Tribal Youth Step Up to Fight Wildfires in the American West

The sun filters through the tall pines of Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest. A dozen crew members from Lomakatsi Restoration Project move across the forest floor with practiced rhythm — clearing brush, thinning overcrowded trees and stacking woody debris.

Ahead of the crew, Seneca Hescock, a trained ecological forestry technician with Lomakatsi and member of The Klamath Tribes, surveys the forest with a practiced eye. With a tablet and flagging tape in hand, he marks the national forest boundary and the larger, ecologically important trees to protect, helping to guide the crew’s work. “The crew is thinning lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, and bitterbrush to help build fuel breaks,” he explained.

After thinning, what remains is a healthier forest — with greater spacing between trees, a mix of ages, and more resilient stands that can better withstand wildfires.

Wildfires: A Growing Threat to the American West

Across the American West, communities like those in southern Oregon face a rising threat from catastrophic wildfire. These megafires not only endanger lives and property, but also damage ecosystems and water sources. Recent years have brought record-breaking wildfire seasons in Oregon. In 2020, the Two Four Two Fire burned over 14,500 acres just 2 miles outside the small town of Chiloquin, Oregon, forcing hundreds of families from their homes and damaging or destroying more than 80 homes and buildings. “I had many family members’ homes burned — archaeological sites, tribal areas, and earth lodges, too,” said Hescock. “All that’s left now are the holes that were once part of that.”

Fire is a natural part of many forest ecosystems in the western United States. Species like the ponderosa pine have adapted to a cycle of regular fires ignited by lightning strikes. But decades of fire suppression and drier conditions have thrown natural fire patterns dangerously off balance.

Native Tribes traditionally used “cultural fire” as a landscape stewardship tool — setting controlled burns to keep the forest floor clear of thick undergrowth to aid in hunting and encourage the growth of useful plants. For millennia, these regular, low-intensity fires kept forest growth balanced. Recent research finds that Indigenous- and community-managed lands experience far less forest loss than other areas, proving their role as some of the most effective land stewards.

For the last century, however, federal policy has mandated immediate fire suppression to preserve timber stands and protect communities. Before that, European settlers had prohibited cultural burning, disrupting traditional fire practices that prevent the build-up of forest “fuels,” including thick undergrowth that allows fire to climb from the forest floor to the canopy. These policies, combined with hotter, drier conditions, have fueled catastrophic fires that burn with greater intensity, frequency and impact.

Combined with persistent labor shortages in the forest industry, protecting America’s forests has become exceedingly difficult. That’s where organizations like Lomakatsi come in.

Fighting Fire with Fire

Lomakatsi Restoration Project is a tribally affiliated nonprofit based in Ashland, Oregon that restores forests to improve ecosystem health and community safety while also providing training and jobs. Forest restoration can take many forms, including planting trees and removing invasive species. In the fire-adapted forests of the western U.S. — where fire suppression has left forests overly dense — restoration often means thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns to reduce fuel loads and restore forests to their natural, healthy state.

For over three decades, the organization has partnered with federal agencies and tribes to restore degraded landscapes across Northern California and Oregon. At the heart of that work are people like Hescock, who have participated in the organization’s workforce development program.

Hescock joined Lomakatsi’s Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program straight out of high school in 2022. “I grew up out here in the woods most of my life...camping and spending time with my family,” he said. “This was a job I always dreamed of having, and now that I’m out here doing it, it’s a job I wouldn’t ever want to leave behind.”

Over three years, Hescock earned certifications to move from a sawyer cutting trees to a technical forester, where he now helps create forest management plans. “At the end of 2022 I was cutting and piling up slash into burnable piles. Over time they saw potential in me,” he recalled. “Now I do more of the technical side of things, like the layout design for areas. I also put in boundaries, and I go in and look for legacy trees.”

Healthy Forests Provide Jobs, Clean Water

Lomakatsi has become a model for forest restoration in the American West. In the past year alone, the organization has helped restore over 35,000 acres of forests, sage steppe and riparian areas in high wildfire-risk areas, including the Modoc, Fremont-Winema, Rogue-River Siskiyou, Willamette, Mt. Hood and Six Rivers National Forests. These efforts help ensure that forests are healthier, communities are safer, and landscapes are better prepared to withstand future wildfires. For local residents, this can mean improved air quality, fewer evacuations and protection of homes.

These forest restoration treatments also safeguard the headwaters of the Williamson River and Upper Klamath Basin. These vital systems supply drinking water for over 70,000 local residents, provide irrigation for crops and serve as habitat for salmon and other wildlife. Healthy forests play a critical role in regulating stream temperatures, reducing erosion and sedimentation, and improving water quality.

But the benefits of this work go far beyond the forest and river’s edge. Since launching its Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program, Lomakatsi has employed over 70 tribal crew members in the Fremont-Winema National Forest region alone, some of whom have gone on to secure seasonal or permanent roles with tribal natural resource agencies. Their model leverages funding from federal, state and private philanthropic sources to create one- to two-year programs that provide steady employment and a strong foundation for a variety of career paths. Participants receive training for in-demand skills such as wildland firefighting, ecological forestry, cultural burning, chainsaw operation and GIS-based forest mapping.

This training and access to jobs is especially important in places like Chiloquin, a rural town of fewer than 800 residents that is the heart of the Klamath tribal community. Once a booming logging town, Chiloquin has faced economic decline as jobs disappeared and mills closed. The upcoming closure of the Jeld-Wen door-manufacturing plant will lay off 128 employees, dealing another serious blow to the town’s already limited job base. Lomakatsi has partnered with the Klamath tribal community since 2006 and is currently operating several wildfire-reduction and restoration projects around Chiloquin.

“We have a full inter-tribal crew at Lomakatsi,” said Hescock. “Most of us are Klamath, Modoc, Paiute — the collection of multiple tribes coming together is not something you see in any history book. We are putting the Earth back in balance as it once was.”

Anthony Buchanon, another Lomakatsi inter-tribal crew member and trained wildland firefighter, recalls how much has changed since he first joined the crew. “When I first started, I had a lot of doubt in my mind,” he said. “I needed to toughen myself up physically and mentally. Now I feel confident being out here. I feel good going home.”

What’s Next: Scaling a Proven Model

Lomakatsi’s model shows what’s possible when Native leadership, workforce development and forest restoration intersect. Supported by partners like the U.S. Forest Service, WRI’s Cities4Forests Initiative, Blue Forest and the Caterpillar Foundation, this work delivers lasting outcomes for both people and nature.

Looking forward, Lomakatsi is expanding its work beyond Oregon and California into Nevada and Idaho, at the request of tribal communities and state and federal agencies. The organization is growing its Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program model and integrating more advanced training, including through Indian Youth Service Corps and a new Registered Apprenticeship program with the federal Department of Labor.

“By integrated training into landscape-scale restoration initiatives, we’re partnering with tribal and rural communities to build the workforce capacity needed to address the threat of severe wildfires and ecosystem health, working across ancestral lands,” said Belinda Brown, enrolled member of the Kosealekte Band of the Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation (federally recognized as the Pit River Tribe) and Lomakatsi’s Tribal Partnerships Director. “We’re centering tribes and tribal communities as the first, best stewards of the land."