TCBP Grantee Profile: Mooretown Rancheria of Concow-Maidu Indians of California
Overview
Award Amount: $250,000
Region: Northern Sierras
Focus Areas:
- Cultural burning and fuel reduction
- Economic and workforce development
- Education and outreach, specifically formation of a youth mentorship program
- Emergency response preparedness
- Habitat and watershed restoration
- Invasive species removal
- Land stewardship
- Native tree planting/reforestation
About the Tribe
The Mooretown Rancheria of Concow-Maidu Indians of California’s (Mooretown Rancheria) vision is to engage in restoration work to promote culture, restore wildlife habitat, and increase climate resilience. To carry out their vision, Mooretown Rancheria is establishing a robust Natural Resources Department that brings together forestry, fire, and cultural resources focus areas, as well as investing in the next generation, to foster landscape resiliency. Part of the Tribe’s proposed project includes supporting a climate-work mentorship program for youth and young adult Tribal members in California. The program provides hands-on learning around climate resilience and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) land management work to build valuable skills. Outcomes of the Tribe’s proposed project’s vision include restoring their ancestral landscape to be resilient in the face of a changing climate, sparking curiosity and a sense of responsibility for Tribal youth and young adults to engage in important resiliency work, and facilitating economic and workforce growth in their community and throughout Tribal communities in California.
Project Plans
Mooretown Rancheria indicates funding from the Tribal Capacity Building Program is critical for the Tribe to reach the next level in climate-related work. The project supports the Tribe in building staffing capacity and strategic operations, enabling the pursuit of larger grant programs to secure funding for larger restoration projects on their ancestral lands and provide the expertise needed to guide other Tribal staff members. Additionally, the mentorship program will be instrumental in creating long-term, generational capacity that will build up the incoming workforce to engage in climate work and carry on resiliency work.
Site Visit
Mooretown Rancheria of Concow-Maidu Indians of California hosted a site visit in Oroville, CA that included a tour of the Tribe’s Cultural Building and Tribal Cultural Landscape. The Tribe is working to establish extensive baseline monitoring plots and instrumentation to inform restoration work and ongoing stewardship of Mooretown’s ancestral lands, such as conducting vegetation surveys in advance of prescribed and cultural burning. The Tribe is also working to expand opportunities for Tribal Youth in Natural Resource Management fields through support of the Feather River Advocacy Program, an internship for Native peoples of the Feather River watershed, and have provided presentations regarding traditional ecological knowledge in restoration.
“The Tribal Capacity Building Program has allowed our department to focus on developing a strategic approach to funding and operations. This is critical to get right as we launch our Natural Resources Department.”
Contact Information
Keri Rinne, Natural Resources Development Director, Mooretown Rancheria
Learn more about Mooretown Rancheria of Concow-Maidu Indians of California.