Hands on the Land is a collaborative effort
We work to enhance the equity of the forest workforce in the Pacific Northwest. We focus on labor-intensive workers, for whom equity may take different forms.
Hands on the Land re-envisions our forest workforce with:
- Safer working conditions
- Equitable employment
- Increased entrepreneurial capacity
- Sustainable ecological outcomes.
We provide resources, narratives and information to help realize this vision.
Whose Hands are on the Land?
Understanding the forest and fire stewardship economy in the Northwest
Latino workers increasingly find employment as laborers in Pacific Northwest forests — performing labor-intensive forest and fire stewardship work. The Latinx forest workforce now represents the majority of forest service workers. These workers include native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens, multi-generational U.S. residents and business owners, foreign temporary laborers (on H-2B visas), and undocumented workers.
The Latinx forest workforce now represents the majority of forest service workers.
The Latinx workforce has its history in reforestation and was often employed as tree planters known as pineros. Today, they continue to play a pivotal role in improving forest resiliency and reducing wildfire risk through labor-intensive activities. Activities can include cutting trees, clearing brush, removing noxious weeds, implementing prescribed fire, and responding to wildfire incidents.
Although state and federal agencies have come to depend on the growing Latinx workforce to implement much of these labor-intensive activities, Latino forest workers face:
- Unsafe working conditions
- Inequitable wage practices
- Violations of worker rights
- Limited opportunity for advancement
- Lack of recognition and inclusion in decision-making.
As policies are made, funding invested and manuscripts written — all typically far from the woods — these workers’ hands are on the land. Hands on the Land aims to support and inform the engagement between workers, practitioners and researchers. Engagement that is both practical and mutual.
Our project
Hands on the Land is an interdisciplinary effort that combines research, education and Extension activities. These efforts focus on fostering equitable employment and entrepreneurship for forest workers and their communities in the Pacific Northwest.
This project is funded1 by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
- 1Grant #2021-68006-34030
Additional resources
The following section contains a collection of resources we have developed for forest workers, policy makers, and researchers that engage this workforce.
The following publications have been made available through collaboration on this project.
The promotora program of the Northwest Forest Worker Center and now the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, employs promotoras de salud (community health workers) to deliver trainings and offer resources in Spanish about safety and workplace rights to forest workers in the Rogue Valley. Funding from Hands on the Land and an ongoing collaboration with Lomakatsi continue developing useful resources for forest workers.
Pathways in the Woods is an entrepreneurship training course. This course paves the way for Latinx forest workers and their communities in southern Oregon and the Pacific Northwest to become more invested in and prosper equitably from the new forest economy.
Our goal is to increase equitable employment and entrepreneurial capacity in Oregon’s new forest economy. This is done by implementing a culturally appropriate, useful education program that provides Latinx forest workers with business owner training. This education program also exposes them to the diversity of business paths in the forestry industry.
Pathways in the Woods is currently being developed between the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Oregon State University Extension, and Rural Development Initiatives and will be piloted in southern Oregon in Fall 2023.
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One-page summary of our USDA-AFRI project in English.
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Resumen de una página de nuestro proyecto USDA-AFRI en español.
Project team
PI: Emily Jane Davis, Associate Professor, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society and Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Program, Oregon State University
At Oregon State University:
Mindy Crandall, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management
Reem Hajjar, Associate Professor, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society
Manuel Machado, Forest Workforce Coordinator, Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Program
Kamana Poudel, Graduate Student, Department of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management
At the University of Oregon:
Jess Downey, Research Assistant, Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments
Heidi Huber-Stearns, Associate Research Professor, Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments, and Director, Ecosystem Workforce Program
Gerard Sandoval, Professor, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management
At Utah State University:
Don Albrecht, Executive Director, Western Rural Development Center
Betsy Newman, Assistant Director, Western Rural Development Center
At Lomakatsi Restoration Project:
Marko Bey, Executive Director
Jamie Engle, Operations Director
Martha Valle Hernandez, Promotora de Salud
Carl Wilmsen, Independent Contracted Scholar
At Rural Development Initiatives:
Amy Hause, Director, Economic Vitality Services
Brenda Brown, Bilingual Senior Program Manager
Erubiel Valladares, Bilingual Facilitator and Trainer
Yahaira Torres, Bilingual Trainer and Coordinator
Project advisory team
Santiago Calzada, former forest worker and former board member of the Northwest Forest Worker Center
Emery Cowan and Chelsea Pennick, Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition
Mike Gaffney, Washington State University Extension
José Garcia, Hispanic Advisory Committee, Hermiston, OR
Christy Getz, University of California Berkeley Cooperative Extension
Maura Olivos, Forest Stewards Guild and Latino Outdoors
Mark Phillipp, USDA Forest Service