Building Collaboration in the Klamath Basin Through Tribal Youth Internships

The Klamath Basin in Oregon and California is home to a rich abundance of natural and cultural resources, many of which are vulnerable to present and future climate change. Climate change also threatens traditional ways of life for tribal communities, who have deep connections to the region.

 

This project sought to increase the effectiveness of regional climate change adaptation and planning by (1) developing ways to integrate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with western science in decision making, (2) building partnerships between tribal, academic, and government institutions, and (3) increasing future capacity to respond to climate change by engaging tribal youth.

 

Through this project, the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation worked with partners to create a tribal youth internship program for the summer of 2014. Five college-level tribal interns worked with tribal elders, cultural resource professionals, and federal agency scientists to assess the vulnerability of local species to climate change and to identify specific opportunities for TEK/western science collaboration in the Klamath Basin.

 

This project was jointly supported by the Northwest Climate Science Center, the Alaska Climate Science Center, and the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative.