The San Juan Islands Conservation District (SJICD) is honored to collaborate with the Northwest Indian College in the formation and development of the Coast Salish Guardians Program on the Lummi Reservation. The Guardian Network in Canada now currently supports more than 200 tribal programs across Canada, supporting indigenous youth returning to their ancestral homeland and serving as the eyes, ears, and hands of the land. The Coast Salish Guardians program is part of a growing body of tribes establishing Guardian programs in the United States, programs seeking to provide education and employment pathways for indigenous youth in conservation. In addition to receiving grant funds to support program development, the SJICD conservation corps program – the Islands Conservation Corps – has received funding to conduct collaborative training opportunities in forest restoration, prescribed fire, and cultural resource assessments with Guardian members. This provides cross-cultural opportunities for knowledge sharing, and to support non-indigenous natural resource professionals in learning how to understand the role of indigenous stewardship in the landscape and advocate for Tribal rights for managing ancestral homelands.
Cascadia Conservation District Supported residents at the Housing Authority of Chelan County and the City of Wenatchee with bilingual gardening and nutrition education courses. They also identified and linked communities in need of mobile food bank delivery and overcoming language and/or transportation barriers.
When a local Washington conservation district, Cascadia, evaluated the launch plan for a wildfire preparedness program in partnership with a federal agency, they discovered the program wasn’t reaching the intended audience.
Skagit Conservation District's no-till drill has become a crowd favorite due to its minimal soil disturbance, which helps mitigate soil erosion and compaction while enhancing soil organic matter and structure.
