Tribal Youth Learn about Forestry and Fire Safety

The Tribe’s Lands and Resources, Forestry, Emergency Management, Education, and Culture departments worked together to host “Kids in the Woods,” an event in late November that brought Tribal youth from the Expanding Horizons Youth Center out onto Tribal-owned forest lands to learn about taking care of our surroundings.

Tribal youth learned about forestry practices like counting and measuring the growth of saplings, how to determine the age of a tree, and how to prevent forest fires. Then, just before lunch, they helped Tribal staff plant dozens of new trees in a recently-harvested area to replenish the forest. Culture staff also shared some of the traditional lifeways that our ancestors used to take care of forests.

“We won’t see the trees we plant now grow up, but your grandkids, and their grandkids, will,” said Jake Gibbs, Deputy Director of Forestry Management. “Everything we do here is not just for you now, but also looking forward seven generations into the future.”