Up to 20 students from multiple area high schools will be hired

By Steven Mitchell for Ashland.news

This summer, a small group of local high school students will have the opportunity to learn about restoration of the Southern Oregon landscape and wildfire prevention.

They’ll also get to get hands-on experience in those restoration and prevention efforts.

The Lomakatsi Restoration Project, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce fuels in Oregon, California and Idaho, will hire 20 students for a four-week paid summer training program.

The program, which runs from June 23 to July 17, will pay juniors and seniors from Ashland, Phoenix, Medford and Central Point area high schools $16 per hour, according to communications director Tom Greco.

Working 32 hours a week, students will learn skills that include reducing forest fuels, pulling invasive species, and preparing fire lines for prescribed burns, among others, Greco said.

Working under professional guidance with representatives from Lomakatsi, the students will sit in on daily guest presentations from local, state, and federal agencies about ecological restoration, forestry, invasive species control and watershed management, according to Greco.

“We’re not just teaching job skills,” Greco said. “We’re educating the next generation about forest health and natural resource career pathways.”

In its 15th year, Greco said nearly 250 students have gone through the program. He noted that many of those students have pursued careers in natural resources and other related fields. A few, he said, took jobs with Lomakatsi.

This year, Greco said, the program faces funding challenges after losing federal support, prompting a community fundraising effort to maintain the full 20-student crew. Greco said the program faces a $33,000 shortfall that could reduce the program from 20 participants to between 10 and 12.

He said a majority of the funding has come from the U.S. Forest Service, but funding freezes at the federal level have prompted the organization to kick off a fundraising effort online.

According to a GoFundMe, the organization had raised $210 as of Thursday, May 15.

The deadline to apply is Friday, May 23, Greco said.  In recent years he said the program has grown in popularity. He said part of the uptick in applicants could be due to the 2020 Almeda Fire that ripped through the Rogue Valley and destroyed more than 2,600 homes. He added that the organization has also worked with area schools to introduce a “fire ecology curriculum” that examines fire’s role in the environment and how it impacts plants and animals. Greco added the career opportunities for students entering the workforce make the program attractive.

He said the organization takes a “comprehensive approach” to educating young people to play an active role in mitigating “megafires,” a term used for fires that exceed 100,000 acres. 

Wildfires burned an estimated 1.9 million acres of Oregon in 2024, breaking the 2020 state record, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Reach freelance reporter Steven Mitchell at [email protected]