Brock and Kate recently had the great pleasure of working with our long-time partners at Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance (TERA) to carry out a process-based restoration (PBR) workshop on Robinson Rancheria land in Lake County, California. This workshop was held just downhill from the July 2024 Acorn Fire, which burned 151 acres before being extinguished. TERA partnered with the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians of California to organize this workshop, which was designed to train participants on using PBR techniques to restore the watershed post-fire. Aware of the PBR work OAEC has been doing for years, TERA invited Kate and Brock to lead the day-long design and installation workshop.
TERA members and partners from 9 different Tribes showed up, and together we built several different structures in a small drainage that has intermittent flows in the winter. Structures were all built by hand using predominantly onsite materials (willow, pine, straw, and earth). We worked together on different styles of structures all designed to slow the water flow, trap soil, ash, and PhosChek fire retardant. By trapping these potential contaminants, these structures will improve the water quality and thus protect the culturally significant chi or Clear Lake Hitch downstream of this waterway.
For those of you not familiar, TERA is a “cross-cultural, multi-organizational collaborative that works to revitalize ecology, economy, and culture through indigenous-led stewardship based out of Lake County, California.” They have been incredibly successful in building members’ capacity to carry out tribal-centered stewardship at the landscape scale. Please check them out and consider donating to their work and applying for one of their currently open positions.
This workshop was funded by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the California Climate Investments Program through a Fire Prevention Grant to Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians of California.
All photos by Brock Dolman / OAEC
