Day 2

The morning was beautiful, seeing Patatoe Hill waiting for me to hike it. The hill was very steep and difficult to hike it, but that was because I’m not in physical condition. Regardless of unfortunate falls going up and down, I had the opportunity to experience one of the best views in Washington, seeing Mountain St. Adams. I’m very honor to experience the reservation and beautiful views it offers. The Yakama reservation has many amazing views, but also many locations where many families from the tribe come and camp, fish, hunt, and other events as Jacob Billy, Cultural coordinator, explained. During the day, my group and I had the opportunity to visit Chaparral youth camp. We met Doug Olney, forestry research manager, who has been working for the forestry reservation for more than 40 years. Doug explained the importance of keeping the forest in healthy tree maintenance and solve issues from what climate change has been doing in the forest. One of the reasons Doug has been working for more than 40 years is because he loves the outdoors. One of the actions the forestry does to provide revenue for the reservation is cut of trees for timber dollars. Many of the trees they cut are either harm other trees around or they’re in unsustainable conditions. This actions from the reservation provides jobs for many individuals in the valley, but recently the forestry has been having challenges in short staff because there is a shortage of individuals passionate to pursue the job or those who are already working are getting close to retirement and have lost motivation because of shortage of individuals wanting to join. Other issues that involve the forest are many fires, fungus in trees that are killing other healthy trees by taking their nutrients.

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