MKWC pruning workshop with Food Policy Council for Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands. DNATL photo.

Mark Dupont of Mid Klamath Watershed Council (MKWC) has put together a beautiful how-to manual on the care of neglected fruit trees, based on MKWC, the Karuk Tribe, and the Salmon River Restoration Council‘s five years of collaborative work to restore local orchards as part of the Food Security Project. Here’s a preview:

Orchard Revitalization and Heirloom Fruit of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers: Preserving the Past, Securing the Future

Introduction

You’ve probably seen them, on the edge of the woods, or in a clearing that was once a homestead. Old fruit trees blend into the surroundings – they’re hardly noticeable until they’re covered in blossoms in spring, or heavy with fruit in the fall. They stand quietly year after year, with no care or tending, no pruning, irrigation, or fertilization. Yet somehow they survive, and even thrive, producing fruit year after year. They’ve become part of the landscape, and each has a story to tell: of a great grandfather who managed to obtain a seedling or a graft from some faraway place, of a family that planted and tended the orchard, of kids who grew up in the shade of the trees and picked and ate the fruit through the summer and fall. Continue Reading →

AFRI Food Security Team members. Stormy Staats photo.

Recently, the Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project held our fifth and final all-team meeting, hosted by the Klamath Tribes near Chiloquin, Oregon. These annual meetings bring together Food Security staff from the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath Tribes, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council (MKWC), UC Berkeley, UC Extension, and the USDA Forest Service to share information about our programs in different river locations, exchange ideas and get advice, and celebrate project milestones in the effort to build more food security in the Basin. Continue Reading →

Don Hankins welcomes visitors to his tribe’s ancestral lands. Jennifer Sowerwine photo.

The University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Division is home to California’s statewide county agricultural extension system, known as University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), which includes staff at both UC campuses and County Extension offices. In a recent statewide survey of UCCE staff, over 100 people reported that there are Tribes in their communities that might benefit from Extension, but only a third of these currently receive Extension services. In response, Jennifer Sowerwine, Janice Alexander, and Deborah Giraud recently offered a 2-day workshop to UCCE staff interested in supporting local Tribes. Continue Reading →

Salmon River Road in early January. Photo by Aja Conrad.

Weather has been much on our minds lately because there’s been so much of it. The Food Security Project includes research on the barriers to accessing healthy, culturally appropriate food. Our gardens need water and sunshine, and our cultural terrestrial foods require cool, slow burns, but what about when the weather itself is a barrier? This year, after yet another summer of drought and catastrophic wildfires, our changing climate brought the Klamath Basin record rains, river flooding and unusually heavy snow. Icy roads, downed trees and landslides made it challenging for people to travel to work, school and to the store for food. Continue Reading →

Owens Valley visitors at the University & Jepson Herbaria

In late February, members of the Bishop, Big Pine, Lone Pine, and Mono Lake Paiute Tribes traveled from the Owens Valley area to visit UC Berkeley, and met with the UC Berkeley Food Security team. The now-arid Owens Valley lies north and east of Los Angeles. The Owens River and the Valley’s groundwater supply were decimated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to enable the expansion of Los Angeles beginning in the early 20^th century.

Since 2011, Bishop Paiute tribal elder and water activist Harry Williams has collaborated with Berkeley professor Pat Steenland and the students in her “Researching Water in the West” American Cultures class. Continue Reading →