than a living wage, with few if any benefits.

The Center started the Promotora Program 10 years ago to provide forest workers with practical information they can use right away to keep themselves safe on the job. Their Promotoras de Salud (or Community Health Workers), have since met hundreds of forests workers around the community to deliver trainings and offer safety resources, primarily in Spanish.

In 2019, talks began between the Center and Lomakatsi around a merger to further mutual goals, pool resources, and take advantage of Lomakatsi’s capacity in administration, workforce training and communications. Lomakatsi was seen as a natural fit, as a longtime partner of the Center with a reputation for raising the bar around treatment of forest workers, and a foundational commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Occupational Safety & Health

Northwest Forest Worker Center/Promotora Program Under Lomakatsi

Lomakatsi is excited to continue the important work of the Northwest Forest Worker Center and the Promotora Program and give a voice to the hundreds of Latinx forest workers who work in the woods on a daily basis to reduce the risk of wildfire, enhance wildlife habitat, and make the Rogue Valley a safer place to live. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Promotoras are focusing on additional safety trainings based around the protocols Lomakatsi developed for our own workforce.

Our vision is a forest sector that…
  • Treats forest workers and harvesters with dignity and fairness regardless of cultural background, country of origin, immigration status, race, gender or any other social category
  • Permits workers and harvesters to participate in decisions that directly affect their lives and livelihoods
  • Respects the skill and ecological knowledge workers and harvesters contribute to forest stewardship
  • Restores and/or maintains forest health
Our work focuses on…
  • Educating workers and harvesters, policy makers, agency officials, employers and landowners about worker rights, fair working conditions, and environmental ethics
  • Recognizing, valuing and expanding worker and harvester skills in stewarding the land
  • Facilitating multiparty monitoring of forest practices, working conditions, policy implementation and conditions on the land
  • Facilitating worker and harvester input into informing forest resource decision making, planning and policy implementation
  • Seeking enforcement of applicable labor laws and changing and/or developing new laws to achieve our mission and vision

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. 

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