Ecological Approach & Principles

As a nonprofit organization, Lomakatsi provides education and outreach, ecological forestry workforce training programs, community supported watershed restoration projects, and a wide variety of volunteer opportunities.

We adhere to certain ecological principles that guide our restoration work. In general, these principles are the basis for our prescriptions, are applied and monitored by experts in multiple fields, and are implemented with care by trained workers.

Lomakatsi Ecological Principles and Methodologies (prescriptions) have been adapted, adopted, and expanded upon in the context of the Sierra Nevada Community Conservation and Wildfire Protection Plan (CCWPP) Guidebook (2007), Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy (2017), and Bear Creek Fire Management Plan (2021).

Working With Nature

Lomakatsi Restoration Philosophy

ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

Nature does the real restoration work. We are just trying to learn how to do things that help, without causing additional problems. Here’s what we have learned so far.

Remember the forest.

Retain old and large trees: the most fire resistant component of the forest.

Consider broader landscape-level conditions when planning site-specific restoration activities.

Plan restoration thinning treatments over time; follow up the initial treatment in intervals over a several-year period, allowing the forest to adjust to the alteration of vegetation.

Design and implement treatments for site-specific conditions. Adjust ecological thinning prescriptions and treatments to accommodate various ecotypes and forest stands.

Maintain uneven-aged forest stands and representatives of all age classes to retain a diverse, multi-layered forest structure.

Maintain shaded areas and overstory canopy cover in mixed conifer forests. Adjust for differences in regional biodiversity, such as pine-oak savanna.

Retain a diversity of tree and plant species. As a goal when revegetating a site, plant only native species.

Include aboriginal land use methods and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge as an historic guide and reference in ecosystem restoration.

Remember the fire.

Fire is medicine for the land.

Carefully plan and implement prescribed burning treatments to provide the ecologically beneficial effects of fire, and to maintain reduced fuel loads whenever possible.

Assure proper permitting procedures are followed, and always plan for the safety of human communities.

Following prescribed fire, reseed selected areas with native grasses to enhance site conditions.

Remember the wildlife.

Leave some areas untreated for the birds and wildlife using the area.

Thin in a mosaic pattern, leaving thickets, maintaining natural openings and meadows, and enhancing older forest stands by maintaining canopy cover.

Leave some small piles of cut material unburned as habitat for wildlife.

Leave buffers of undisturbed vegetation in streamside riparian areas.

Retain snags for wildlife habitat. Chart their locations for monitoring and fire safety precautions.

Remember the soil.

Develop thinning treatments in relationship to slope, aspect and soil types.

Place thinned logs on the ground, perpendicular to the slope, to catch upslope erosion and contribute to future soil formation.

In steep slopes and sensitive soil types, lop and scatter coarse woody debris.

Remember the people.

Listen to residents and neighbors. They know the ways in which each site is unique.

Match site diversity with worker diversity. Different cultures each have their own ways of understanding the complex diversity of nature.

Train workers about ecological principles, and how to see the special characteristics of each place.

Involve the workforce in the design, planning, and monitoring of restoration projects.

Educate the restoration workforce about forest and fire ecology, watershed and riparian function, botany, etc.

Pay workers according to their training, experience, and quality of work.

Pay workers well, and listen to them. Happy, respected people do the best work.

Monitor and learn.

Incorporate monitoring strategies to evaluate restoration treatment effectiveness. Work with specialists to develop monitoring protocols for projects that measure a variety of resources including soils, trees, vegetation, wildlife, aquatic habitat, etc.

Keep complete records of prior conditions, work accomplished, and the time, money, and people that it took.

Watch and document what happens over time.

Review information about similar sites before deciding how to treat new ones.

Lomakatsi restores a wide range of complex forest communities and wildlife habitats, while simultaneously reducing the threat of severe wildfire. In the process, we create hundreds of living wage jobs and support rural economies by delivering restoration byproducts, including small diameter trees and biomass material, to local mills.

We recognize the power of collaboration. Lomakatsi has established long-term collaborative partnerships with agencies, tribes, conservation groups, industry, and forest-based communities throughout Oregon and northern California. These collaborative relationships are the foundation for our Restoration Forestry Program, which includes projects spanning two states and over 10 counties.

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.