Education

Youth Education

Lomakatsi Restoration Project provides an Ashland Watershed Youth Training and Employment Program each summer. During the 4-week summer program, 20 selected high school students from Ashland and Medford School District gain educational experience in ecosystem restoration through hands-on workforce training and employment designed to inspire exploration and interest in natural resource career paths. To compliment project activities, natural resource specialists from a variety of partner agencies and non-profit organizations were incorporated as daily guest presenters. With instruction and guidance provided by Lomakatsi’s professional workforce trainers, these students learn to:

  • Implement Fuels Treatment
  • Perform Noxious Weed Management
  • Prepare Land for Prescribe Burns
  • Complete Trail Work

 

Community Outreach

Interpretive signs were installed at four locations in the watershed, after months of coordination by the City of Ashland. Contributors to the project included local contractors, artists, graphics designers, and photographers. Input from partners, local stakeholders and a volunteer committee was also incorporated into the final product.

 

Monitoring

94 people assisted the Forest Service in monitoring of the Pacific Fisher from 2010 to 2013, contributing roughly 1800 volunteer hours over the last three years. Roughly 10 people assisted with flying squirrel trap monitoring, equivalent to about 80 volunteer hours. See our Monitoring page for more information.

 

Forsenic Forest Ecology

In September, Forest Ecologist Dr. Kerry Metlen of The Nature Conservancy led a group of community members in the watershed to learn how historic forest management and fire suppression led to the conditions that now threaten our forests today.

The group looked at fire scars on standing snags in the forest, as well as a few tree "cookies" dating over 300 years old, and discussed how information found in the growth rings of trees help scientists learn about historic forests. They also discussed how the collaborative Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project is integrating pieces of this knowledge into active forest management to protect clean water, abundant wildlife, and recreational use in the Ashland watershed.

Read the informative handout that Dr. Metlen shared with the group during the tour.

 

Student Outreach and Education

John Muir Magnet School joined partners with Lomakatsi Restoration Project and the City of Ashland to learn where their drinking water flows from, the Ashland Watershed.

 

Bear Creek Salmon Festival

Each year the Ashland Forest Resiliency and our partners with The Nature Conservancy and Lomakatsi Restoration Project hold forest demonstrations for students at the Bear Creek Salmon Festival.

 

AFR Work Parties Protect Old Growth

Volunteers rake accumulated bark and brush away from the base of large pine trees to protect them from possible fire damage during future fires and controlled burning.  Before each project an AFR partner or volunteer trains and educates participants.  We thank our volunteers for all their hard work!

 

Public Tours

The AFR Partnership had a great turnout of interested community members attend a public tour in July and August of 2016. Representatives from all four partners were present to answer questions and discuss the ongoing work of the project, highlighting the objectives and progress of the ecologically-based commercial thinning that took place this Summer and will continue this Fall.  Learn more on our Facebook page.

If you would like to attend the next tour, please sign up for the AFR email list or contact Sara Jones.

Quicklinks

Connect

Share

twitter facebook Email Share
back to top