Goals & Needs

 

The Pala Environmental Department is a part of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. The Department has been in effect for over 20 years. Pala Environmental staff includes key staff in Water, Air, Cultural Resources, Forestry, Fire, Natural Resources, Ecology/Restoration and Education and Outreach.

 

The department staff hold undergraduate, graduate and PhDs in their respective fields; and the department has a proven track record of large, complex natural resource grant funded projects at both the state and federal level.

 

This fellow would assist the Natural Resource Planner in the development of capacity building by streamlining day to day work, building processes as it relates to field crews, assisting with forest and fire planning, invoicing and reporting on current grants, and GIS related tech work.

 

Catastrophic wildfire is a reality for the Pala Reservation. Pala, along with its partners, is working to plan and institute a sustainable, long range plan that will mitigate the threats from wildfire to the Pala community as well as improving fire adapted ecosystems.

 

The fellow will be assisting a tribal community by providing services essential to risk reduction and capacity building. The fellow will leave the Pala Band better off at the end of the term. GrizzlyCorps’ goals are directly supported by this project in that the project will build capacity (though improved processes), improve community resilience (though forest health and firework), and develop the fellows professional capacity by allowing the fellow to work alongside seasoned, advanced degreed professionals in a productive environment.

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Capacity Building Projects

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The GrizzlyCorps Fellow will support with updating the Forest and Fire Planning guide, as well as other department related administrative and outreach projects. The desired outcomes of this project include updating the Wildland Fire Mgmt. Plan and production of outreach and interdepartmental reports. These resources will assist the Pala Band in doing vegetation treatment, fuels treatments, burns, wildland fire mgmt. planning

 

 The GrizzlyCorps will also provide general supervision, planning and analysis support for the department. The project will include mapping, reporting, planning for fuels treatments. This project will allow Pala Band to better facilitate sustainable forest health operations moving forward.

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Organizational & Community Highlights

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Pala is a beautiful place to work and live. North County San Diego has mountains, desert and the coast all within a 1.5hr drive of each other.

 

The Pala Band is an inviting place to work; and folks in the department are friendly and operate much like a family. Tribes are generally a more “outdoorsy” place to work in the sense that you will not be stuck at a desk all day. Additionally, tribe’s often have a flexible environment which necessitates folks ``doing what needs to be done”. This means it might be busy, but it's not boring; and the work is interesting.

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